Right i need a full tank of petrol tonight or tomorrow, these are my options so opinions please:

Total 95

Total Super

Morrisons 95

Tesco 95

Tesco 99

BP 95

BP Super

Jet 95

Thats my choice without driving miles in the wrong direction.

Don't know anything about the Tesco 99, but any supermarket fuel I'm wary off. Stuff that's not supermarket gets the ok from me!

Don't know anything about the Tesco 99, but any supermarket fuel I'm wary off. Stuff that's not supermarket gets the ok from me!

Well the BP garage was closed for a tanker delivery and traffic to tesco was horrific so Ive diced to do a couple of tanks of the total 97. Will see how this goes. At 1.19 a l though its not cheap

Edited 7 September, 201015 yr by benwiddowson

my choises are shell or esso?

my choises are shell or esso?

I'd use shell if i could but its 10 miles in the wrong direction so unfortunately can't justify it. Ive not seen an esso service station in years round here!

Whats Texaco like?

Total 95 or standard diesel depending which one of the 'mini fleet' I'm driving is the normal brew, as there's a station opposite work. Lot cheaper to fill up there than the stations local to home, currently 5-6p a litre cheaper. or :( depending which way you look at it.

TP

Remember not all cars like the same fuel. Even identical cars can run best on different fuels.

My advice is to try them all (at least 2 tanks worth) then make your choice based on cost and performance. Make sure to manually work out mpg figures, unless you only car for grunt.

Re Tesco 99 octane, this was tested against V Power and BP Ultimate in the recent past by Thorney Motorsport, now if I wasnt technically illiterate I would be able to give you the page here to read so if you do www.thorneymotorsport.co.uk and search for fuel test results, it makes interesting reading. This firm has done some extensive research and comes up with some challenging results!!

cheers Paully, that's really interesting.

http://www.thorneymotorsport.co.uk/tuning/Fuel_Test_Results_Update.shtml

I think one thing to bear in mind when working out mpg is the cost per litre. Wouldn't cost per mile be a more sensible comparison. pointless comparing mpg of different fuels if different garages charging anything from 111.9 to 116.9 p per litre even for the same brand.

edit: obviously performance would be another test, the best overall fuel would be the best performance and mpg per pound of fuel. someonee can do the equations.

Edited 7 September, 201015 yr by fabia55

My only problem is that a branded garage like Esso and Shell are out of my way, I live five minutes from Asda, so thats my choice of garage, if I'm out and about and needed fuel I would tend to use a garage like sheel or esso.

Edited 8 September, 201015 yr by Skodaboy1983

I fill up with standard Shell fuel when can, and Tesco fuel + Millers when I can't - the car seems to run fairly consistently, and it works out about the same in cost.

I did dally with V Power (diesel) for a few weeks, and got dismal MPG. A bit of research turned up that V Power diesel is fully-synthetic, and can boost performance by dint of being less dense and therefore having better atomisation and combustion properties. But being less dense also means there is less actual fuel per litre, so you have to use more to go a given distance. So you lose out on cost AND fuel economy! I can't say whether this applies to V Power petrol, though...

As per the previous poster, I always fill the car up and add millers Diesel EcoMax on every tank.

I noticed when I filed my last car up using BP that the car felt lively and better to drive and more responsive and this was just normal BP diesel and none of the sporty stuff.

To be fair, I only use Millers on supermarket fuel to put the additives in that I'm assuming Shell 'FuelSave' already has. But dosing branded fuel shouldn't do any harm. Interestingly, Skoda advise against proprietary fuel additives, but the only time I had the car serviced at the dealers, they put injector cleaner in (Redex)! As it was on the invoice, I figured I was indemnified against any damaged, but there has been none I'm aware of in the 45,000 miles since then...

I think one thing to bear in mind when working out mpg is the cost per litre. Wouldn't cost per mile be a more sensible comparison. pointless comparing mpg of different fuels if different garages charging anything from 111.9 to 116.9 p per litre even for the same brand.

edit: obviously performance would be another test, the best overall fuel would be the best performance and mpg per pound of fuel. someonee can do the equations.

(£/L x 4.544 / MPG) x 100 = pence per mile

MPG / (£/L x 4.544) = Miles per quid

Take your pick

Edited 8 September, 201015 yr by Fatbloke

Any opinions / feedback on Texaco? I use it almost every time in my Yeti and no problems so far. Never use supermarket fuel but wonder if Texaco is as good as BP / Shell? They do advertise that the Texaco fuel will help the engine run more cleanly. I have had no problems.

Do you think at the refineries they have special tanks ets for supermarket fuel and say shell fuel. Imagine the cost and manpower involved to start seperating and altering additives to what would be same fuel. Dont get me wrong I'm no refinery expert it just seems unfeesable. I'm not including the likes of v power (the higher ron stuff) just the basic petrol or diesel.

Load bays in refinaries are designed to mininmum BS standards the second load lanes hold the Additives the main manufacturing brands add there special blends using there relevant swipe cards issued to drivers, where supermarket only get the minimum standards of additives (If any) you got to remember it is the main oil companies who supply supermarkets. Shell may load out of an ESSO refinary as the core fuel is the same just what get added is the difference.

If this is correct then i'm surprised that Total, Esso, Shell etc. don't make the facts available otherwise it can seem like hearsay.

As I say below the supermarkets mainly get there fuels from the main brands either neat or with minor additives and why the main brands say nought is oz they are still getting there pound of flesh and more importantly it will be illegal due to MONOPOLY laws. It is not hearsay it is a fact of life. All i can say I was a insider in oneof the main fuel brands for 4 yrs or more....

To be honest though all this speculation and opinions is irrelevant, as all cars wether same make and model have different characteristics, what you need to do is test all of your local brands to see what you car like the most do two to four tank loads (Fill from RED LIGHT) to help quicker adaption by the ECU programme. It sounds wierd but cars really are fussy about the fuel it recieves. My 1.9TDi happens to like TESCO diesel, which is good for me (Clubcard points yipee!!!)

Hope this little insiders insight helps

Timelord1.9TDi

My 1.4 TDI Greenline has only ever really had Shell in it. Its bang on my route to work (and they do nice sandwiches). Its also one of the cheaper garages even compared to supermarkets. Almost the entire 10000 miles covered has been Shell standard squeezel

My question is to all you squeezel burners out there. What squeezel fuel have you found to be the best from a cost per mile and smooth running point of view ?

Also what brands would you never sully your tank with again by past experiences ?

About time I tried something different.

Edited 8 September, 201015 yr by raisbeck

To be fair, I only use Millers on supermarket fuel to put the additives in that I'm assuming Shell 'FuelSave' already has. But dosing branded fuel shouldn't do any harm. Interestingly, Skoda advise against proprietary fuel additives, but the only time I had the car serviced at the dealers, they put injector cleaner in (Redex)! As it was on the invoice, I figured I was indemnified against any damaged, but there has been none I'm aware of in the 45,000 miles since then...

Don't worry...you won't cause any damage. Actually, non of the manufacturers recommend additvies for petrol or diesel engines and that's pretty much how it's always been. There are reasons for that, but the main one is that manufacturers actually have concerns about our ability to measure out the correct amount and put it in the tank, and to make sure we use the correct additive in the first place. However, it's ok to use them if you follow the instructions on the bottle. These additives actually do a diesel engine good and provide more lube for the pump. Incidentally, your technician who services your diesel car will often put a diesel injector cleaner in for you at service times. Less so with the petrol engines but they benefit too. This is fairly common practice and is designed of course to make sure the fuel system is clean and the injectors are working at peak efficiency.

Raisbeck, I don't think you will do any better than shell. If you were to pop your head off, you'd see your piston crowns, injectors and valves would be very very clean (errrr...not actually suggesting you take your head off...yet!). That would be in contrast to a what you would find if it had been run on supermarket diesel. And yes, I have done this to many engines during the course of rebuilds and noticed a significant difference in the engine condition inside. In fact so much so that we (in the workshop) could tell what a customer had been running his vehicle on fuel wise. I use Esso diesel because there is no Shell garage nearby to my home. I've never used anything else. Use Esso petrol in my bikes and nothing else. Keeps the engines clean inside.

Thanks Timelord, that's good confirmation of what I used to see happening at the depots, albeit a bit differently in my day. Things haven't changed much at all.

This has been a very interesting topic and with what I've read so far I think my current tankful of cheapo Tesco 95 will be my last, the car doesn't feel to brilliant on it anyway. I think I will try the next 2-3 tanks on v-power or momentum and see how the car feels after that and calculate the cost per mile. Following that I may try some 95 from a premium brand and again calculate the cost per mile as it may be that the car can't benefit from the higher octane fuel but will still benefit from the better quality additive package. I don't do a huge mileage so this will take a while.....

When I had my Mk1 vRS, I tended to run it on Tesco diesel (was handy for work) or Esso (on the route home at the time). It seemed to like either of these, went a bit better on the Tesco stuff oddly. It absolutely hated ASDA diesel, power and economy dropped quite dramatically on it.

That was back when I was doing 20K+ miles a year, during which time I had 3 Skodas. Two Octavias, one Fabia, one petrol, two diesels. All of them disliked ASDA fuel, it's just rubbish, and I will never fill up there unless I have no choice. Incidentally, know how many breakdowns I had with those cars? None, zilch, nada, best cars I have ever owned.

The TSI does not seem to like Tesco fuel all that much, it doesn't seem to be going as well and economy has dropped a little, so definately back to Shell for me. After another 2 tanks there, I may put a tank of V-power in just to see what happens

Re item stated by "Timelord" (It sounds wierd but cars really are fussy about the fuel it recieves.)

Way way back in the 50's I had a Humber Super Snipe, the only juice that old girl would run on was National Benzole. anything else particulary Fina Petrol killed it.

I am soon, well when it gets delivered, downsizeing from a Octavia diesel to a Fabia Elegance Estate DSG.

So I have been reading the comments regarding fuel with great interest .

I have to say that I have never touch wood had problems with Tesco diesel.

So going back to petrol after having Skoda oil burners for many years is going the be a novel experience.

I did a search on Tesco and cam up with there Momentum 99 site My link which has some interesting information on it including a report from Thorney Motor Sport

John