Shell V-Power - does it make a difference to your BMW?

R124/LA420 said:
There is absolutely no proof that brand X gives better MPG than brand Y and the oil companies are very careful not to claim so – lest they contravene advertising regulations. If anybody could prove me wrong, I'm happy to be preached to! :D
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I dont buy into any of it, ive never ever seen any difference in performance between any standard grade EN228 unleaded. You are probably aware of what my father is/does so the topic of dinner conversation at parents dinner parties have always been petroleum products and associated distribution systems since i was very young. Go and visit your local terminal, you will see many tenkers with different brands filling from the same storage tanks. The only difference are additives, which i think most people would agree are marketting blub.
 
Jez said:
I dont buy into any of it
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me neither mate However, read on...................

Jez said:
Go and visit your local terminal, you will see many tenkers with different brands filling from the same storage tanks. The only difference are additives, which i think most people would agree are marketting blub.
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Not seen too many Tenkers at refinery's to be honest. ;):p:D

That said, I get your point about multiple brands filling up with the same stuff.

Chatting to fellow tenker drivers, they tell me that most of the additives found in Shell is in the cheapo crap as it simply comes out of the same source, how true this is I'd like to know.

Marketing blurb perhaps, that said, my Dads e39 was running rough a few weeks after he'd bought it back in 1996, I recall him taking it back to BMW and they asked him if he'd recently switched fuel suppliers, he had.

A Tesco had opened about a mile away from the Texaco station he used previously, iirc, the "Stars" promotion had ended and his reason for sticking to Texaco ended with it! :D

He'd switched to Tesco fuel due to the slight price drop yet within a week the car was not running well.

On listening to his service managers advice, he switched to Shell as there was a garage round the corner from his office and stuck to it within a day his car ran fine once again.

To this day, the cars stayed on a diet of non supermarket fuel and despite its near 235k miles, it still drives like new.

Coincidence? I wonder......
 
iBot said:
It's because of all the additives so you cant store it for a serious length of time.
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Fuel is not stored for "serious lengths of time" though, its refined, & distributed almost on demand as far as I'm aware. - Like the rest of the logistics chain, everything is delivered "just in time" with little or no provision for stock holding, fuels no different.

Recall how quickly garages empty'd during the old fuel protests?

As far as I am aware, one of the additives put in fuel is put in due to storage anyway and thats done as part of the refinery process.

Alas, I am not J.R.Ewing, so I don't know a lot about fuel, I just tend to burn a lot of it! :D
 
I have an E46 M3. Super unleaded 'feels' a bit better than regular RON 95 stuff to me (Quicker pickup and a better noise perhaps), and the additives and quality of the fuel gives a bit of peace of mind (after last years cheap supermarket fuel blowing engines).

Its hard to tell though - Perhaps a little bit of a placebo effect going on ;)

I think it was proved on a rolling road at Thorney Motorsport that with an M3, tesco 99 gave a noticeable BHP increase.
 
I think we're all forgetting the most important aspect of putting V Power into your car.

Pulling into the petrol station beside the pump, getting out of the car, opening the petrol cap and lifting the V power pump. Before you insert it, you have a look around to see who's looking and nod assuredly when you spot someone watching. Yeah, that's right, my car takes V Power and I'm doing well enough to afford it. Yeahhhhhhh.

We leave the petrol station about £2 lighter than we would have been otherwise, but that's £2 well spent on an ego massage. Excellent :cool:
 
The tanker drivers have no idea of the additives nor treat rates that are added to the base fuels.

They simply provide a reference number for the fuel delivered and the refinary will pump the fuel with X of Y additive into the tanks.

Unless you get the odd stuff like Tesco99 which is blended for them by Greenergy.

As to the original topic, fuels may offer a poerformance benefit but the main reason they are recommended is for the generally better detergency performance of the higher octane (read quality) fuel.

Look at Ford manuals recently, they all recommend BP stuff as they know it is a good fuel that provides no negative effects in there hardware tests. Something they can't verify on other fuels because they havent tested them in as much detail. However they probably would be ok just that Ford want to ensure minimal warranty issues.
 
It wasn't a warm fuzzy feeling when I accidentally filled my 1.2 clio with some 'premium' higher RON stuff. (small garage, pumps barely looked any different) :D
 
While I agree that there isn't any difference with 95ron stuff from pump to pump, there is quite a bit of difference with the premium unleaded fuels. Vpower etc doesn't come from the same place as sainsburys 97ron and so forth. Saying that, my car is very picky about fuel and runs like an utter dog on 95ron (and damages the engine), but I've never noticed any difference between the preimum superunleaded fuels, bar that BP ultimate is needlessly expensive.
 
Scuzi said:
I think we're all forgetting the most important aspect of putting V Power into your car.

Pulling into the petrol station beside the pump, getting out of the car, opening the petrol cap and lifting the V power pump. Before you insert it, you have a look around to see who's looking and nod assuredly when you spot someone watching. Yeah, that's right, my car takes V Power and I'm doing well enough to afford it. Yeahhhhhhh.

We leave the petrol station about £2 lighter than we would have been otherwise, but that's £2 well spent on an ego massage. Excellent :cool:
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Jeremy Clarkson would call you his son if he were here but then he'd quite frankly disown you if you were to be driving a BMW no doubt!
 
Simon said:
Look at Ford manuals recently, they all recommend BP stuff as they know it is a good fuel that provides no negative effects in there hardware tests. Something they can't verify on other fuels because they havent tested them in as much detail. However they probably would be ok just that Ford want to ensure minimal warranty issues.
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Now you're just plugging your work place ;):p:D
 
Scuzi said:
I think we're all forgetting the most important aspect of putting V Power into your car.

Pulling into the petrol station beside the pump, getting out of the car, opening the petrol cap and lifting the V power pump. Before you insert it, you have a look around to see who's looking and nod assuredly when you spot someone watching. Yeah, that's right, my car takes V Power and I'm doing well enough to afford it. Yeahhhhhhh.

We leave the petrol station about £2 lighter than we would have been otherwise, but that's £2 well spent on an ego massage. Excellent :cool:
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Haha, I do this as well. Sometimes I cough if people aren't looking... I find this help draws attention.

Also always put loads of petrol in (even if you don't need it, I find if you spray it at the back people don't notice) then when you go and pay for it- it looks like you havel of money AND use cool petrol.

:cool:
 
fuel is rarely held for long. in the case of big garages, they'll go through a tanker of diesel every day (about 36 1/2k litres). honestly, its about as 'fresh' as you're gonna get it.
 
Don't notice any difference between V-Power and BP Optimax, the manufacturer recommends 98 so thats what I use whenever possible. Nearest Shell Garage to me is about 20 miles away so mostly use BP stuff. I do however stay well away from supermarket fuel after a bad experience in the past.

Don't forget about the free Ferrari models with V-Power, makes it all worthwhile :-)
 
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