http://volkswagen.co.uk/need-help/owners/Fuel

 

When the VW Group recommend Super Unleaded 98 Octane they never bother that UK Super Unleaded @ Sainsburys, Esso, Gulf, BP etc are 97 ron (minimum) 

& only from Tesco with Momentum 99 Ron Min produced by Greenergy or Shell V Power Nitro+ , or maybe Super Unleaded @ COSTCO filling stations will the drivers be 

able to purchase a higher octane than the 97 Ron & get 99 ron minimum.

 

The 1.4TSI / TFSI 132-136kW Twinchargers are recommended to be run on 98 Super as seen in the Filler Flap.

Not clear on VW Group Websites unless you take into account the 'GTI' part & take that as Polo GTI as well as Golf GTI.

The manual, for the vrs at least, says 95 Ron is sufficient but an improvement may be noticed with higher Ron.  I've used almost solely shell vpower nitro, the 99 ron stuff.. I few bits of bp ultimate 97 ron and a little standard 95 ron when desperate, but I try and mix it again quickly with higher Ron if possible.  I maybe have noticed a couple of stutters on 95 ron, may have been just the first few hundred metres from the forecourt after a top up with the lower ron.... But may be imagination.  I'm slightly more convinced I've got a better mpg on 97 or 99 ron, not sure if it's quite enough to cover the 9p a litre extra (8p extra after triple points on the shell loyalty card for vpower) but that sort of ball park.  I use shell for its additives mainly, only time will tell, but hopefully they will help keep engine, injectors, turbo etc nice and clean.

Or being detergents add to bore wash.

But that is the issue with secret additives like the sodium.

 

Winter fuel formulation now and some Super Unleaded brought in from Europe already with the Secret Package added might well be Continental Europe winter Formulation and be 100-102 Octane.

They do lovely Super Unleaded across the channel.

Sounds Good to me and a more efficient fuel must mean less dirt

For my VRS TSI there is very little difference between Premium & Super. MPG may be a tiny bit better for Super, but I cannot feel any performance difference and it certainly doesn't justify 5-10% higher cost. However, for the past year my fuel of preference has been Tesco Momentum 99, because it costs about the same as other non-supermarket Premium fuels, plus gives me the placebo of superior quality. Shell V-Power has provided exactly the same MPG as bog-standard Tesco Premium for me, but others will swear by it. The overall averege is appox 28mpg for my mix of Premium fuels and 28mpg for Super.

 

 

 

Edited 17 November, 20169 yr by Orville

Tesco Momentum, or Sainsburys super unleaded are 5 pence a litre more than the 95 ron, so being that the Unleaded is around 114.9 a litre that is less than 5% extra.

The saving might be in consumables and just the car feeling better running and starting.

 

The good thing is there are choices and people can buy and try for them self.

Yep, Tesco charges the lowest premium for Momentum whilst Esso Shell charges the highest for it's V-Power. Strangely, V-Power returns second-worst results for all fuels I have documented. Maybe my particular car dislikes all of the wonderful Esso Shell additves.

Edited 17 November, 20169 yr by Orville

Shell are the sellers of Shell V-Power Nitro+,

and Royal Dutch Shell are partners for Importation of Fuel , sharing / co-owning facilities with Greenergy that produce Tesco Momentum

& Greenergy even produce for ESSO some fuels supplied around the UK including ESSO Super Unleaded.

http://greenergy.com/buying/independent

http://greenergy.com

So location location location and check just who does Produce or distribute what and where.

ESSO fuels comes from GREENERGY in the main in Scotland and also in other areas around the UK.

Edited 17 November, 20169 yr by Offski

Oops, of course meant Shell rather than Esso. I must be getting old(er). Ass Offski indicates, the Oil supply network is rather incetuous, so many brands use the exact same fuel from the refinery. Others sprinkle a few additives to change the flavour slightly.

Edited 17 November, 20169 yr by Orville

Just to add some info as clearly the type of driving done may make a difference to what you see.  IIRC Orville is london based and I suspect does a lot of town driving to only manage ~28 mpg.  I'm london based but do a high percentage of motorway driving and although i've stopped tracking and calculating myself I did for almost a year and learnt the maxidot is well within 1mpg.  my long term average reset itself on tueday but it was showing 37.8mpg over something like 4000 miles.  So I suspect you'll notice ore difference if doing a road and motorway miles.

Does the car/Skoda recommend a particular brand - I know my Ford "recommends" BP on the petrol cap

Possibly more to do with partners. Can't you get nectar points or something like that?

Or being detergents add to bore wash.

But that is the issue with secret additives like the sodium.

 

Winter fuel formulation now and some Super Unleaded brought in from Europe already with the Secret Package added might well be Continental Europe winter Formulation and be 100-102 Octane.

They do lovely Super Unleaded across the channel.

 

We used to take my Ford Puma from 2001-2007 across the channel on booze runs and you're right; we'd fill up in Calais and the increase in mpg and power really was noticeable.

 

Why is UK fuel inferior to the French stuff?

The only higher octane stuff I could find locally was Texaco Supreme. Was 7p a litre more than the 95 Octane. And surfing the web I find that it is 'only' 97 Octane anyway.

To find Shell or BP I'd have to leave Chesterfield afaik.

First calculated tankful, I got 42mpg.

Edited 19 November, 20169 yr by gregoir

Your 1.4TSI will be happy as Larry on 97 ron (minimum) and once you run that a while you can compare when running 99 ron (minimum)

http://petrolprices.com

 

PS

BP Super Unleaded is 97 ron (minimum) in the UK.

Edited 19 November, 20169 yr by Offski