For the doubters needing scientific evidence. Go on YouTube, type in BP Ultimate and watch both the Fifth Gear clips. One’s fairly recent, the other not so.
Sorry I can’t show the links here, the laptop died last week and I’m struggling to find out how to do certain tasks on the Android phone.
Started using Sainsburys premium a while ago as an experiment and like most above, better mpg smoother and at the price reasonable £1 .15 litre mk1 jdm 1600 import 14 deg timing mod, K+N, stainless 421 and large bore system driven hard but not loopy mick
I personally use Shell V Power and get great MPG on longer trips in the high 30’s early 40’s, plus with the drivers club card i get fuel vouchers back, i think whichever fuel you use is your choice, i personally would go with Shell or BP as they are the only decent stations around here.
I personally use Shell V Power and get great MPG on longer trips in the high 30’s early 40’s, plus with the drivers club card i get fuel vouchers back, i think whichever fuel you use is your choice, i personally would go with Shell or BP as they are the only decent stations around here.
I have tried Tesco 99 Momentum and it was awful for MPG, i was getting around 29 and noticed little difference, didnt notice much with sainsburys, but it was better than Tesco’s.
I had issues with Tesco in Weston Super Mare maybe ten or more years ago. With my old Astra on one trip the pump claimed to have put 52 litres into an already quarter full 50 litre tank. I refused to move my car and called the police explaining the problem when the cashiers tried to argue the point. The police brought a calibrated petrol can with them. The end result about three months later was that Tesco were prosecuted for giving short measure, and I got a free tank of fuel on the night.
I know the pumps vary a little bit, but that was way out of order.
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I had issues with Tesco in Weston Super Mare maybe ten or more years ago. With my old Astra on one trip the pump claimed to have put 52 litres into an already quarter full 50 litre tank. I refused to move my car and called the police explaining the problem when the cashiers tried to argue the point. The police brought a calibrated petrol can with them. The end result about three months later was that Tesco were prosecuted for giving short measure, and I got a free tank of fuel on the night.
I know the pumps vary a little bit, but that was way out of order.
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Well, I’ve never heard of that before. I guess it must happen, but it’s amazing how trustful and / or blase we get about the accuracy of fuel pumps in filling stations !
Well done Richard.
Tried “posh petrol” in the form of Shell V-Power in my 2.0 NC for several fill-ups. Managed to equal my best-ever MPG figure (and also managed to get my two worst-ever consumption figures) while using it. Couldn’t detect any difference at all in the way the thing drives compared to using 95 RON fuel, so it’s back to 95 RON Esso fuel for me (Tesco points with every fill-up…)
Mine has never had anything other than Shell V power in all it’s 5000 miles (ND Recaro). Use is country lanes (hilly) motorway and commuting in town. Average mpg showing at 40.3. Wouldn’t change for the world. Don’t trust supermarket fuel a it is bought in bulk and you never know how long it’s been around. If a long time the efficiency drops.
I though they got it from the same depot as the likes of Shell or BP and put in additives, or not. I wouldn’t have thought they hold it in store (not literally) at a separate depot. It’s just bulk bought to get the price surely?
Well that’s what happens at the refinery at Corringham/Shellhaven, queues of all sorts of tankers, petrol companies, supermarket, independents waiting to go to the same loading points, and whatever additives or not are in the tanker.
Where do you think they keep it? Supermarket petrol is drawn from the same storage tanks as BP/Shell etc and is loaded into the road tankers using the same equipment. The only difference between Supermarket and “Branded” petrol (of the same grade) is the additive load. When e.g. Tesco buys 500,000 litres of unleaded from the distribution company they don’t physically set aside 500k litres and mark the tank “Tesco” so they can draw from it as and when required - in effect they note the fact that Tesco have purchased 500k litres and reduce the notional “stock” figure each time they draw another tanker load. The only time storage time gets to be significant is at the forecourt, where volume of sales may mean they get fresh supplies every few days (e.g. supermarket forecourts) or every few weeks (e.g. in the case of a small independent garages where retail fuel sales are only a minor part of their business).
Just proved myself wrong, tried Sainsbury’s at 5p litre more and on a single tank trial it worked out 0.7 per mile cheaper to use super unleaded. I’ll Cary oh with the test and see if it continues.
Gary
Just as a matter of interest whats the octane rating for the Sainsburys stuff?
I use Tesco Momentum at the moment which is 99.
I don’t mind paying the extra for 4 star but if a companies “high octane” is only medium 3 star then thats a bit of a con in my book.
Paul G
Tesco momentum is 99 octane, but doesn’t have the additives that some others do.
That’s why I use other another brand that has 99 octane and additives, and I have seen consistent gains.
There are those that say all fuel is the same, and they are right to have their opinion. I stick with the results I have seen with my own eyes.
My mk1 didn’t run as well on Tesco momentum as it did on some others
It’s encouraging to read these reports of Mk.3 cars gaining several mpg on Super Unleaded. I know that cars with sufficiently smart ECUs and knock sensors can advance their ignition timing further with high octane petrol to extract more power from the same amount of fuel but my long experience with my previous Mk.1 told me Super made no difference at all to its mpg.
I kept mpg records for many years on my 12,000 miles/year commute and tried multiple tankfuls of different brands and octane ratings, at first with the stock Mk.1 ECU but later supercharged with a Megasquirt ECU.
Main observations were:
Castrol R does the trick and smells great
I use Shell V power
Andrew Calcutt: "Castrol R does the trick and smells great"
I agree it smells great; I was brought up on the smell of it and I used the last of a few gallons I had (added in very small quantities) in the petrol tank of another petrol engined sportscar just to get a whiff of it. I was a member of our local motorcycle grass track club in my youth, most racing bikes back then BSAs, Triumphs, J.A.P.s* etc were methanol fuelled and used Castrol R in the tank/sump (or total loss) as lubricating oil. I still have a 1970s AJS two stroke Enduro bike that needs it mixed in the petrol as its sole means of engine lubrication.
But what “trick” does it do in a modern 4 stroke engine - apart from increasing the likelihood of gumming up the piston rings? Unfortunately, it doesn’t increase the octane rating of petrol, rather the opposite.
Shell regular for me on a run to lands end in May it returned 44 mpg for a 2.0 is brilliant. These supermarket fuels are cheap and as a comparison to paint trade paint is better than paint in BQ or home base as these are retail paints the the fuel in supermarkets are the same thing. You get what you pay for. Shell wins for me.
I solved my dilemma this morning. Do I stick with the Tesco 99, or do I give this Sainsburys 3* a go.
Drove onto the forecourt of Sainsburys in my local town of Sudbury… 95 ron only at all 6 pumps, (+ diesel).
So it was up to Tesco for more Momentum. 5p more per litre than their 95.
Drove home with the top down. Fabulous.
PauL G