Branded fuel - Any benefit?

rizzodun

So, anyone familiar with Sligo town might notice that the Esso station on the Bundoran road is now Texaco.

I used to always get my fuel from there, as I knew they were being supplied by Esso and feel the fuel was good for my engine. In the two years I've had my Almera the NCT emissions have been extremely low for a 11 year old car pushing 180k miles (compared to my friends 06 for instance, or my older 01), and I believed the fuel had something to do with this.

So, question is: Does branded fuel actually make any difference?

Also, is there any obligation on a branded filling station to buy from that supplier?

I know servicing and possibly how the car is treated can help/hinder this also, but let's try to focus on the fuel.

porsche boy

It definately does with diesel.

Atlantic Dawn

With people messing around with petrol too especially in that part of the country I wouldn't take any risk.

snipey

bought a Subaru xv 2012, engine destroyed because of NI fuel I was told Topaz is checked montly and Texaco it's a little dearer but you get what you pay for

faral

Well my short story is - I drive mitsu lancer 1.6 2007, so quite old type petrol engine. Usualy I refuel at Applegreen but on last occasion I said to myself give a try to Texaco. The dramatic drop in my mpg was unbelivable! before I was doing 42-43 mpg and on Texaco fuel Ive done only 35 !!! never ever again

rizzodun

So is there much of a difference between brands?
Any brands people avoid?

And what about branded stations? I've heard that a branded station does not necessarily need to use branded fuel.

To be honest, if there was another Esso station locally I'd switch to them right away, as I believe that the fuel I was getting was of good quality, not sure about Texaco, or where they're being supplied from (the Esso depot is located in Sligo town, and you would regularly see them filling the tanks)

Maybe I'm being overly sensitive?

When chatting to the guy at the counter about the change I asked him where they were getting the texaco fuel from and that I had only used them exclusively because they were Esso, a customer jumped in saying that the fuel is no different, it's down to how the pumps are cleaned....:rolleyes:

blackwhite

rizzodun wrote: »

So, anyone familiar with Sligo town might notice that the Esso station on the Bundoran road is now Texaco.

I used to always get my fuel from there, as I knew they were being supplied by Esso and feel the fuel was good for my engine. In the two years I've had my Almera the NCT emissions have been extremely low for a 11 year old car pushing 180k miles (compared to my friends 06 for instance, or my older 01), and I believed the fuel had something to do with this.

So, question is: Does branded fuel actually make any difference?

Also, is there any obligation on a branded filling station to buy from that supplier?

I know servicing and possibly how the car is treated can help/hinder this also, but let's try to focus on the fuel.

I'd imagine they had to change because of the Topaz-owned station next store.

With Topaz taking over Esso I can't imagine they'd be too keen on having heir nearest competitor having control over their cost of product.

There's generally two types of petrol station in Ireland, Company owned or dealer owned. Company owned means that the oil distributor owns and operates the site themselves. Dealer owned sites are independent, and may or may not be branded. If a dealer is branded by one of the supplier companies then they are generally obliged to purchase their product from that company (though often the breakage terms can be quite short, but branding must be removed fairly quickly if leaving the supply contract).


You can normally identify a dealer owned site by the shop, it'll often be a Mace, Spar, Centra, Londis, etc; whislt the oil distributors will often have their own shop brand (On The Run at Esso for example).

snipey

I usually find Topaz to be the best the only problem D o Brien owns Topaz but that's another story

rizzodun

snipey wrote: »

I usually find Topaz to be the best the only problem D o Brien owns Topaz but that's another story

I find the MPG I get in Topaz is lower than Esso, then of course there's the DOB thing :pac:

Celly Smunt

snipey wrote: »

I usually find Topaz to be the best the only problem D o Brien owns Topaz but that's another story

Topaz are far too expensive for their product, everywhere seems to be 2-4 cent more expensive.

Maxol has always served me well for both diesel and petrol.

snipey

I used Tesco for a while but you'd hear Taxi drivers tell you to stay well clear,I never had a problem but I have a new car now so I try and put decent fuel in her so i'll stick with DOB fuel.

Esso fuel for me!
Other brands aren't boding well on tuned jap specs in terms of knock & detonation

snipey

must try the Esso

ted1

snipey wrote: »

bought a Subaru xv 2012, engine destroyed because of NI fuel I was told Topaz is checked montly and Texaco it's a little dearer but you get what you pay for

10% if the fuel in real Ireland is biofuel , not sure what it is in funny money Ireland

marno21

Got 29mpg (diesel) out of a Maxol fill from a garage I'd never tried before during the week, back to my regular garage and hitting 55+ again. Never had trouble with other Maxol's

rizzodun

Crap, the only Esso station local to me is gone and now we're converting half of the motors forum to it.... balls...

Mycroft H

Call be oblivious but in 5 or 6 different cars, petrol or diesel, that I've not noticed the difference between any of the major brands. Applegreen does a nice enough coffee though....

Supergurrier

Its all crap 95 octane.

Gimme 99 octane thanks

Del2005

snipey wrote: »

I used Tesco for a while but you'd hear Taxi drivers tell you to stay well clear,I never had a problem but I have a new car now so I try and put decent fuel in her so i'll stick with DOB fuel.

I stopped using Tesco when I'd pumped €1.50 of air from 2 different pumps, not hard to get bad fuel consumption figures when buying nearly a litre of air. Reason I knew was I was suspicious of the station and kept the end of the nozzle out of the pipe, did it in a few different companies and always get fuel.

my3cents

Isn't the fuel the same at every petrol station with the difference being the additives that go into the different brands? I'm sure there is a long article somewhere here by a tanker driver explaining the difference.

marno21

marno21 wrote: »

Got 29mpg (diesel) out of a Maxol fill from a garage I'd never tried before during the week, back to my regular garage and hitting 55+ again. Never had trouble with other Maxol's

No way is that the fuel, not a hope.

Special Circumstances

my3cents wrote: »

Isn't the fuel the same at every petrol station with the difference being the additives that go into the different brands? I'm sure there is a long article somewhere here by a tanker driver explaining the difference.

I think there's two sources - whitegate, or from the docks somewhere.

Oafley Jones

Augeo wrote: »

No way is that the fuel, not a hope.

The friends brother bought a brand new car in 2013. Within 16 months it was ****ed. Engine needed replacing Petrol stretching was the cause. He filled it up exclusively in two Topaz garages here in Cork city. Luckily he has receipts because there's a case going on about it at the moment. What was really surprising to me is that a gard he was talking to reckons the owners could be completely innocent. That they're unaware of what they're getting themselves.

Oafley Jones

Oafley Jones wrote: »

The friends brother bought a brand new car in 2013. Within 16 months it was ****ed. Engine needed replacing Petrol stretching was the cause. He filled it up exclusively in two Topaz garages here in Cork city. Luckily he has receipts because there's a case going on about it at the moment. What was really surprising to me is that a gard he was talking to reckons the owners could be completely innocent. That they're unaware of what they're getting themselves.

I have no doubt petrol stretching goes on, I was replying to a post claiming their mpg was half what it usually is due to the diesel in a particular outlet.

Oafley Jones

Augeo wrote: »

I have no doubt petrol stretching goes on, I was replying to a post claiming their mpg was half what it usually is due to the diesel in a particular outlet.

I'd say that's one for metrology if it's that dramatic.

creedp

Anyone have a view on the Tesco fuel station in Drogheda ... have 10cent per litre voucher and wondering if it is worth using it there?

jimgoose

I personally rate Texaco and those purveyors of the legendary E5 brew to the gentry, Maxol, although the latter are getting scarce now as well. Chevron's "Techron" additive package is considered the best available to the art by some fairly serious players. Besides people of certain persuasions adding badly-distilled methanol, and too much of it, to petrol, you also get water leaking into knackered old underground tanks. Regarding the source, it is true that as far as Whitegate is concerned at least, the "base" fuel is all the same from huge storage tanks, but the major players have additive pumps on the way out of the depot that are used to "dose" their tanker-loads.

As we mention E5, that is said to be a shade over 99 RON, but I call shenanigans - in order to get a RON number of 99 you need 20% ethanol in regular 95 RON unleaded. If they were able to do that while using only 10% the stuff would be approaching €2 a litre. All the E5 stuff in Irish forecourts is about 96 RON in the real world.

rizzodun

jimgoose wrote: »

I personally rate Texaco and those purveyors of the legendary E5 brew to the gentry, Maxol, although the latter are getting scarce now as well. Chevron's "Techron" additive package is considered the best available to the art by some fairly serious players. Besides people of certain persuasions adding badly-distilled methanol, and too much of it, to petrol, you also get water leaking into knackered old underground tanks. Regarding the source, it is true that as far as Whitegate is concerned at least, the "base" fuel is all the same from huge storage tanks, but the major players have additive pumps on the way out of the depot that are used to "dose" their tanker-loads.

As we mention E5, that is said to be a shade over 99 RON, but I call shenanigans - in order to get a RON number of 99 you need 20% ethanol in regular 95 RON unleaded. If they were able to do that while using only 10% the stuff would be approaching €2 a litre. All the E5 stuff in Irish forecourts is about 96 RON in the real world.

Soooo... Texaco = Good, right?

jimgoose

rizzodun wrote: »

Soooo... Texaco = Good, right?

Texaco is indeed good yes, in my humble yet educated opinion at any rate. But that isn't all I was saying, is it?

Jb1989

rizzodun wrote: »

Soooo... Texaco = Good, right?

I didn't understand the half of it either

rizzodun

jimgoose wrote: »

Texaco is indeed good yes, in my humble yet educated opinion at any rate. But that isn't all I was saying, is it?

Of course not, RON once took my E5 too, my skin suffered for weeks with dryness and irritation... :pac:

jimgoose

rizzodun wrote: »

Of course not, RON once took my E5 too, my skin suffered for weeks with dryness and irritation... :pac:

Ah, I see - "Research Octane Number", chief!

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