lilazngrl4o8

The only time I really ever used Mobil was on the drive down to LA (few years back) and stopping at the Laval Rd exit right before the Grapevine. For awhile, there use to only be a Mobil gas station there and then they put in a Chevron probably in the past 2-3 years?

TougeHorseman

Would mythbusters do this?

rob-2

Talk to Jei about renting out his dyno for the day and bring some different gas with you.

I'd be surprised if the difference in performance across all brands way outside the margin of error.

Fujin

I prefer the kind of gas that burns....hot

TougeHorseman

the_catalyst

Never noticed much difference in stations. I usually go to Chevron since it's near my work & house though.

andrewhake

I can almost completely guarantee that any difference you ever felt while driving a car and thought it was because of the brand of gasoline that was currently in it, assuming it was of the same octane, is completely psychological, and was almost certainly due to slight climate variations. Air temperature and humidity play a MUCH larger role.

In fact, it is almost pointless to try to compare your fuel economy or performance from a tank of Shell gas to a tank of Chevron gas, because the slight differences in the weather those days plays a larger role in fuel economy and performance than the small amount of detergents and additives different brands put into their fuel. Those "extra (beyond the federal regulation)" additives should make almost zero difference tank to tank, and other maintenance factors play a larger role in the "cleanliness" of an engine over a long period of time than the fuel.

That said, I usually go for Shell because they sponsor many forms of motor sport throughout the world and they made this ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_kwxzU4wL4

..or Chevron because they have nice air pumps, or 76 because there is one at the bottom of one of the roads I drive so I can coast to it if I have to. (not kidding).

If you think my reasoning is silly, it is, but not as silly as thinking your car performs different because Chevron's gas soap is better than Shell's gas soap. Just use the correct octane, your engine is too stupid to know the difference otherwise.

TougeHorseman

Well put Andrew, and certainly a captivating advertisement!

andrewhake

As others mentioned though, there is definitely a difference between gas at a random only gas for 100 miles, attendant with only 1 tooth, you are probably going to get murdered gas station and the popular top tier gas stations in the city. The main reason for not using those less popular stations is the murder though. If the station has an effective method of pumping gas from an underground tank into your vehicle, they probably also have the means of properly storing gasoline for a very long time without any negative effects, but who knows what's going into that storage tank? Bodies?

Just get gas from companies who's business is selling gas, anyone selling gas cheaper than the companies they buy the gas from is doing something else shady in another part of their business to balance it out, or they are okay with losing their profit on the gas they sell because the convenience of having the gas gets people buying many other items. You MAY be taking it to the man by buying gas from highly popular one stop shop places and not buying anything else from them, if they just so happen to have bought their gas from one of the top tier brands who uses well beyond the required additives but you manage to get it for 10c/gallon cheaper, but how the hell would you ever know any of that? And how are you ever going to keep yourself from buying that bag of chips and mints at the counter? Or if it is a big department store, you could end up buying a damn television or something.

The only reason I would recommend someone to stop using Shell fuel is if they didn't like that they have sponsored Ferrari in F1 for so long. If you manage to convince a majority of the world to stop buying Shell fuel, they could no longer sponsor Ferrari, and then Ferrari would choose from a giant list of other sponsors that would love to give them money and stickers for their race cars. Another alternative to that scenario is Shell would no longer sell Shell branded gasoline, and continue to make billions by selling fuel to many other "brands" who then sell it to you and your Ferrari hating pals. Ferrari would no longer be sponsored by "Shell" but would have a barcode on their car that subliminally convinces you to buy "thisbrand" gasoline and your money still goes into their sponsors pocket.

Basically everything a gasoline "brand" tells you about their gasoline is close to the truth, but if you want to know any of the specifics, f@#k you, that is patented, and we are a corporation, here don't you want to buy some of these nice chips or breath mints?

rrounds

Costco for 80% of the gas we buy, 15% at AM/PM with 5% at other stations when were on one of our drives.

ROD