Grade of gasoline

[nightvision]

We were out on a road trip this weekend and it's great to see that gas prices are dropping. In my part of town, we see gas prices ranges from $2.69 to $3.00. I noticed that the mom and pop shop with gas pumps were the cheapest. Now, are there different grade of unleadded gas or all gas are the same. For example, does the mom and pop shop buy a cheaper quality of gas than say a Chevron, Shell, or 76? Thus, they can offer it at cheaper price? What's you thoughts.

 

[tommays]

Re: Grade of gasoline

The only real differance is the additve package a name brand like Shell might use when it is blended at the tanker depot


In my area they use flip-up cards to change the name on the truck to what ever brand there makeing a drop at


And the fact that the name brands have a bit more at stake as far as the quality of what makes it to there stations


I have seen many small places with poor tank upkeep that could give you a gooooood dose of water






Tommays

 

[JB]

Re: Grade of gasoline

Mom and Pop only sell gas to get people into the store, where they make their profit. Their gas sales are their "loss leaders".

Almost all unleaded regular gas is refined at the same refineries and is therefore the same gas delivered to all retailers. Most name brands add stuff at the distribution point to make their gas "different" than other "brands".

 

[nightvision]

Re: Grade of gasoline

Ok, so is it worth it to spend the .20 or .30 cents buying from the Brand name?

 

[tommays]

Re: Grade of gasoline

I think the big difference would be the quality of the stations tanks as i said before


That being said i stick with the name brands with Shell as my favorite (i can offer no proof it is better)

BUT around here the mom and pops are always really run down places that you would use the woods before the restroom

The fuel filters on my boat say that the tanks at my local Shell deliver clean water free fuel compared to other stations i have used and have had to pump the water off the bottom of my tank in the past



Tommays

 

[luckyinkentucky]

Re: Grade of gasoline

Quality of tanks is a big factor when I buy fuel. I will never buy from a Swifty's that has been there more than 15 years just because they don't check their tanks for corrosion like many brand names do. It's all the same fuel except the additives. There was a big discussion on this a few weeks ago. It all comes from the same place and is refined the same way. The additives are the 'seller', and of course what credit card incentives they offer nowadays.

I wouldn't get hung up on brands too much. Although I would stay away from the mom and pop places that aren't well regulated. My father in law just got his boat out of the shop for a 2 week visit after he filled up with bad gas. Also, a line of cars stalling a mile down the road after coming from that station is a good sign too.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Grade of gasoline

Because this state is so "aware" of the environment all the old gas tanks are gone. 95% of the Mom and Pop places are no longer selling gas. Vapor recovery systems, special pumps, special tanks have made it impossible for the Mom & Pop to keep up. All of the inground tanks in VT are considered new.....

Around here various stations have .03 or .05 cent sales and depending on where my fuel level is is where I stop and fill up. Most of the people who are using premium are wasting their money since they only use the cars for their daily commute......

 

[Mike722]

Re: Grade of gasoline

Several years ago, we had a rash of small engines with valves sticking. The engine manufacture did a lot of testing to determine the problem. Part of what they told us dealers was that gas over 30 days old starts to break down and that was causing the problem.

To make a long story short, they indicated that when gas at the refinery or holding tanks becomes so many days old and no longer meets the name brand specs, they sell it to non name brand stations at a cheaper price.

We confirmed that most of the people having valve problems were the ones with large bulk tanks on the farm and people who purchased from Mom and Pop operatations.

I know many people will say that they use gas that is months old with no problems and some do, but I have worked on many engines that only required fresh gas to run.

 

[mscher]

Re: Grade of gasoline

Several years ago, we had a rash of small engines with valves sticking. The engine manufacture did a lot of testing to determine the problem. Part of what they told us dealers was that gas over 30 days old starts to break down and that was causing the problem.

To make a long story short, they indicated that when gas at the refinery or holding tanks becomes so many days old and no longer meets the name brand specs, they sell it to non name brand stations at a cheaper price.

We confirmed that most of the people having valve problems were the ones with large bulk tanks on the farm and people who purchased from Mom and Pop operatations.

I know many people will say that they use gas that is months old with no problems and some do, but I have worked on many engines that only required fresh gas to run.

I can't dispute the problems of this story, but I work for a small refinery that also deals with large refineries and the part about old gas going to Mom/Pops, is not true.

As other's have stated, in many cases, fuels from a common source, come down the pipelines, each vendor adds whatever additives it wants, while the truck is loaded. It goes where it goes.

The only thing I can suggest in this case, was that there may have been a problem with an ADDITIVE, that may have caused problems after a short period of time. They are chemicals and can sometimes turn bad, making the fuel un-saleable.

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Grade of gasoline

Here is a website showing what companies dispense really good quality gas. I'd avoid all others.

http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html

 

[rwise]

Re: Grade of gasoline

the tune up on your car/truck could make a dif on how it handles cheap gas. My chrysler likes the gas from better stations, runs better, smother, better milage. Now where I find a real dif is here in OK we have *low vapor* gas in the city, get out away from the city and you get real gas and the performance goes up and so does the milage. (usualy costs less too)

 

[mrfixitman40]

Re: Grade of gasoline

I used to drive gasoline tanker and the refineries we loaded at we would see all the other companies loading the same fuel as we did .the additives we used were put into the tank before the fuel. the biggest thing i have noticed was the stations that didn't sell alot and get regular refills of the tanks seemed to get water from condensation more so than the stations that were getting fuel pretty much daily

 

[burroak]

Re: Grade of gasoline

As a kid many years ago, I would listen to my elders argue the benefits of Texaco, Shell, Standard Oil, Chevron, etc. Everyone had an opinion and no one had any facts. Since the source of the base gasolines has been blurred by co-mingling in pipelines, commodity swapping, and selling to independent wholesalers, the additives are all that the few major brands have to differentiate themselves (brands that have in house R&D divisions). The only thing left to chew the fat under the shade tree on a Sunday afternoon is the Regular vs Premium debate. Opinions are just that in large part. The fuel management system on engines determine which octane rated gasoline your motor needs. All gasoline has basically the same BTUs per gallon and and the increase in octane rating just controls detonation along with knock sensors. Shade tree anecdotes do not make for factual research, but, hey, what would a bunch of boat nuts be if they didn't have opinions (deeply held and fervently defended).