I've never driven a car with such a huge tank range, so now I'm lazy and just fill up at tesco if it needs doing when I'm doing my shopping. But I have read a few posts that seem to say X diesel is better or Supermarket diesel is ****.

Is there actually a difference, or is it just the usual ******** of people presuming their assumption is fact, and then boring everyone else with it. Would Skoda recommend Shell over anything else? I assumed the supermarkets just bought the diesel from Shell or whoever anyway. I can't see them having their own "Tesco Value" refinery.

There are a couple of Shell garages, a Morrisons, and a Tesco where I live, theres a Sainsburies near where I work. Which would you pick, and for what reason?

Personally I have never been able to tell a difference, even stuck some shell super xtreme power booster maximus derv in the other day and noticed no change

Been driving diesels for as long as I've had my licence and I can honestly say that unless you get a bad batch of diesel the fuel makes very little difference as long as it complies to the EN590 standards.

I mean do you really think the supermarkets have their own refineries

Branded name fuel such as Shell or Texaco = smooth tickover and running, and decent MPG. As soon as I fill will supermarket stuff,, lumpy tickover, noticiably more sluggish and definately thirstier. And the diesels seem to smoke more on supermarket fuel as well

It never amazes me how so many people can draw this conclusion even though it's all the same stuff. After literally hundreds of thousands of miles on all types of diesel I can quite honestly say the same as cheezemonkhai. Morrisons even use the Texaco branding

In fact I would go as far to say my car runs he same on Ultimate as it does on Tescos brand X which runs the same as Brand X + 30% Veg oil. Your engine will adjust so much to the tolerences you won't be able to tell the difference. The biggest factor that will effect the way your car runs is the environment (Weather, humidity etc) which is probably where most pick up on the whole "Dodgy fuel " vibe.

Use whatever is cheapest and worry about something important instead

Sorry -blokes - not a brand name snob - or even a car brand snob - my little furball doesent seem to be snobish on any food I give her -au contraire - it seems the cheaper it is -better she likes it - supermarket /named brands - she sucks it in and plays her merry tune on it .Only thing I've noticed is that she is a sucker for Asda diesel . £20 of that ,andshe's anybodies .:eek:

I've been running Asda Diesel on the PD105 since i got it, with the odd tank of different brands and a couple of VPower Derv.

Runs as good on Asda's Diesel as it does the V-Power.

I put anyones fuel in all of our cars.

As said it's only the weather conditions that affect the way the cars run ( except maybe the wife and her leaden right foot ! )

I get £20 a quarter in Clubcard vouchers from filling up at Tesco... No way I'm changing!

80k on my Civic in 2.5 years now and the i-CDTi engine has been flawless.

In the Fabia vRS I ran for 9months, never once did I notice a difference between fuels.

I just fillup with whatever is the cheapest, and get the same range from each tank no matter who the supplier was. I only use my car in the week, to get to work and back so the route is the same each day.

I get £20 a quarter in Clubcard vouchers from filling up at Tesco... No way I'm changing!

80k on my Civic in 2.5 years now and the i-CDTi engine has been flawless.

If you use an ASDA credit card you get 2p/litre off the price. Like many others I've never noticed any difference between brands.

I only use shell fuels as they are

a) on my way home

same price as supermarkets

c) get points

d) do get better economy

People may poopoo it but I keep track of my fuel usage in a spreadsheet and when we use sainsburys fuel I did get less MPG compared to Shell.

Call me a snob but I know what my car works well with and so continue to stick with it.

I have travelled many times in mainland Europe and the only time i saw any differance was in the super market garages in Spain where the local guys put additive in the tank before filling , at the time i thought it strange but next time i put additive in myself and found it ran smoother, do'nt ask me what brand it was as it is some years now and like the rest of you i just fill up the Octy wherever i am. Though speaking of additives i did ues Millers Sport on a run from East Sussex to Cumbernauld Scotland and was amazed at the smooth running and mpg. And then i found on this Forum i should not be using any because of possible warranty problems.

If you use an ASDA credit card you get 2p/litre off the price. Like many others I've never noticed any difference between brands.

Just had an email from ASDA. They are reducing the discount to 1p from March 1st!

I only use shell fuels as they are

a) on my way home

same price as supermarkets

c) get points

d) do get better economy

People may poopoo it but I keep track of my fuel usage in a spreadsheet and when we use sainsburys fuel I did get less MPG compared to Shell.

Call me a snob but I know what my car works well with and so continue to stick with it.

Just to back up my earlier point

I have approximately 10 years and 400'000 miles of data from filling up and mileage that would disagree with your statement that MPG changes depending on which UK derv you use.

On mine it runs 2-3 mpg better fuel economy on BP's special derv as compared to their stock derv, and the same goes for Shell. Esso is about midway. That is based on averages, and the difference is more pronounced when making stiff progress.

When driving for economy, the difference seemed distinctly less.

Interesting that you get increased MPG from V-Power Derv as I got significantly decreased MPG.

Saying that your car wasn't exactly in standard tune

And I have mates who work at Grangemouth, and who worked at Bowling, who all say that the base stock the supermarkets get is the same, but the fuel additive packs that go into it when the tankers are filled aren't! How else do you think you get different BP, Esso, Jet and Texaco fuel out of the same ganrty?

I fill up at shell its the same cost as Morrison/tesco here plus 3% cashback with payment by Citicard from Shell so infact 3% less.

I've found that the Shell V-Power is smoother, more powerful and more economic than supermarket stuff - BUT its not worth 10p/l more. I use Tesco because they're cheaper than the big fuel brands, and I get Clubcard points.

All diesel must comply with EN590, whether supermarket, oilco standard or premium.

HOWEVER, EN590 alows up to 5% biodiesel (fatty acid methy esters, AKA FAME) and there is considerable "wriggle room" when it comes to how much, and what FAME is added, usually at the terminal. FAME is the single biggest thing that impacts fuel quality since the specification that defines it (EN14214) allows everything from Rapeseed oil (excellent) to palmoil, used kitchen oil and animal fats (poor). Oilco's go for high quality rapeseed (or blends with soya oil) whereas the supermarkets tend to go for the cheaper used kitchen oils, palm and animal fat blends.

Retailers can also differentiate their fuels by adding premium additives such as detergents, anti-foam, wax anti-settling additives, cold flow improvers, cetane improvers etc. In addition, certain supermarkets import diesel bought on the Rotterdam spot market which, although technically compliant with EN590, could've come from anywhere!

So no, not all diesel is the same

I have a feeling the higher cetane rating of these fuels may be more beneficial when the car is mapped for it, hard to be sure though

Higher cetane is beneficial whatever the engine (unlike higher octane in petrol engines, which is only really beneficial if you've got exceptionally high compression ratios). Higher cetane = quieter and more complete combustion which, if you're very patient and keep very accurate records, you might see in your mpg...

Low power diesels (anything less than 130hp at around 2 litres) I'd say you wouldn't notice much difference. 2% of not much is not a lot. When you're pushing 200+hp from a 1.9 commonrail then you can definately tell the difference.

I have a feeling it impacts on the timing and when you run the car at high speeds it makes more difference.