Comments on: Brand Conscious Buying #3 – Gasoline

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:45:10 +0000

I drive a 2003 Lincoln TownCar that has 135,000 miles on it. I have always bought the cheapest gas but never an unknown brand usually QT. Used no other additives and consistently get 17mpg city and 21 hwy, have never had a tune-up or other engine work and car starts and runs just like new. Just sayin’

By: Cap

Cap — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:53:27 +0000

@Philip: If your owner’s manual says to use premium then 91 octane it up!

By: Philip

Philip — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:57:42 +0000

Dear Cap,

My Honda Civic Si owner’s manual says it requires premium so :-P

By: jack

jack — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:53:51 +0000

interesting thoughts, i know state to state also has different “excepted” fuel testings, what fuel fails the test in ky, gets sent to ohio…

By: kelly

kelly — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:02:38 +0000

There is a difference is gasoline brands to me chevron is one of the highest tier of gas. Each gasoline company has to meet a requirement for the oil to be sold. some of the company’s add more additives to the oil to help out your cars. I have ran my jeep Cherokee on chevron gas for 11 years and had no problems with the car. For a post a couple years ago saying do not get gas when the truck is putting gas into the tanks, it mixes the sediment. You would get it anyways the pumps that get the gas from the tanks pump from the bottom not the top of the tanks.

By: choirboy47

choirboy47 — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:50:27 +0000

For Penny: Generally speaking. A point to consider is that the internal combustion engine principle is based on creating heat from a fuel. With that said, ethanol contains approximately 76100 BTU’s per gallon. In comparison gasoline contains approximately 114000 BTU’s per gallon. Conclusion: the higher ratio of gasoline to ethanol the better the gas mileage.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:43:29 +0000

One important thing to add is that gasoline quality is often better at gas stations that get a lot of business, because the gas hasn’t been sitting in the storage tank as long, and is “fresher”.

By: shanbaleelah

shanbaleelah — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:03:41 +0000

Does anyone know about BP (Arco/am.pm)?!

By: Thomas j. Carey

Thomas j. Carey — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:29:20 +0000

it is a proven fact that ethenol has about 10% less calories that standard gasoline. that bieng said, it costs the same amount, but you will get 10% worse mileage with it. It also comes from africa where they are reaping down vast amounts of rainforest to make corn to turn into ethonal(which takes standard gasoline to do by the way) and then they seel us the corn or ethenol. They starve to make a buck insteadt of eating all this corn themselves and living better lives. does this really make sense? do your research. If you get 10% worse mileage, then you buy 10% more fuel in the end to get the same distance. its all a big scam, and the gasoline companies got us by the balls while they just rake in more and more money from us.

By: MIke

MIke — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:09:31 +0000

Joe. If you are at a brand name station, Shell, Mobil, Chevron, you ARE getting what is advertised. The bill of ladings for the fuel list specifically the Supplier and manufacturer of the gas. As stated in the original article the difference is the additives and at a ratio of about a quart to 8-10 thousand gallons. If you go to an off brand station, they buy the gas from the same sources with a generic additive OR if the price saves them money they may sometimes get name brand gas and additives.

By: Donald

Donald — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:51:45 +0000

My 1996 Q45 will not run well on Kroger premium gas. It ‘stumbles’ with Kroger gasoline. Once I fill it up with Shell premium the ‘stumbling’ goes away.

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:19:46 +0000

I would really like to know if there is a way to know if you are receiving shell or bp gas. I’ve watched trucks pull up to shell in NC with “fuel depot” name on the side. Makes me wonder.
A while back I contacted Shell and Chevron and asked how I would know if I was really getting their fuel and they said to check and see which credit cards were being accepted at the station – if it was their name you are getting their gas.
Check out http://www.TopTierGas.com for the benefits of using top quality gas.
I’ll stick with Chevron and Shell, according to Top Tier Gas, they burn cleaner with reduced emissions.

By: John

John — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:19:38 +0000

Here’s a late comment. In my area of Wisconsin, we have to pass a by-yearly emission test at re-registration time. My car had the “check engine” light on intermitently (mostly on) meaning I would probably fail my test and have to get checked out by a car repair shop and retested.($$$). On advice from my dad, I put in 2 tankfuls of Shell premium gas. The light went out during the 2nd tankfull and I passed my emission test. The light didn’t go on again until I started using off brand gas again. My dad swears that this has worked for him on his car for the last 2 times he had to get it tested. I don’t use Shell gas regularly because they don’t have a station in the county where I live. I believe that their gas made the difference in my car passing it’s test.

By: Sydney

Sydney — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:03:36 +0000

Sorry for the late reply, but I wanted to point out that gasoline does not all come from the same source, nor is it processed in the same refinery. All gas sold in the U.S. is supposed to confirm to minimum standards, but having said that, all gasoline is not the same. Several siblings and friends of mine work as engineers at various refineries in the Los Angeles area, and each is involved in the blending/processing of the oil. It’s not a simple process and requires constant supervision and adjustments. There *is* a difference in quality. No-name brands have a greater likelihood of being suspect. Certain established brands are more reliable and also are known for including additives that keep cars running more smoothly. You are best off buying a well-known brand gasoline. It is also important never to let your gas tank drop to really low levels; crap inevitably settles into the bottom of your gas tank, and you don’t want that crap getting sucked in (think of the sediment at the bottom of a wine bottle).

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 18:33:18 +0000

Hi Adam, You remember I was talk about any brand are taste same gasoline for any vehicle. Any Company want sell gasoline but they don’t tell you how good gas this my brand. Cow said MOO! as Boo!

By: Cap

Cap — Sat, 05 May 2007 00:59:08 +0000

you make a very solid argument Michael.

By: Michael MacDonald

Michael MacDonald — Sat, 05 May 2007 00:36:57 +0000

No, this article is entirely false. There is no proof of any of the points stated. You are all being bamboozled!

By: Shadox

Shadox — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 18:27:05 +0000

This is a great article, and I agree with practically everything. HOWEVER, for some strange reason my car does not handle Shell oil very well. That’s the only brand that causes issues. I may be imagining things, but I could swear I am not.

Anyway, it’s the cheapest gas I can find for my car (excpet for Shell).

By: Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge / Articles I Liked Last Week and Before

Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge / Articles I Liked Last Week and Before — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:31:41 +0000

[...] Cap has two I liked On buying gasoline. He’s saying what I’ve always said, just better with pictures, but perhaps not so grammatically well. And he also asks if we’re doing what we love. Thoughtful boy that he is. [...]

By: Cap

Cap — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 21:36:34 +0000

Penny: an immensely late reply, but, I know squat about ethanol as a fuel source. I mean, I am aware of its use in Brazil, and that certainly switching to it would have its benefit.. but the infrastructure change is a whole other deal. here's the thing though, from what little I know.. it seems to be a better idea to use E-85 in flex-fuel engines than in standard gasoline engine, though it seems like midwest states like urs are pushing its use. I certainly wouldn't pump them in my standard gasoline engine even w/ the lower prices. you can read a lot more about E-85 on wikipedia's entry, although the article seems to be a bit biased towards e-85. you should also note that many states (or maybe all?) usually have a 10% mixture of ethanol in gasoline too. there was a really good article in motor trend a few years back on ethanol, fuel-cell and hydrogen as alternative fuel source.. unfortunately I cant seem to find it through the stacks of magazine. I mean I'm all for alternative energy, but they're only feasible when the market wants it. once they get past all the difficulties of hydrogen/fuel cell vehicles, it should be smooth sailing for all our grand-kids! woot! hejustlaughs: woops forgot I remove the time stamp portion of the post. haha. anyway I was assuming that you read from the feed, and the feed will usually show the time when a post is posted. generally, any long post with informations I'm not making up will be the ones I auto-post on specific days.