Do different Gas Brands burn more efficiently? Higher MPG's?

[TheIVJackal]

I've noticed some people here and on other forums say that they have had a 10%+ improvement by buying gas at a different retailer. Will (for example) gas from Shell get me higher mpg's when compared to Costco gas? I would think it doesn't but people seem to stand rather firm on the idea. Thoughts? Data? Thanks.
- Aaron

[kennybobby]

i've found a 10% mpg difference due to the presence or lack of ethyl alkyhol (e.g. E10), since alkyhol has less energy content than pure gasoline. Check out pure-gas.org to find alky-free stations and make your own test. Gasoline is for driving, alkuhol is fer drinkin...

[darrylrobida]

Originally Posted by TheIVJackal

I've noticed some people here and on other forums say that they have had a 10%+ improvement by buying gas at a different retailer. Will (for example) gas from Shell get me higher mpg's when compared to Costco gas? I would think it doesn't but people seem to stand rather firm on the idea. Thoughts? Data? Thanks.
- Aaron

Yes, I have noticed up to 10% better gas from Shell. But it was only on one fill up. The improvement is not consistent. My hunch is it depends on each delivery that the station gets and that independent stations have slightly lower odds of getting the longer burning fuel. I'm not surprised that this happens considering the complexity of gasoline.

[euromodder]

In Europe, so-called premium gas doesn't give any detectable Fuel Economy benefits.
With some of our premium diesel brands though, you can gain up to 3% better FE (error margin is 1%).
(You still lose out on price, as these premium diesels are a lot more expensive.)

That's with scientific testing - repeatedly driving the same profile on a testbank.

[rmay635703]

There are stations that sell cheapo gas, the best way here in WI to account for FE differences is tank to tank varience. After tank to tank variance you will notice if you do the alcohol percentage test that certain stations sell 87 octain fuel that is the full 10% ethanol mixed with 83 octain crap gas, other stations only have a few percent ethanol and mix with 85/86 octain fuel. You will find that there is a difference in fuel economy because the physical composition of the fuel is different, also understand vehicle tune has a lot to do with this.

A few years ago the ethanol station sold true blue E10 mixed with real 87 gas for 89 octain, my car seemed to get better FE on this than Kwiq trip crap gas 87 octain but the difference was only a few percentage points over the long run, sadly the ethanol station sold out and now also sells crap gas.

Ah well

[Peter7307]

Originally Posted by euromodder

In Europe, so-called premium gas doesn't give any detectable Fuel Economy benefits.
With some of our premium diesel brands though, you can gain up to 3% better FE (error margin is 1%).
(You still lose out on price, as these premium diesels are a lot more expensive.)

That's with scientific testing - repeatedly driving the same profile on a testbank.

Same here.
Premium unleaded gives a slight improvement in mileage (or kilometerage since we are metric) but the retail price means it costs about the same to travel a given distance.
This has been tested repeatedly by motoring organisations , consumer mags and current affair TV shows.

Diesel is a different ball game on this side of the equator since politics and taxation play as much a part as the actual consumption does.

Peter.

[Diesel_Dave]

I took the liberty of starting a poll on this:http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...nce-23553.html

[TheIVJackal]

Thanks for the responses thus far! I was also thinking of including a Poll but then I thought that MPG's aren't an opinion, they are verifiable through data. It would be great if someone were willing to do a few runs on different tanks of gas from different stations and get a true test out of this with real numbers!

[Diesel_Dave]

Originally Posted by TheIVJackal

Thanks for the responses thus far! I was also thinking of including a Poll but then I thought that MPG's aren't an opinion, they are verifiable through data. It would be great if someone were willing to do a few runs on different tanks of gas from different stations and get a true test out of this with real numbers!

Sure. I was just curious what the perception of people around here was. Doing real world testing of this is tricky because so much else changes between tanks other than just the fuel (weather, traffic, etc.). Also, there may be batch-to-batch variations at all the different stations.

[TheIVJackal]

The batch to batch variation would probably be the most difficult to control. I still want to see someone attempt this!