Unleaded - Cheap stuff or pay that bit extra?

Spikey

Spikey

Spikey

Soldato
Joined
28 Feb 2004
Posts
5,988
Location
North East, UK
Hey guys, just wondering if people just go for the bog standard unleaded or pay the extra for the so called good stuff? Is it worth paying the extra?
 
Can of worms.

In short, good stuff is only worth paying for if you have an engine smart enough to advance the ignition timing accounting for the higher RON values (higher compression ratios acheiveable). These type of engines are generally found on sports cars.

For a normal car, the higher RON fuels will have no effect. End of.
 
I tend to put in Shell VPower or BP Ultimate where possible or at worst, Tesco 97, mainly as the engine is quite big (2.5l) and done a few miles. Not worth using a 1.2l engine or something (which is what Which? magazine did recently and surprisinly found no real difference).
 
Agree with all the above...however, I wonder if there are benefits in terms of improved engine cleaning with something like V-Power?
 
If the engine is rated for 95Ron fuel, then anything over 95Ron won't do anything extra.
Take a high power sports car. Say it is rated at 300hp with 97Ron, if you use 95Ron then the power output will be lower, but not by much (all iirc of course).

97Ron in a run of the mill car is a waste of money:)

Can't comment on the engine cleaning bit though.
 
also some cars can be tuned to run on higher octane fuel. Normally the safest bet is to run cars on the fuel they have been mapped for
 
V-Power, pretty much faithfully (unless I can't get to one with the amount of fuel remaining in the tank).

The LCR doesn't run right on normal.

The 325 always had regular unleaded in it after I tried V-Power once and saw zero improvement.

Oh and to duke, its a big engine (2.5l), and has probably done many MANY more miles than yours.
 
Always V-Power in mine because it apparently benefits from SUL, got to be honest and say I didn't really notice a difference when I made the switch.

Always regular Shell UL in Janes Polo.
 
The Manta is not really retarded enough for 95 RON fuel so I tend to use Super unleaded of some sort.
 
Yes, by adjusting the position of the distributor, but I prefer it slightly advanced because it's faster ;)
 
I've run V-Power (or Optimax as it was called back when I were a lad) since it came to the UK market.
 
i usually fill up with tesco 99 ron, it's 99.9/litre atm, and tbh, that's only becuase i'm not sure i should be running 95 ron in it, 2.0T A3. otherwise i'd save myself 5p / litre lol
 
The inside of my fuelflap states 95 ron so I've never bothered getting anything else. I highly doubt my car would get any benefit from it.
 
in my current car a 1.6 focus, i have found the cheap petrol found in TOTAL garages etc to be shocking, £10 gets me 40 miles if lucky. the same amount of fuel from Shell gets me 70 ish, so i conclude pay that bit more...
 
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twoblacklines said:
in my current car a 1.6 focus, i have found the cheap petrol found in TOTAL garages etc to be shocking, £10 gets me 40 miles if lucky. the same amount of fuel from Shell gets me £70 ish, so i conclude pay that bit more...
Click to expand...

What?! £10 of total petrol gets you approx 40+ miles yet shell petrol gets you 350+ miles?

I call shenanigans :rolleyes:
 
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