If I pump gas from an off brand discount station to save nickels/dimes per gallon is the quality assumed to be the same?
Is Exxon or Shell gasoline the same as 7-11 or Wesco? BP?
BP is not an off-brand. But Exxon thanks you for that.
In New Jersey at least, gas stations are pretty tightly regulated these days. Wawa & Raceway gas is as good as Exxon or BP.
In any given area, while there are many different branded stations selling gasoline, there are few refineries servicing them. In many places, only one refinery provides all the gas for every station across a wide area. What differs from brand to brand are the additives that get dumped in to the base gasoline. And while each brand wants you to believe their additive pack is better than all the others, they’re relatively similar. I suppose the deep discount places may put less of the good additives in. But otherwise, the gas is the same.
At a given octane rating.
For example, in California, the lowest octane rating is 87. That’s exactly what our Lexus hybrid expects. But when we drive into Utah, their lowest octane rating is 85. Giving that to the car causes the engine to run rougher; not a lot, but noticeable. So we have to be sure to but in Utah’s mid-tier 88 octane to keep the car happy.
For sure. There are differences in some places where the octane standards are lower, and I dimly recall some places have a winter and a summer blend that differ. But generally, what I was saying is that the gas at the station to your right came from the same refinery as the gas from the different brand station to your left.
Yep, brand doesn’t really matter for quality. Only octane.
Although I tend to avoid gas stations with brands I don’t recognize. Mostly because I hate cash-only places that charge extra for debit and credit cards.
Top TierTM gas would like you to believe that there is a difference between gas that meets their specifications and other gas.
Any station displaying the Top Tier logo, or on the Top Tier list should be selling gas that at least meets their standards as far as detergent and other additives, regardless of the brand name the gas is sold under.
I distrust off brand names simply because there’s so little transparency about both quality and quantity pumped. Quantity is probably the greater concern. Margins on gas are tiny, so underdelivering by a few percent makes a big difference to profits, but it’s going to be undetectable to the consumer. I know there are inspections, but I think people are likely to cheat to the extent they can get away with it, and major brands are going to have a much greater concern about their brand reputation.
Mitigating against this is the fact that gas stations apparently make most of their profits from peripheral merchandise sales, so maybe my concerns aren’t justified.
I don’t know. But I did know someone in the industry who claimed the same trucks serviced the name brands and the more generic stations.
Amoco/BP is not on that list.
Meijer gas is.
Interesting, I tend to stick with the big brands. I could swear cheap off brand gas screwed up the fuel filter on my last car. Maybe it was the condition of their storage tanks.
Pretty much my belief based on things I’ve read over the years. The only difference between different brands is potentially the additives, but as long as the additive(s) bring it up to the required octane level, my belief is that that’s all that matters. The breathless advertising for supposedly miracle-working additives is mostly woo. I’ve been mostly using off-brand gas for at least ten years and never had a problem.
The only time I’ve ever had any kind of issue in many years was shortly after filling up with a major national brand, where the engine ran rough for a while due to what may have been water in the gas. The only realistic difference between brands and the various off-brands might be quality control over potential contamination in any given batch or at any particular service station, but the majors obviously aren’t immune to that.
Very likely. As I noted above, the major aren’t immune to crappy service stations. The off-brand station where I usually get my gas seems well maintained and does a brisk business, so the gas is fresh and (presumably) well-matched to the season.
There could easily be a correlation between quality of gas storage at the station site and the quality of the chain it’s part of. But the one time I had to stop going to a particular station due to water in the gas it was a name brand.
It is all the same gas, made in the same refineries for your state or area, delivered in the same trucks. A double tanker truck can haul maybe three different grades of gas, this is how many comparments they have. Does anyone actually believe that there are so many different grades of fuel being delivered in the same trucks?
If you are in doubt about the quality of your cheap fuel, add some of your own favorite gas treatment, like Techron. Because the differences are all marketing. Chevron operating their own refineries and trucking? Shell with different trucks deliverinig different gas? A double tanker truck is hauling 3 types of gas. That is it. The differences in prices are based upon deals negotiated between the suppliers and the end customer.
I am in Oregon, there is no gas refinery in the entire state. California has two, Utah one, etc. The gulf coast states, like Texas have many because of the import/export of crude oil.
USEIA - Map of US Oil Refineries - Petroleum refining in the United States - Wikipedia
I’ve owned over 20 cars since I started driving 45+ years ago. I have always sought out the cheapest fuel. In all those years, I have never had any issue from using the cheapest gas station.
Don’t get me wrong, I never had to go out of my way for cheaper gas. Whatever station has the cheapest gas has always been on my way to work or other regular route since I’ve retired.
That is recent. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
As mentioned several times in the thread, the base fuel itself is the same, but the additives are different. This means that what is commonly called “the gas” — what comes out of the gas pump — is different.
We buy from Top Tier stations because we have a Honda, and we keep a car for a long time, and Honda says to use Top Tier. And the price of Top Tier isn’t, where we live, higher on average.
I do wonder if:
a. BP switched to a cheaper and worse-for-our-engine additive
Or
b. BP technical experts disagree with the Top Tier people over what is best for engines
Or
c. BP regular is unchanged, but they are refusing to pay Top Tier a licensing fee
Or
d. Something else.
Anyone know?
A very common brand in my area, Sunoco, was on the approved list, and then came off, and now is back. Again I wonder if the product we purchase really changed.
P.S. The American Automobile Association endorses Top Tier as well, as seen if you scroll down in here:
We had a local wreck of a 4-pump station that was Shell-branded. A nasty obsolete place straight out of the 1960s. No one doubted the gas had water, or us being near the coast, salt water, in it from the rusting ancient tanks. Chunks of rust were not rare finds for those of us who filled gas cans to later refuel boats or generators. It was however, in a prime location with a large lot. And they sold gas cheap.
~6 years ago it was shut down. Then excavated down about 30 feet, all the scary-looking rusting crumbling metal tanks and lots of discolored dirt removed. Then the hole was filled with shiny new plastic underground tanks. Which were duly buried with shiny fresh dirt/sand. A shiny new name-brand large convenience market went on top. And a shiny new drive-thru car wash. And 20 shiny new gas pumps, including mid-grade ethanol-free for the purists. All selling Shell gasoline.
I have no doubt that what went into the old station’s storage tanks was the same as what now goes into the new. What came out was no comparison.
There may in fact be differences in additive packages between what’s delivered to e.g. a Shell, a Chevron, and an Honest Bob’s Cheapo Gas & Cigs. I’m not really convinced that the presence of a name brand logo, e.g. Shell, means much. I’m more interested in the apparent age & condition of the station.
I personally use mostly Shell fuel, so this should not be interpreted as a dig on them specifically. They just happen to be the brand I watched this local transformation happen to.
The no name places probably get brokered gas from whomever might have a surplus. The quality may vary.
Even if this were true, it would only matter to the merchant because 2% of 10,000 gallons is worth something. Whether or not my tank is 2% more or less fuel is like whether or not I give the handle one last half-squeeze before hanging it up. Hardly anything for me to worry about.
No truth to the notion that Chevron adds a detergent, called Techron or some shit, to at least some of its pumps? I know they sell their own additive in auto shops, in addition.
At least that would explain why, in my region at least, Chevron gas is hella expensive per gallon.
Doesn’t seem to be a Snopes on that one, but that’s what I always heard was the case.
They absolutely do. The gas that goes into the trucks is ‘just’ gasoline. Each retailer has their own branded additive pack that then goes in. More in the premium, less in the regular.