different petrol, different mpg

[mrcinquecento]

Since i had the sei, i always had the theory that fiats liked running on shell petrol better than anything else, and that of all the petrol stations ive visited, it was always tesco petrol that was useless. so being an anorak, i thought id do a little experiment..

when i had the cinq, it always ran slightly sweeter on shell 95 than anything else, but no difference in mpg between fuels. then i had the focus. That didnt really seem to bother what it was running on, but seemed to get fractionaly better mpg from shell, but the sei was where i really noticed the biggest difference. on tesco fuel, the car felt sluggish and i was struggling to break 30mpg by my calculations, where as after a tank of shell, the car felt much more livley and i was getting about an extra 40-60 miles a tank!, makes you wonder how poor quality tesco fuel is :thumb_down:

anyway with the thirstier punto hgt , sat nav its trip computer and an empty private road, i thought i'd test my theory properly over 2 full tanks of tesco fuel and 2 full tanks of shell fuel at as near the same average speed as possible, the results were incredible! :smart:

Over 2 tanks of tesco's 95 ron

Cost, 83.9 ppl
Average speed, 21.6 mph
Average mpg, 24.5 mpg
0-60 time recorded, 8.6 seconds according to sat nav

and for shell

Cost, 82.9ppl
Average speed, 21.9mph
Average mpg, 27.1 mpg
0-60 time recorded, 7.9 seconds according to sat nav

the conclusion..... tesco's petrol is **** poor.... i wonder who supplies it to them......

has anyone else noticed such a difference between fuels?

 

[imported_abyss113]

umm bud you have too much free time

i put fuel in car burns it simple

 

[Marti155]

Very intresting. Have to say i have always avoided any petrol from any supermarket. As far as i know its not that the fuel it self is lower quality it will be standard 95 RON but i have heard stories of the fuel on a lot of the supermarkets can be want of a better word a tad diluted. Have to agree though my Cinq or any of my cars in the past have disliked cheap fuel over decent stuff like Shell or BP.

 

[steve119]

i think you should a comparisant between unleaded and super now!!:cheesy:

 

[Stuart]

I alway find that my vec runs very well on shell v power (espesh when added a bottle of redex)

A lot of ppl on vvoc recommend tesco 99RON tho.

 

[DickBarton]

When I had the VR4 it was run on Tesco Super - far cheaper than Shell - which I found to be utter mince - not worth the money - Shell's Super and normal Unleaded I found gave no performance enhancement but did give me far less MPG - the VR4 would return 23.5mpg on Tesco Super (98 RON) but on Shell V Power (97 RON, I think) it returned 18mpg - and it didn't give me any performance improvements. This was decided over 5 tanks of each before switching to the other to see if it made a difference.

I now fill up at Tesco for all fuel as it is cheaper and I can't see any performance difference with it - I don't see why paying the extra few p per litre for BP/Esso/Shell is worthwhile to be honest.

Might try some super in the Bravo at some point but it will probably only be the 1 tank just for a laugh...

 

[mrcinquecento]

the shell petrol here is actually 3p a litre cheaper then tesco's petrol now

tesco has gone back up to 85.9p a litre, i even saw the bp garage was at 87.9, as was esso...... looks like we are very much on the upward spiral price wise again

also with it feeling about -8 in Dundee most days this week, my average mpg has dropped to 22.8 with having the heater on full blast, lights, wipers and heated rear window on alot as well as the stereo, so not good at all!

Monday was entertaining when my doors were both frozen shut, totally welded they were!, had to go and fill a bottle up with hot water to pour into the door seams and rubbers!, it then took me a further half hour just to get the windscreen and lights clear, the car was in effect covered in a half inch thick ice sculpture of a punto mk2!, with all the weight of the ice and the temperatures, no wonder my economy has dropped dramaticly.

 

[M21MFS]

The only time I've ever really noticed a difference in any car is when I've put in some super unleaded. Problem is that Supermarket fuel is mighty convenient (and the biggest supplier in these parts)

There's a BP no more than 10 yards from the front door of the flat, but it's a tad expensive compared to the stuff 20 miles up the road.

As for the difference between the likes of that and ASDAs? Can't say I've ever noticed!