Supermarket Fuel Versus BP, Esso Ect Pro's & Cons

It'll be the additives.

I live close to Stanlow, and all the local supermarkets & garages get it from here.

Doesn't stop my car running like a dog on BP, less than sprightly on Tesco/Sainsbury's, and perfectly on Shell though!

Pete.

Back in the good old days of Formula Shell I was based in Southampton during the week and drove back to Essex most weekends. At the Southampton end I used to fill up with Tesco's stuff all week. Back in Essex I'd always fill with Formula Shell for the return journey. I consistently found that I got better mileage and performance from Formula Shell, and my valves survived perfectly well too;-)

Of course, that was about 18 years ago. These days I fill with premium brands when the price is right and occasionally supermarket stuff if it's convenient or much cheaper. These days there doesn't seem to be much variation in price between outlets in the same neighbourhood. I get the feeling that Shell is the best performer but to be honest there seems to be enough variation in economy from one tank to the next that I can't really be sure. I suspect they all vary from one batch to the next but I always aim for Shell if I can, BP next and anything else after that (except Q8 and CYMA, whoever they are!!!! ;-)).

The message from "Terry Dutson" contains these words:

Just your imagination.

not seen the slightest change in the running of the car. Although saying that I have heard from a few people that shell optimax with its additives is worth getting, but I'll stick to whatever is cheaper.

A Turbocharger ;-)

There's little in it I reckon, optimax is barely noticable in my car, asda/tesco/sainsbury gets my vote (or my local BP which is 0.2p dearer than Asda but 4 miles nearer so that 12p on a tankful ain't worth it)

Gets the odd tank of Optimax (if I have to use Shell I use optimax) for its legendary cleaning properties but really, I think it's not worth it.

Possibly not at all. My last car (91 Orion EFI 1.6), it didn't make the slightest difference.

My current car (98 Mondeo 2.0) (as I said above) runs like a total pig on BP. The engine is noisy, and doesn't perform well.

On Sainsbury's/Tesco petrol, it's OK, but a little noisy, and not very smooth.

On Shell, it runs like a dream. Fortunately, because most petrol is roughly the same price, Shell tends to be the same price as Supermarket petrol, so I get shell, plus the associated points.

Pete.

Once, after a great deal of searching for a fault, I found that my Golf Gti pinked on Tesco & no other fuel. If your engine is fairly tolerant, right you won't notice any difference. If it's on the edge, poor fuel may push it over & cause a noticeable problem.

Dave

What are people's experiences of different brands of diesel? I've only had my Rover 220SDi for a week - on the first fill I used Shell. Today I filled again with Tesco stuff and it seems a bit more eager than on the Shell diesel. It may of course be my imagination, or the fact that it's slightly cooler today so the intercooler's working a bit better.

Andy