Gasoline, is it all the same?

[WaLLy]

So the conversation has come up with our family members because gas prices are skyrocketing here in socal. EU folks, I know, I know, you guys get raped already...

Point to this thread is, is the gas the same as the non-brand gasoline station from across the street vs say a well known brand (76, Mobil)?

I'm an avid 76 gasoline user but a local Valero station usually is much cheaper by as much as 20 cents for 91... if I should just make the switch.

 

[MikeK]

It's around $1,10 for 95th here

 

[HIBred]

the levels of ethanol added are what makes gas cheaper...ethanol will gum up injectors if used exclusively for long periods , i would say run a tankful of good gas every once in a while and use some injector cleaner as well...

 

[PaigeBoo]

Okay this could mean absolutely nothing and could just technically be in my head buuuuuttttttt... Last semester there was a cheap-o gas station in Modesto where I go to school that would be 30-40 cents cheaper per gallon. I jumped on that opportunity like white on rice, but my gas mileage went from 22-26 mpg and having to fill up every 4 trips to school down to 16-18 and filling up every 3.

So needless to say, I went back to using 7/11 gas.

 

[Titoezz]

If i did the maths well, we pay 9.05 dollar for 1 gallon of 95. If you usa'ers don't know what 95 is, it's like the most basic type of gas.

 

[WaLLy]

Boo, that's what I thought so too. I've been pumping 76 all the time and usually just remind myself that by going to the cheap-o gas I'm only spending $2-3 more for every tank full. I guess it's just a piece of mind thing.

And Tito, here they usually sell 87, 89 and 91 octane. Anything higher than 91, and you pay a premium for it which not many gas stations carry higher than 91. Heck, I don't recall the last gas station that I went to and had higher than 91... A few years ago when I used to go to the drag strip, I was able to get 101 octane but was usually double the price of what 91 was, so I cold already imagine 101 being close to, if not 10 bucks a gallon.

 

[JohnSmith]

If you get the same octane rating gas in 2 different gas stations, it is unlikely you will fine much difference. Usually small (private) gas stations buy their gas from the large corporations (Shell, Hess, BP, and Mobil in the US). The large corporations may or may not add something extra to the gasoline (other than ethanol) to make it burn better, but that is usually added before the smaller gas station buys the gas. Therefore, you will not see much difference in how the car works.

 

[Titoezz]

Lol wally thats weird, afaik they dont sell anything lower than 95 here :/ they only sell higher, v-power and shit, thats what f1 cars use lol. They sell that at some gas stations here.

 

[Jack]

Some cheap fuel is actually worse quality, from experience I've seen a friend settle for cheap fuel only to have her car stall 10.ms down the road.

 

[Joe Momma]

Cheaper fuel isn't that bad. But I find a 15 dollar bottle of lucas fuel stabilizer/injector cleaner is nice to add to the tank. It will treat up to 400 gallons of fuel, increase your fuel economy, as well as clean up your entire fuel system. Totally worth it. I highly recommend adding some with every full tank fill up. You will gain a couple mpgs.

 

[Jack]

That would work, but my car is from the 70's, no injectors up in this bitch.

 

[Sgt.Fishy]

I always pump Shell or Chevron, nothing else.

Once in a while I go to V-Power or the highest gas we got and go about 50 bucks on it. It really is good gas so there is no way I'd give it up just for a little bit cheaper gas.

 

[Nikon]

Or you could switch to diesel and get over 40 mpg... The new ones are expensive, especially VW, but early-mid 2000 models shouldn't be that bad.

I have heard that some of the cheap gas places dilute their gasoline with alot of water.

 

[TheDude]

If people actually experienced problems on a regular basis because of cheap fuel, americans would go nuts and there would be scandal scandal scandal, lawsuits, news coverage...etc.

Also ,water in your gas tank is no good. It would be totally illegal to dilute your gas with water, and after the first person got caught there would also be scandal and lawsuits...etc.

Pretty much anything that goes awry here in america ends in lots of lawsuits.

 

[Joe Momma]

Or you could switch to diesel and get over 40 mpg... The new ones are expensive, especially VW, but early-mid 2000 models shouldn't be that bad.

I have heard that some of the cheap gas places dilute their gasoline with alot of water.

Older VW Diesels get better fuel economy than newer ones. I get 48mpg in my VW Golf Tdi 5 speed.

 

[AVC]

Some el cheapo station blend more ethanol, so you get less milage, but mostly they are ok. Just see how far you get on a tank.

Incidentally, we pay $1.50 per LITRE here, so stop whining

 

[WaLLy]

Incidentally, we pay $1.50 per LITRE here, so stop whining

But you're used to the butt rape. Let me borrow some of your lube.

Gas started going down when the governor asked to tap into the winter reserves.

 

[TheDude]

Yea. Americans seem to forget on a regular basis that we have pretty much the lowest gas prices worldwide, and that the market, not our president, dictates those prices.

Ethanol is also stupid. 10% of our corn crop is required to go to ethanol. This is regardless of how well the corn crop is doing that year. So this year, for instance, with our horrible droughts, the corn crop caused many many farmers to lose money, yet they still had to turn 10% of their crop into ethanol and couldn't sell it the way they wanted to.

 

[PaigeBoo]

We may have the lowest gas prices but we don't have good public transportation in many places either. When I have to pay :screwyou: gas prices!!

With that said gas went from $4.89 to $4.19

 

[TheDude]

Yea our public transpo system is kinda lame, but remember we have a shit ton more suburbs than most smaller european countries. It would be tough to have great public transportation in the midwest and such, for instance. On the east coast, we tend to have pretty good public transpo. Like New York and Boston's subway systems are FTW!

Baltimore's pathetic train system is pathetic. Our bus system sucks and is poorly managed.