Gasoline Preference- How Do You Choose?

Location, mainly. Most of the major brands are fine, so whatever's on the way to where I'm going wins.

 

After spending nearly 20 years in the oil industry Tillman is correct. All major oil company brands of premium are good. The main difference is the additive and the treat rate. This is where significant differences occur between major brands off-branded gasolines.

In the old days Amoco (before the BP acquisition) was different in two ways, it was refined an extra step the made the product clear. This removed additional sulfur. It made the gasoline burn cleaner. At the time Amoco used Chevron’s gasoline additive system. Base on research at time, it was the best system in the market.

Today I have no clue what BP is doing with the Amoco premium, so I buy any major oil company premium.

 

Agreed. I drive until the gas gauge says I need gas, then I find a major brand station and pull in. If I'm around my home area, I go to the one that has the best price, which around me is usually Sunoco, but sometimes Shell, Mobil or Exxon.

 

Is there really any difference at all? My local Exxon station gets replenished from a generic-looking truck with the name of a local distribution company. I wonder whether his next stop is the Hess station down the road...

 

A while back the Brit car magazine Evo did a really nice careful article on branded/nonbranded gas and different octanes. They coupled this with power readouts. The take home message: what appears to matter most is just how FRESH the gas is. Gas that sits for long periods of time (and by long they meant a couple of weeks I believe) produced significantly less power even when rated at a higher octane.

I was a bit surprised by their findings but ever since then, I've tried to time my gas purchases so that I buy from a station with lots of traffic and presumably high turnover.

 

Chevron Supreme or if I cant get that any premium brand I also add alittle bit of Magic Oil to each full tank
Martin

 

I really don't understand how today's stations can pitch this. Most only have one working and that's just for ringing up a coke for you. 99.99% of the time I just stay outside and use the debit card at the pump. They may as well not even have anyone working as far as my visits go. Just give me a good price on premium and I am fine with it.

 

There is a difference in gasoline that is delivered at the retail dispenser. While oil companies may contract out delivery to a third party, the gasoline is delivered with that company’s additive package.

That being said, there is a "generic” quality product that unbranded locations buy from anyone they can. The additive treat rates for this product can vary wildly. The additives do the real work in keeping injectors and fuel rails clean and reducing deposits on the valves. That is why I stay away from unbranded gasoline.

As for the age issue, that does not exist in the US at major oil company locations. The sales at these outlets require most to receive product deliveries 2 or 3 times a week.

 

I've noticed that my 328 runs better on Chevron premium than on Mobil (first fill up after I got the car). I admit I know very little about gasoline, but I'm sensitive to how well/poorly my cars run.

For the Ferrari, I always use Chevron and don't really price shop. For the Jeep, whatever's cheap and available.

 

Any name brand 93 octane is fine for me; I always go to a really busy gas station so I know it hasn't sat in the tanks too long and collected water. I assume premium is a lower volume seller than regular, so a high end neighborhood station might help too. More cars there will use premium?

All gas is the same except for additives and age. It all comes from the same ships, and the different companies add their own additives.

Ken

 

Gas does not come from a ship, crude oil does. It is refined and piped to a distribution center, where it is loaded onto trucks for the final delivery to a gas station. But I understand your point.

 

I lean toward buying Shell, only for the 5% rebate I get back each month, but would agree that the two biggest factors for me are price and a station that at least appears busy with good volume (I've also heard that stale gas is a bad thing, and not uncommon).

Bottom line, I have NEVER had an instance of poor performance from a bad tank of gas in 25+ years of driving...knocking on wood.

 

I have enough gas in my oil that they're interchangeable. ;>)

Ken

 

The trucks that deliver the fuel are the ones that are willing to do it the cheapest, they're just delivery boys like ups they have no association with the fuel manufacturer even the ones branded Shell or Chevron or whatever if you look at the door it will say a shipping company usually. At least this is how Jet-A and 100LL work, but the trucks that delivered that also delivered auto gas.

 

+1


Humorous note: Two weeks ago, I went with a few buddies on an eco-tour down Baja Califorinia Sur, Mexico. One of the guys has a great Mexican friend who was quite generous to drive us in his King Cab truck and has superior language skills which made progressing through the coountryside and the 4 military checkpoints smooth and easy. At every fueling I'd quickly jump out and pay for the gas. As we approached the first fueling I asked what type of gas he wanted, which started a long conversation.

He responded "well, there is good gas and bad gas"
My eyebrows went up, "huh? tell me more" I said.
Well, 76 and Mobil are bad gas, I get worse mileage with those I buy in San Diego and go to Tecate, but Chevron and Shell are good gas"
"Really?" I responded, knowning that Tecate is nearly 3000 feet in latitude and quite a climp uphill.

"Yes, but there is also bad gas at each station" he continued "and the best for my truck is the Premium"
I went on to explain that Premium has no more specific energy, just additional Octane levels which retard ignition.

We bought Magna Sin and an octane booster, all was well the whole trip!
http://beta.snapgenie.com/A15DT5X1

 

I guess you would need to define "a lot", as that is not the general description of how gasoline gets to market in North America. From Energy Information Administration:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/gas06/gasoline.htm

"In 2005, U.S. refineries produced over 90 percent of the gasoline used in the United States. Although the United States is the world’s third largest crude oil producer, less than 35 percent of the crude oil used by U.S. refineries was produced in the United States. Net petroleum imports (imports minus exports) account for 60 percent of our total petroleum consumption. About 50 percent of our petroleum imports are from countries in the Western Hemisphere, with 17 percent from the Persian Gulf, and 19 percent from Africa and 14 percent from other regions."

 

I've noted that my P-car 964 consistently stumbles on starting if I fill up with BP/Amoco Ultimate & mileage suffers a bit. Never a problem with Shell V-Power (which is the same price in my area), but have to go out of my way to hit a Shell station (which I do).

 

By 1998/1999 all US gasoline outlets needed to have there tanks replaced. The major oil companies did most of this work in the mid 1990's.

 

I seem to wind up choosing based on them having reasonable driveways and no speed bumps!

Seriously, I had to stop using a station that I liked when they put in some huge speed bumps.