Just an observation on supermarket fuel

Uriel

Uriel

Uriel

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Location
Derbyshire
Been tracking the fuel consumption on my Honda Insight ES (1.3 i-VTEC IMA) since buying it 5 months ago. I have the trip computer automatically reset each time the tank is filled. Generally been buying whatever is cheapest in the local area, or whichever garage I get to first after the fuel light comes on.

On supermarket (well - sainsburys, tesco and Morrisons) fuel the trip computer consistently reports 3-5 mpg higher mpg than calculated using the old brim to brim technique. Most of my fills have been at a supermarket with a few at the named brands.

For Shell and BP the computer consumption seems to be within 1-2 mpg of actual. It still over-reports the trip mpg but not by as much.

I'm going to try sticking to the branded fuels for a while to see if this holds true for a larger data set. I could potentially use Total, Esso or maybe Texaco too (though Texaco is unlikely as they're always about 4p more expensive than the others). Always been sticking to 95RON, as per the manufacturer's instructions.

I've seen people claim better mpg on branded fuels but always took it with a pinch of salt, as I figured the oil companies would be supplying the supermarkets anyway. Never seen anyone mention detecting a difference by calculated vs actual fuel consumption. Anyone else noticed similar?
 
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Co-incidental

there have been numerous tests done and the variation between one unleaded 95 and another is negligible

The other problem you've got is that your supermarket forecourt doesn't always get its petrol from the same supplier. Its not uncommon for the supermarkets to use more than one supplier to meet demand.

And then of course theres the whole issue of the fact that supermarkets don't actually make petrol. So chances are, you could be buying the same fuel thats in the esso garage down the road.
 
To add onto MrLOL's comments. Supermarkets will use various suppliers in order to cover themselves in the event of some form of disaster. Say Tesco onlt have one unleaded 95 supplier then they will get it at a cheaper price as they are buying 100% of their volume from one supplier, but if the one supplier goes bust then Tesco are without any unleaded.
 
I've found Sainsburys SUL gives me near identical figures to Shell VPower (near in that the difference could be down to weather/traffic/difference so minor) .. the only fuel I struggle to get good MPG with is BP Ultimate. I had the exact same problem with Ultimate Diesel years ago, maybe I subconsciously drive like a **** when I have have it in the tank
 
Well it's generally the same base fuel but they have differing deterget and attitive packages. Another variable could be ethanol content.

I've not seen any difference in calculated mpg between supermarket and branded fuel that couldn't be put down to driving style or the weather. It's just the discrepancy between trip computer and calculated.

Anway - the difference is under 5% (if genuine) but that would amount to the supermarket stuff needing to be about 5p a litre cheaper. I drive past Total, BP, Tesco and Morrisons on my commute. The difference between them all is rarely more than a penny - so doesn't hurt to stick with branded for now.

You never know, a few more tanks of branded and I may see similar discrepancies to what I've observed with supermarket. At which point I'll stop (and update the thread to let you all know I was jumping to conclusions).

Edit: My last car was an old diesel. Was very reliable apart from the sticky turbo vanes plunging the car into limp mode every time I drove up a hill on a motorway...
 
Also not all 95 ron fuel is 95 ron. Sometimes its super 98......Kinda ish


The reason.

Sometimes petrol stations order the wrong amount of fuel. Say they order 30'000 litres of 98 when they only have space for 20'000 they CAN send it back BUT will have to pay a restocking fee. So they dump it into the 95 ron tanks. If they make a mistake the other way round then they are stuck and have to pay a restock fee.
 
How often do places mistakenly order 10,000 litres of fuel more than they need? That sounds like the sort of mistake that gets you a one way trip to the job centre!
 
Sorry Mr LOL, I think you're wrong. On the same reapeated weekly journey over a 12 month period, I used to get on average almost 50 miles a week more from Shell than I did from Tesco.
 
mattyg said:
Also not all 95 ron fuel is 95 ron. Sometimes its super 98......Kinda ish


The reason.

Sometimes petrol stations order the wrong amount of fuel. Say they order 30'000 litres of 98 when they only have space for 20'000 they CAN send it back BUT will have to pay a restocking fee. So they dump it into the 95 ron tanks. If they make a mistake the other way round then they are stuck and have to pay a restock fee.
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Are you making this up as you go along?

For reference i've just come back from a fuel deport down south and i've done several walkabouts of deports and refinerys up north.
 
When I drove higher powered petrol cars I wouldn't touch supermarket stuff.

Nowadays I'd run my present car on early morning urine if I could get my todger into the filler tube.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Are you making this up as you go along?

For reference i've just come back from a fuel deport down south and i've done several walkabouts of deports and refinerys up north.
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No I'm in the transport industry and have connections with a large fuel distributer. I was chatting with a couple of their drivers last week.

Although they did say it was mainly the erm smaller and darker petrol stations.
 
mattyg said:
No I'm in the transport industry and have connections with a large fuel distributer. I was chatting with a couple of their drivers last week.

Although they did say it was mainly the erm smaller and darker petrol stations.
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That's seems like a waste, I know that any residual in the tanker will be offloaded at the storage facility, scrubbed, polished then sent back to storage.

fuel recovery is quite an expensive process but cheaper than production from crude.
 
I work at a large storage depot in the midlands and believe me when in say near enough every possible supermarket and major fuel company will at some point during the week load fuel for delivery to their own branded forecourt from our depot. The illusion that fuel quality is specific to resellers is a complete myth. And while on the subject I can say I have seen huge delivers into the depot of standard unleaded fuel where the octane rating is equal to or even higher than super unleaded but will be stored and sold as the lower grade :-)
 
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