Just woundering about supermarket fuel to esso or Bp Ect as I’ve always put asda or tesco diesel fuel in my car but now Esso have opened a station by me now and fuel prices are the same as supermarket so today I filled up in Essso and noticed two diesel pumps one with normal diesel the other one called supreme diesel at 8p more a litre is it worth it what difference will it clean my engine more ??
I’m not sure about cleaning the engine but a Seat Ibiza 1.9 Tdi Fr 130 we own seems to perform much better with the higher quality fuel.
The EGR valve on it has just been replaced after 60k miles or so and that alone has brought the performance back to the scuffed shoes and bloody knee’d Spanish street urchin level.
I rarely if ever use supermarket fuel in any car.
Hi
Have a look at this link, http://www.fuelprogress.com/en-gb/ (it is Esso singing their own song).
Is it worth the extra money, some say yes, some say no, try it for yourself, allow at least a couple of tank fills. It cost about 7% more so do a MPG check and see if you are getting more to the gallon. (it is difficult to do an accurate comparison on the road so don’t change you driving style or you typical journey if you can help it).
The manufactures of these fuels also say that the supreme or super fuels have additional additives and cleaners in the fuel which will benefit in the “long term”, at least you should benefit from this!
Richard.
I’ve been driving diesel taxis for 25 years now. My last one I had for 15 years from new, it had a Nissan engine, did almost half a million miles without ever breaking down on supermarket fuel. I did try the expensive stuff a few times, but never found it any different. When you use a lot of fuel, that extra 7% makes a big difference to your pocket, but little else. Long term benefits? Half a million miles? Sainsburys every time for me.
Before my Mx 5 ownership I had diesel engined cars and always used supermarket fuel. The only different between the brands were if I filled up with Sainsburys city diesel my Vauxhall at that particular time used to kick out quite a bit of smoke, the Asda stuff I usually used was ok with virtually no smoke. I reckon on it not giving me the same mpg either (Sainburys) but they reckon it all comes from the same place.
I did try the more expensive stuff from Shell and BP with no recognisable difference in performance or mpg. Anyway fed up with the more expensive fuel and not really doing high mileages any longer I changed back to a petrol car that can achieve up to 60 mpg. It is small city car and I still use supermarket petrol fuel.
A mate of mine has a Renault van. He did around 85000 miles in four years. Started running rough. An independent garage who he gets all his company vehicles serviced at and who he knows and trusts took out the injectors and sends them of to a specialist. Two injector so knackered through premature wear, advice was if you use supermarket fuel fill with Esso/Shell every third tankfull. Mate a bit sore about this as he has always used a sainsburys diesel. Gets a letter back saying Sainsburysm add 106 parts per million of some additive, can’t remember what it was, which was the legal minimum. Research on Esso reveals they add something like 350 parts per million. Can’t remember what the the additive was as this was a story told at our weekly beer session, it ran for a few weeks and I saw a copy of the letter from Sainsburys.
I don’t use Supermarket petrol in my MX5 and have just bought my first diesel a Kuga and that won’t be going anywhere near a supermarket. I am fortunate that owing to three supermarkets and three independants there is not much of a difference in price and my local Shell station is a lot less hassle to get fuelled.
End of the day you make your own choice!
Depends some cars do give extra MPG on even the highest performance fuels and I have found that to be true in regards to my last diesel 2.0D volvo - Shell V Power - 48/49, shell fuelsave - 47/48, supermarket 45/46.
I do the same now with the MX5 and even there sometimes there is some difference.
OK, I used to work in the oil industry, specifically in lubricants but sometimes had lunch with the fuel boffins and so obviously picked up a few things.
To keep this non technical I have three questions for you…answer simply yes or no.
Do you believe that the oil majors invest millions in developing and testing their fuels?
Do you believe that the supermarkets invest millions in developing and testing their fuels ?
Do you believe that the oil companies would sell their proprietary technology to the supermarkets in order that they can undercut them on price?
Now, go figure, as they say. 
All fuels are not the same. I rarely use supermarket fuels, about 1 tank in 10 at the most but usually when I am running very low and there isn’t a branded fuel station handy. I don’t however use the super fuels, they are certainly more highly distilled and burn more cleanly and over time will keep your engine cleaner but IMO they don’t really deliver in terms of improved economy, at least not enough to justify the premium.
I have seen engines stripped down after running tens of thousands of miles on the various fuels and so seen the evidence. That’s why I stick to branded fuels as far as practical.
you pays your money and makes your choice as they say,
Enough said .
I have had many Derv-burners over quite a few years, one of which I took form zero to 168,000mls in less than 3 years and always used ordinary supermarket diesel and never had a problem with any of them.
A modern diesel engine usually runs very high fuel pressures in a common rail system with electronically fired injectors (23,000psi on a VW PD pumpe duse engine for example) and DPF filters in the exhaust in search of better and better emissions figures, and I think this is why diesel cars today are actually less reliable than those twenty years ago (about the time the first Audi Tdi engine was introduced)
They need to be driven hard every now and then which is often the opposite to what people think when they buy them and dawdle along trying to get max mpg all the time. If they are driven too gently it can often cause all manner of problems to manifest.
A tankful of full-fat supreme every now and then and the use of a fuel injector cleaning additive such as Redex for Diesel engines will do nothing but good but using supermarket fuels in general is not detrimental to your car.
‘They need to be driven hard every now and then which is often the opposite to what people think when they buy them and dawdle along trying to get max mpg all the time. If they are driven too gently it can often cause all manner of problems to manifest’
The same goes for any kind of machine I can think of.
I couldn’t imagine just ‘pottering about’ in a ludicrously high gear with the intention of saving a couple of bob of fuel in either the Ibiza Tdi Pd 130 or the MX5.
They both respond and drive much better when given a bit of welly.
Sainsbury’s finest took my old Cavalier TD (Isuzu) to the ‘knackered’ side of 300,000 miles - ground its valves in to the cylinder head in the end!
That said, old IDI units vs modern high pressure units, I wouldn’t be so complacent; my work vehicle is a Transporter T5 which doesn’t seem quite so sparkling on supermarket fuel?!
In the days of your Cavalier TD, I had one too, the diesel fuel in use was quite different to that in use today, not least because low sulphur fuels weren’t mandated then. Sulphur has a vey good extreme pressure properties and when sulphur levels started falling as a result of legislation it took a while for some people to cotton on to the fact that they had to replace that anti wear component in the fuel. The whole point of ‘City’ diesel is that it is ULS (ultra low sulphur) to minimise sulphurous emissions and I am sure that it now contains sufficient anti wear components, whether it contains as much as branded fuels however is a point in question.
The supermarkets have to save money somehow in their formulations and will likely supply products meeting the minimum specifications possible so they will work OK but perhaps not as good as the branded stuff.
Supermarket fuels are a bit like Ryanair… Basic, does the job, no frills. I, however , refuse to fly Ryanair 
There is quite a bit of stuff on HonestJohn.co.uk about the pros and cons of supermarket fuels.
I don’t disagree, but I was driving the aforementioned old Vauxhall heap until only a year or two ago! It probably covered 200,000 on ULSD? I don’t disagree with your point about sulphur as an effective component, nor that supermarkets will attempt to meet the minimum consent levels to drive the price down.
This is a point I personally hadn’t considered when discussing those inevitable pub conversations about fuel though, thank you for educating me!
You may find that different balance of components mass up the fuel. My Smart Roadster was more efficient on Super Unleaded from Tescos than Shell Vpower, but I believe at the time there was more ethanol in the Tescos fuel.
Having said that My MX5 has Shell VPower from new. My VW UP has whatever is cheapest.
I think last time I calculated it for the MX5 I needed about 1.5-2MPG to get the money back from either of our local Shell Fuel station’s prices (fuelsave V Vpower) best around here for me recently was BP, but the price was to high even for standard fuel.
I don’t konw if supermarket fuel is of a lower grade/cheaper or not, but what would be the point if you don’t service the car when it is required, putting good quality oil in it…clean/new filters when they are required?
Driving your car only a few miles to work every day, rather than it getting upto temp properly, and fully charging the bty…these things for me will cause more wear on your engine than a slightly cheaper fuel product.
Cars/engines like to be used, work upto the temps they are designed for…running a car 5 miles to work is bad for it
I once saw a BP tanker at a Morrisons garage…the refinery at Fawly in the New Forest has loads of tankers driving out of it…I’m sure they all empty out of the same tanks
I often wonder about independents. We have two garages in town, one Esso and one independent. The guy in the independent is always very snooty about the fuel from the Esso garage as he says it’s cheap stuff. But if it says Esso on the sign?!
When I fill up my 20-year-old VW T4 I try and use Shell/Esso etc. rather than supermarket stuff but if I get a 10p off voucher after a Sainsbury’s shop I’m not going to say no…
The fuel base itself is the same. I agree on servicing and the temperature (but you should not buy a diesel anyway for short miles because of the DPF etc.).
The lorries are yes not necessarily the same as the station, and they might of come from the same tank initially the difference is critically in the additives that are put into the fuel which where the differences begin an example being the fact that travelling on Shell I got 42-43 MPG on BP on the same trip back same mileage it was only 40 - 41.
Made no difference in my old BMW 320d.