Yet another fuel thread, the premium fuel rip off
- Thread starter RichardG
- Start date
lacroupade
Veteran
I've yet to see the truth on this issue. All I can say is there is a seriously noticeable difference on my Zed when running BP Ultimate or Total Excellium, and if theres a noticeable power difference then that can be sacrificed for better fuel economy.
I have also found beyond all reasonable doubt that for some reason, continental diesel (french at least) with its higher bio content is very much more economical than UK diesel...I'm talking 10-20% on my diesel 4x4 which leaps from around 24mpg to 30+ in mixed driving.
Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see....especially since this syndicated Yahoo story has appeared in at least two other places includingThe Sun as posted elsewhere on this here site
I have also found beyond all reasonable doubt that for some reason, continental diesel (french at least) with its higher bio content is very much more economical than UK diesel...I'm talking 10-20% on my diesel 4x4 which leaps from around 24mpg to 30+ in mixed driving.
Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see....especially since this syndicated Yahoo story has appeared in at least two other places includingThe Sun as posted elsewhere on this here site
Interesting thread this!
I've found that I average about 30 running on 95 and about 33 running on Optimax which justifies the higher asking price.
The advantages are less over a long trip as the increase seems to be from about 37 to 39 mpg when cruising at 70 ish.
I've always found my mpg, when doing long trips to the Aps in my Diesel daily driver, to have dropped considerably from about 53 to 47 but I reckon this is prob due to a much higher cruising speed in France followed by lots of alpine driving. Interesting to see what it would do if I could resist the temptation to put my foot down on those perfectly smooth empty roads!
I've found that I average about 30 running on 95 and about 33 running on Optimax which justifies the higher asking price.
The advantages are less over a long trip as the increase seems to be from about 37 to 39 mpg when cruising at 70 ish.
I've always found my mpg, when doing long trips to the Aps in my Diesel daily driver, to have dropped considerably from about 53 to 47 but I reckon this is prob due to a much higher cruising speed in France followed by lots of alpine driving. Interesting to see what it would do if I could resist the temptation to put my foot down on those perfectly smooth empty roads!
SpikedJuice
Member
I'd like to see a more detailed test, covering larger engine sizes too. It's no real surprise though - I would never expect Tesco's 99 RON unleaded to give 25% increase in fuel efficiency
I was looking at this yesterday. Over the course of a year its going to cost me roughly £75 to use Premium instead of regular. So even if you don't get any extra performance or any better MPG, you do get a better quality of fuel (more detergents etc.) so £75 to keep the engine running smoother and cleaner is a no brainer for me.
According to my calculations for MY Z4 and MY driving, using higher-ron fuel isn't cost-effective for me: it doesn't improve mpg sufficiently (if at all TBH) to cover the extra cost. But since I cover so few miles (5k per year) I try and use it wherever I can.
I prefer to use Shell V-Power over the BP stuff as I just don't rate the BP stuff, although I do use Tesco 99 quite often too. Can't say I notice ANY difference in how my Z4 runs, but one of my previous cars (my Clio 172 - 1998cc, 172ps, tuned to run on minimum of 97RON) was fussy about fuel and certainly ran better on Shell versus BP Ultimate or any 95RON. My heart favours V-Power over Tesco 99 for the apparent extra detergents, but my head favours Tesco, particularly when the 5p off per lite offer is running!
BTW, most/all supermarket fuel is supplied by Greenergy - their website specifically mentions that they supply Tesco 99...
I prefer to use Shell V-Power over the BP stuff as I just don't rate the BP stuff, although I do use Tesco 99 quite often too. Can't say I notice ANY difference in how my Z4 runs, but one of my previous cars (my Clio 172 - 1998cc, 172ps, tuned to run on minimum of 97RON) was fussy about fuel and certainly ran better on Shell versus BP Ultimate or any 95RON. My heart favours V-Power over Tesco 99 for the apparent extra detergents, but my head favours Tesco, particularly when the 5p off per lite offer is running!
BTW, most/all supermarket fuel is supplied by Greenergy - their website specifically mentions that they supply Tesco 99...
Believe me I take everything I read on yahoo or most other places like it with a pinch of salt, I just thought the jist of it quite interesting.lacroupade said:Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see....especially since this syndicated Yahoo story has appeared in at least two other places includingThe Sun as posted elsewhere on this here site
I tried 4 or 5 tanks of premium fuel last year and ended up going back to normal petrol as my gut feeling at the time was my economy dropped while using and I certainly did'nt notice any difference in how the Zed drove, the biggest difference came when I put normal petrol back in after the good stuffthen certainly for the first tank afterwards I have to confess the Z did fell smoother and a bit more eager, so maybe I just didn't quite stick with it long enough.
But as I've said before wouldn't the world be boring if we were all the same.
chazman88 said:
This has always interested me - the more detergents line.
Fuel has a certain calorific content, by adding detergents you are effectively diluting the fuel; thereby reducing the calorific content for any given quantity of fuel. At best you'll use fuel at a greater rate, at worst you'll get a drop in performance in addition to the reduced mpg. Also adding detergents won't neccesarily improve the engine condition - in an ideal world you'll have pure fuel in the engine since that'll burn nice and cleanly and it's what the ECU expects. Adding detergents isn't going to improve matters. As far as I'm aware no one has performed a repeatable test checking the mpg differences, and even the bhp tests aren't exactly scientific.
The fact is, the BMW Z4 engines are all tuned for up to RON98 so you will get some sort of performance boost. Whether it's noticeable or measureable is up for debate and that's where value for money comes in.
The detergents line is used by all the fuel suppliers for their premium fuel, and it's total bumf. If an engine really needs to have some sort of cleaning additive in the fuel to stop it from seizing then the engine itself has a design flaw. There are cars with hundreds of thousands of miles run on very, very cheap fuel. We're lucky in the UK that our cheapest fuel would be considered 'premium' in many other countries.
As for superior / inferior - has anyone got any conclusive proof of this? All fuel must meet the minimum requirements for whatever the country it's within requires. Beyond that, the companies will want to make as much money as possible and they'll say whatever they can get away with. Same case with mineral water - by and large all mineral water is exactly the same yet you still have budget/premium brands. Basically charge more for something and people will very often consider it 'better' and believe & repeat any justification for the increased price. Don't fall into that trap.
It all comes from the same place. Sainsbury's tankers are regular visitors to the Shell depot in Herts, and brands even do 'fuel swaps' with each other when necessary, so the fuel at an Esso station may actually be from a Shell refinery. Additives are different between brands but according to someone who would know, the mixes are often the same / broadly comparable and thus petrol in the UK is pretty uniform, apparently.
All these stories of supermarket fuel being poor quality and having sand in it etc.... BS. Put a tank full of the scrap I was sold in rural Mongolia in your car - it was bright yellow - and you'll know about it. 40MPH tops from a Hyundai Accent 1.3 and sounded like a bag of spanners....but kept running
All these stories of supermarket fuel being poor quality and having sand in it etc.... BS. Put a tank full of the scrap I was sold in rural Mongolia in your car - it was bright yellow - and you'll know about it. 40MPH tops from a Hyundai Accent 1.3 and sounded like a bag of spanners....but kept running
lacroupade
Veteran
mikedav said:It all comes from the same place. Sainsbury's tankers are regular visitors to the Shell depot in Herts, and brands even do 'fuel swaps' with each other when necessary, so the fuel at an Esso station may actually be from a Shell refinery. Additives are different between brands but according to someone who would know, the mixes are often the same / broadly comparable and thus petrol in the UK is pretty uniform, apparently.
All these stories of supermarket fuel being poor quality and having sand in it etc.... BS. Put a tank full of the scrap I was sold in rural Mongolia in your car - it was bright yellow - and you'll know about it. 40MPH tops from a Hyundai Accent 1.3 and sounded like a bag of spanners....but kept running
+1
Heres what yer actual tanker driver said on one of my other sites....although he wasn't able to confirm or deny my question about additives to individual tankers....
"dont know if you will find this relevant but i drive a petrol tanker for a living and load at a few refinerys and oil terminals around the midlands - mainly Stanlow at Ellsemere Port... this is owned and operated by Shell, but all other companiess BP, Chevron(Texaco) etc as well as supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury and other smaller operators haul out of the same place - so this is all Shell fuel at the end of the day..."