How good is V-power vs other fuels, really?

Dis86 said:
To answer the OP it depends on the car...

I had a 1.4 turbo (petrol) and it would run like a bag of crap on ordinary fuels but stick some 98ron in and it was a totally different machine, very smooth, noticeable power increase and actually got 32.5 mpg (av) over 2000 miles compared to 28.1 for the previous 2000!
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Ever thought that the timing was set incorrectly?
 
Lord_ZED said:
I got other question:
With current prices of petrol. WHY WOULD YOU NOT fill your car with premium fuel ??
Few yesrs back when normal petrol was lets say 85p/liter and premium was 1f.
Then Ihad psychic barrier.

Now when i see 1.38 for normal or 1.48 for vpower.
Well thats extra 2.5 on my full tank. Problem is that I already spent 65f to fill up in first place...
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What are you talking about, what is an "F"?

You do realise that ALL UK unleaded fuel is at least premium grade gasoline right? I do not use any super grades as there is zero benefit in my vehicles.
 
In relation to using premium fuel or not - why are people commenting 'It's a diesel so don't bother'?.

Interesting to note that the folk stating this appear to drive petrol powered vehicles. :cool:
 
although not directly related to vpower both my and my dads lexus is200 have have sweet tooths for premium fuels the both run much better on shell or esso over tesco stuff, Ive not put a tank of super in her for a while but I do treat her to fuel cleaner from time to time normally well halfords have some on offer, for my 10 mile journey in stop start traffic I dont think id get the benefit out of it all the time but you can definitely tell the difference between supermarket fuels and the others especially on cold winter starts. Not sure what that means but my local esso garage has started doing club card points so its a win win the way I see it
 
I've driven 4 diesels, and vpower + bp ultimate made no noticable diffrence on either of them. Focus 1.8 TDCI, Golf TDI 2.0 PD, Vectra 1.9 cdti, BMW 330d
 
I used to buy into all the performance stuff, but to be honest, in my day to day, I rarely need all the 221 horses, so any old supermarket junk will do. Cheaper, the better.
 
Manual suggests 98 but use 99 Tesco as its the best priced SUL nearby. Even if it wasn't designed to make use of it, the extra cleaning stuff inside is still probably worth using it for.
 
Draeger said:
In relation to using premium fuel or not - why are people commenting 'It's a diesel so don't bother'?.

Interesting to note that the folk stating this appear to drive petrol powered vehicles. :cool:
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I own a diesel and said don't bother.

It's more important you do significant miles to minimise the build up of gunk and avoid knackering the DPF. Shell Turbo Nitro Power XXX Awesome 268 RON fuel does nothing in that respect. :p

I'd echo 233's tidbit about adding a little two stroke to a full tank if anything, especially if you're running a turbo derv from cold.
 
I run about 99% of the time on V-Power. Only used Momentum for the rest.

I get a few more mpggggs and the fuel cap says to use it. :p
 
I'm amazed there aren't more tests done on the difference between different fuel types.

The Thornley figures are a farce, the only other one I know of is the 5th gear one when they put the cars on a rolling road.
 
I always use V-Power diesel in my Golf, engine runs smoother, less smoke out the back when flooring it, starts easier in the winter, get roughly 30-50 more miles out of a tank vs regular diesel and it also cured the sticky veins in my turbo. So it's definitely worth paying the extra for it imo.
 
Minstadave said:
I'm amazed there aren't more tests done on the difference between different fuel types.
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I'm not, what would be the point? if the car is designed for 95 then super wont make a difference, if its designed for super then putting 95 in will make the car reduce performance/mpg slightly. The only purpose a test would serve is to show people the same info they can get by reading their cars manual.

NB: The amount of times I have been filling up the Supra and been told by some chav I should be using super (like the V-Power he is putting in his Vectra/Astra) is ridiculous, the marketing is definitely working :P
 
Its the "if it's designed for super then you'll get a little more power/mpg" - but I've not seen many decent test that shows this. If the effect is substantial you'd think the fuel companies would want to prove it, if it's minimal then you'd have thought a decent independent test would put it to bed once and for all.

Understandably it varies from car to car, which is probably the main difficulty.
 
I've run my last four cars exclusively on 97+ RON SUL. Two were modded Imprezas and were mapped for SUL so I had no choice. I owned an x reg Leon cupra 180 for ten weeks and ran it on SUL - I'm not sure if it was worth it. I've run my Clio 172 on SUL since I bought it and mapped it with an rstuner last week so I shall definitely carry on using SUL.
 
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I always put normal 95 in my DB9 as it doesn't have knock sensors to automatically advance the ignition when better fuel is used. A friend has had his old DB9 engine mapped for 98+ fuel so sees a few more hp but it means he cannot use 95 now since it might cause knocking due to early detonation. I can run both but don't see any advantages except for the "cleaning qualities" of V-Power which I'm not convinced of.

The newer V12 AM310 engine in the Vanquish and new DB9 has knock sensors so you see more horsies when V-Power is used vs 95.
 
A while back (2005) DHL who I worked for banned us using the premium diesels in trucks as the slight improvement in MPG was not offset by the increased cost.

These were Merc trucks, DAFs showed a better mpg again but they still said no.

Volvo FH's were returning lower mpg on the premium stuff!

Never worked out any MPG improvement with my (petrol) cars but they all have seemed to run happier on the premium stuff.
 
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