I always only buy BP or Shell, but am I following a superstition? When I owned an old petrol car it was having real trouble starting and a mechanic said try a better quality fuel as the spark plugs were weak. I put in BP Ultimate for the first time and it was a revelation - felt like a new car. But is bog standard BP/Shell really different from supermarket fuel or am I just being superstitious? Do fuel tankers all fill up from the same taps or is it really a substantively different product?
As I understand it, the base product is the same, but different companies put different additives in it.
Tried BP ultimate for a couple of tanks and really couldn’t see any difference in that and the Tesco ten stripe derv so went back to Tesco and saved 6p a litre!
I knew someone who went to every single petrol brand, filling up each time, then recording how many miles he got from the tank, then calculating pence per mile, and he said BP and Shell came out on top. Another colleague in the same office said she had had an old car that only ran on those two brands. What they said helped lay down the foundations of my current practice of only using those two for the last decade, but I’m wondering if I’m actually being rational. Then there was that Tesco contaminated fuel thing a few years ago that also made me suspicious. But I’m wondering if I’m actually paying extra money for no advantage. Interesting to hear your experience, and I’ve also heard it is the same base product with different additives. I don’t know if they add that before or after loading it into a tanker. I guess before.
On some vehicles operating at the limits fuel can make a difference. Mostly though it is marginal and without specialist kit you couldn’t accurately measure the difference.
If WanderingStar’s mechanic noticed bad spark plugs wouldn’t he have replaced them? That would make a bigger difference than a fuel brand change!
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LOL that’s a very good point! It was a long time ago now but I think I’d had them replaced not long before so he was speculating why they hadn’t lasted. I think maybe the starter was on the way out too so it was a combo.
When I was a boy…we had 2 ** petrol which had an octane rating of 93 up to 5***** with an octane rating of 99, if memory serves me correctly. In that era, there could be a noticeable difference in performance between the different octane ratings. There was a tendency for manufacturers of higher end vehicles to make specific recommendations as to the grade used in their vehicles. Current brands are rated at 95, economy and 97 for improved performance. There will be a difference in how these different grades perform but it probably won’t be obvious to the driver. You pays your money…this video enlarges on my opinion. Fella leaves me feeling a bit breathless afterwards!
I was told that tanker drivers used to add any additives when loading via a seperate valve depending on the customer. My pal has changed to Ultimate (or a similar brand) in his Ford and has noticed that the engine idles smoother and picks up faster, I did try it a few years ago in my Passat and it did appear to improve the running of the vehicle but I’n not sure that it was worth the extra expense so reverted back to normal fuel.
Pete.
I’m a fuel tanker driver and can confirm that the base fuel is the same for all garages, branded and non-branded. The difference is the additive injected at the point of loading. Supermarket fuel generally doesn’t have additive added which is why it is cheaper. Branded fuel usually have a summer additive and a winter additive which have different benefits according to the seasons.
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Will it also depend on how clean the garages’ tanks are too??
I broke down out side my house last week with the truck!
Found it was mega amounts of water in the fuel! 
Yet the truck was only just fully serviced about 6 - 8 weeks ago!
Only thing we could put it down to was that the night before, my opposite driver used a different / kind of ‘out of the way’ garage…
Lee1976:
I’m a fuel tanker driver and can confirm that the base fuel is the same for all garages, branded and non-branded. The difference is the additive injected at the point of loading. Supermarket fuel generally doesn’t have additive added which is why it is cheaper. Branded fuel usually have a summer additive and a winter additive which have different benefits according to the seasons.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
^^^^^^^^^^^^ this, also when i was on the petrol the additive system went down and we had a man putting it in manualy and if i recall correctly it was 5litres additive to every 2500 litres fuel.
I only use Shell V-Power. I tried that BP Ulimiate but don’t rate it any better than the regular stuff. V-Power does have a increase in MPG and the car feels smoother to drive. Both cars use, Mercedes E Class 220d and Mercedes CLA again with a 220d.
We have all the stories about how branded fuels give greater MPG.
One of our drivers swears by Esso, and would never use supermarket fuel.
All the supermarkets in the south west are supplied from the Avonmouth terminal you see them coming out of the place which incidentally is supplied by Esso the only difference, and this is from a tanker driver is the additive used.
All a big con, if Shell add something at a tiny cost and sell for 3-4 pence a litre more the profits must be huge.
Goldfinger:
Will it also depend on how clean the garages’ tanks are too??I broke down out side my house last week with the truck!
Found it was mega amounts of water in the fuel!
Only thing we could put it down to was that the night before, my opposite driver used a different / kind of ‘out of the way’ garage…
Yes, all forecourt underground tanks have a water sump and filter. If these aren’t maintained properly then this can lead to excess water in the fuel.
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m.a.n rules:
Lee1976:
I’m a fuel tanker driver and can confirm that the base fuel is the same for all garages, branded and non-branded. The difference is the additive injected at the point of loading. Supermarket fuel generally doesn’t have additive added which is why it is cheaper. Branded fuel usually have a summer additive and a winter additive which have different benefits according to the seasons.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
^^^^^^^^^^^^ this, also when i was on the petrol the additive system went down and we had a man putting it in manualy and if i recall correctly it was 5litres additive to every 2500 litres fuel.
5 litres additive to every 7000 litres of fuel for BP Ultimate!
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Lee1976:
I’m a fuel tanker driver and can confirm that the base fuel is the same for all garages, branded and non-branded. The difference is the additive injected at the point of loading. Supermarket fuel generally doesn’t have additive added which is why it is cheaper. Branded fuel usually have a summer additive and a winter additive which have different benefits according to the seasons.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Do all the diesel brands still have the anti-waxing additive in them, old lads on here will remember the days of blowlamps on (metal!) fuel lines and bonfires below the fuel tank in winter!!
Pete.
windrush:
Lee1976:
I’m a fuel tanker driver and can confirm that the base fuel is the same for all garages, branded and non-branded. The difference is the additive injected at the point of loading. Supermarket fuel generally doesn’t have additive added which is why it is cheaper. Branded fuel usually have a summer additive and a winter additive which have different benefits according to the seasons.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Do all the diesel brands still have the anti-waxing additive in them, old lads on here will remember the days of blowlamps on (metal!) fuel lines and bonfires below the fuel tank in winter!!
Pete.
It’s in the winter additive, I don’t think it’s in summer additive.
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Is what they put in any different to putting in a fuel additive from a bottle? Would you be just as well putting in supermarket fuel and a squirt of Miller’s or something?
Lee1976:
m.a.n rules:
Lee1976:
I’m a fuel tanker driver and can confirm that the base fuel is the same for all garages, branded and non-branded. The difference is the additive injected at the point of loading. Supermarket fuel generally doesn’t have additive added which is why it is cheaper. Branded fuel usually have a summer additive and a winter additive which have different benefits according to the seasons.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
^^^^^^^^^^^^ this, also when i was on the petrol the additive system went down and we had a man putting it in manualy and if i recall correctly it was 5litres additive to every 2500 litres fuel.
5 litres additive to every 7000 litres of fuel for BP Ultimate!
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So 5 litres of additive to 7000 litres of fuel so I’m your average 40 litres fill up you’d be lucky to see more than a few ml of additive 
if i go to the esso garage down the road, £30 will get me around 145-150 mile give or take, whereas if i go to shell one it will get me around 160mile. might just be coincidence but i always seem to achieve a higher mpg going to the shell one of the same money to the same places