I've heard that gasoline brands make a difference in mileage as they contain different amounts of usable energy. Do you know, specifically, how certain brands compare? For instance:

Costco
7-11
Mobile
Shell
Texaco
BP

Hi Jason:

___In my area, almost everything has ethanol in it. The BTU/Lb of this stuff is about as good as placing water into the tank ;) Well, not that bad but it is ~ 5% less BTU/Lb then straight gasoline. It is not only an oxygenate for supposedly cleaner burning but you burn more fuel (check into EPA’s definitions and reasoning behind that one???) so how it supposedly helps the environment is anyone’s guess? There is actually some very detailed write ups on it. The main item is now that we have summer formulations; the Btu/Lb of fuel has gone up and with that, our fuel economy will go up as well. I don’t know about the southern or warm climate states but here in the upper Midwest, it is a guaranteed fact. If I could find a station that didn’t use Ethanol however, I would buy it … if the price was right of course.

___As for brands, currently, I am purchasing BP regular unleaded because I receive a 6% discount on gasoline for another 2 weeks. After that, I might go back to the cheapest stuff I can find which is usually a Marathon in the winter or Speedway a few miles away in the summer. The local Speedway just down the street from me is also just down the street from Great America and just off the Interstate so they always price gouge in the summer in comparison to the next further down Speedway station a few miles down the same road :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Here in Houston there are only a few refineries, Exxon/Mobil, BP Amoco, Shell, Citgo. Soooo where do the Wal-Marts and other places that aren't connected with these refineries get there gas. Hmmm well you know the ones that I have just mentioned. I had a uncle that delivered gas in the Chicago area years ago and he told us that just because you filled up with Shell didn't mean it was refined by Shell. Now that was back in the late 60's and early 70's but I'm sure it is the same today. Me I buy whats at hand when I need it, well I do look for the lowest price, with the exception of Wal-Mart. Don't get me going on them.

Happy Motoring, Kevin

04 silverblue 5sp. Man.

you name it we got it (xcept 7eleven, grr). i recently switched to shell, dont know exactly if it helped, but just look at my milage and there is a pretty big difference.

Folks, TexasHCHman speaks wisdom. There are only a handful of refinery owner/operators, and the gas you get from Walmart or Costco this week could come from any of them (or more than one).

This week, it could come from a BP refinery, next week from a Shell refinery. And mind you, they don't wait for the underground tanks to go dry before calling for a truck. The truck just comes and dumps its fuel in with what's already in the tanks.

So it's all mixed together, anyway. This makes it nearly impossible to track quality. <_<

The ethanol issue raised by Xcel is interesting...and not really surprising, if you consider it carefully. It's your government at work, because ... well, basically...we wanted ethanol! Or at least we didn't object strongly enough when we got it...so yeah, we must have wanted it.

And I assure you, this is not just the fault of one particular administration. Can't blame it on the current one, probably can't blame it on the last one, either. It's government bureacracy, which breeds inefficiency, and often higher prices (or higher costs) with it.

So what to do? As far as you are able, just buy on price, convenience, and (if possible) quality. The first two are easy, but the last one is rather subjective.

What people in the business have told me is that the different grades of gasoline (reg, mid, premium) are sent separately (separated by pigs in the pipeline) through the same pipeline. Then at the time that the gasoline is loaded onto the tanker trucks for distribution to the gas stations each gasoline brand adds their own packette of special propriatory ingredients (various cleaning agents, Textron, "Special Ingredient XYZ", or whatever). So there is practically no difference in energy content between different brands within a gasoline grade, but there is a difference between different grades and between summer and winter gasoline formulations.

I use Sunoco Gold which is a higher cetane/lower sulphur diesel.

I drive 240km to get (round trip).

It gets me an easy 100-150 km more over the rut gut they sell around here.

And it's also cheaper.

Any of you guys ever tried 94 octane?

In Quebec Petro Canada sells it and in Ontario Sunoco sells some too.