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Supermarket Fuel


Mart7379
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Hi Guys

Sorry if this is in the wrong section of the Forum website.

Just wondered what peoples opinion was on Supermarket fuel, Personally I always go to Asda for fuel as it is generally the cheapest place locally. I always tend to avoid Texaco as they always seem to be charging upto 10p more than the other 'High Street' brands.

Is there any difference between Supermarket fuel and the likes of Esso and Shell or do they all come from the same refinery, i.e. is Supermarket 'watered down' so it burns quicker, resulting in more trips to the pump, or is that a myth?

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There is no such thing as '' supermarket fuel '' only fuel sold in supermarkets, which all comes from the same few refineries & distribution depots as all other fuel

Premium fuels such as Shell's V Power & B.P. Ultimate etc have additives - hence the premium price

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There is nothing wrong with supermarket fuel, if there was, and considering how much they sell, 50% of the cars on the road would be spluttering to a halt.

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ALL fuel sold in the U.K. has to meet or exceed BS & RON standards - wherever it's sold

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I run both cars on 97 supermarket fuel but my bikes on Shell 97 why I don't know allways have :)

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I've never had a problem with supermarket (specifically Tesco) fuel.

The Fiesta ran it for 5 years, the Focus for 2 and the Volvo for the past few months and none have had any fuel-system issues.

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I go where its cheapest, mostly tesco , sometimes gulf stations as I get 5p a litre off from those.

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Every little helps ! :)

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Is there any difference between Supermarket fuel and the likes of Esso and Shell or do they all come from the same refinery, i.e. is Supermarket 'watered down' so it burns quicker, resulting in more trips to the pump, or is that a myth?

I've read entries about this subject across a number of forums and there doesn't appear to be a strong consensus either way. Supposed experts will claim that it all comes from the same tanks in the same refineries, other supposed experts will claim that it doesn't!

Why not try a few tanks of each and compare your fuel consumption (preferably doing similar journeys), then you'd be able to compare your cost per mile to determine which fuel is actually more economical for you, your car and your usage.

To work out the cost per mile in pence

c = 3.785 x p ÷ mpg

where c = cost per mile, p = cost per litre in pence. Note that reasonable figures should be somewhere between 7p per mile (around 60mpg) and 22p per mile (around 20mpg).

I've not done a proper comparison of fuels for a good few years but in the past I have recorded significant and consistent differences between the fuel consumption on different fuels - whilst living in New Zealand I wouldn't want to buy anything but BP as it was giving me 10% higher mpg than some of its competitors.

If you test it for yourself and do the calculations then you can determine the answer for yourself rather than relying on divided opinions.

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I'm no expert & it's not just my opinion - I'm just stating the unequivocal facts of fuel supply in the U.K.

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There is some documented evidence that some fuels will return slightly higher mpg than some other fuels

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I'm no expert & it's not just my opinion - I'm just stating the unequivocal facts of fuel supply in the U.K.

I wasn't levelling any accusations against you - I'm not pretending to be an authority on the subject and I'm making no recommendations as to what fuel one should buy. Given that there is no consensus, the best way to get an answer is to carry out an experiment and determine the facts for oneself.

All fuel sold must meet the same minimum requirements which doesn't mean that it's all the same. Petrol after all is a mixture of hydrocarbons. Summer mixes are different from winter mixes but it all still meets the same specification/standard in order to be sold at the pumps.

If you've found that supermarket fuels give you the same fuel consumption as the more expensive alternatives then you've determined what's more economical for you. I would suggest the OP does the same.

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The negatives of fuel is not so much the fuel itself, but the tank housekeeping of that fuel - especially with the introduction of a percentage of bio, which contains an element of water, & it seems some are better at housekeeping their storage tanks than others

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At the last count there were only 6 refineries & just 43 fuel distribution depots in the U.K.

Tesco, Asda, Morrisons , Sainsburys, etc own none of them :)

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Further research reveals that even the basic branded fuels have some additives - whereas the basic fuel sold in supermarkets may not - this could explain why some people state their car drives better than on basic fuel sold in supermarkets

This information comes from a fuel tanker driver based in Essex

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what company does driver work for?? to come to this conclusion

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I used to know a tanker driver who told me (don't shoot the messenger) that your basic petrol & diesel from Shell/BP/Total garages is exactly the same as the basic petrol & diesel you get from supermarkets.

He said he fills the tanker and the refinery then goes to whatever garage he's told, all comes from the same source.

It's only the premium fuels that are specific as different garage brands have different amounts of additive.

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I used to know a tanker driver who told me (don't shoot the messenger) that your basic petrol & diesel from Shell/BP/Total garages is exactly the same as the basic petrol & diesel you get from supermarkets.

He said he fills the tanker and the refinery then goes to whatever garage he's told, all comes from the same source.

It's only the premium fuels that are specific as different garage brands have different amounts of additive.

Ive been told same , I see tanker drivers every couple of days and did ask same question some time ago.
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He has worked for Shell for 20 odd years & I have no reason to doubt him

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It transpires that both Morrisons & Tesco's have the same #1 fuel supplier, although they also source fuel elsewhere, Greenergy, the U.K.'s largest independent oil company, who supplied 25% of all fuel sold in the U.K. in 2014 (Tesco own 36.5% of the company )

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I currently drive a fiat until next week.

I used to fill up at morrisons which was cheaper and close to home, also got me the fiver voucher every so often. I was getting maybe 2 weeks of driving to and from work and weekend stuff from it.

I then used a Shell garage and it lasted nearly a week longer- same levels of driving but just differing mpg so go figure.

I also found I once mixed the premium unleaded with the normal stuff and this gave me cracking MPG!

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I only go to B.P because of my nectar points :)

Takes ages to save them just off petrol but it's linked to eBay so best of both.

Did have a problem going back a nice few years with our local B.P station but never goes there now.

It was on my bikes i did have like a sand stuff in the tank.

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My car doesn't get on with supermarket fuel so I love her with Shell all day everyday. For me I think my car has hit 126k and I don't know when the fuel filter was last replaced lol so it's probably not helping but beyond that I just find I get extra mileage with Shell over supermarkets and the engine is quieter.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

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My Focus seems happiest when run on Shell FuelSave Regular Unleaded. Which does have different additives.

Asda & Morrisons are just the basic, minimum spec at a guess. Car doesn't like those (sluggish, lumpy, noticeable even to my Mother - without knowing I'd filled up at Asda a few days before - from empty - asked me what was wrong with the car)

Sainsburys appear to use the same, if not, a similar set of additives. Tesco I can't really comment on - I very rarely fill up there.

If I can, I use Shell.

I quite often see tankers leaving the Immingam Refineries - of all brands.

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