Which major brand gasoline is the best and why?
historybuff98
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in General
Wondering if all Gasoline is the same(major brands) and should jus keep usin Exxon. Guess I'm jus a quality freak.
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Here in NY, I can get regular unleaded for 1.42 in NJ I've seen it for 1.33
Anybody to chime in?
kinley "Report Your Local Gas Prices Here" Mar 29, 2001 10:24am
QuikTrip dominates the St. Louis market and controls prices here. They do big jumps of ten cents periodically and then let the price drift lower a penny at a time. The others follow like baby ducks. QuikTrip's gasolines are guaranteed, but the big selling point seems to be bright stations with lots of cops hanging about for safety (did a ride along and most police depts. go in there for free soda and to do paper work)-- this plus wide variety of soda, crushed OR cubed ice, polite staff, etc. seems far more important in marketing than making claims of a gas's superiority. In fact other than some ads several years ago for Amoco premium (disengenuous IMHO) I can't remember a lot of gasoline advertising in the St. Louis area.
QuikTrip has no refineries that I'm aware of. In the St. Louis market all of the gasoline comes out of two refineries (one may be closing) in Illinois.
What happened to the idea of simplifying the various EPA requirements for different metro. areas? That would save money. Also, why do places like St. Louis require vapor recovery hoses for emissions while most parts of California do not? Making these regulations for different areas less complex would save $$$ IMHO.
Of course, those filters may go into bypass mode like oil filters as well, but I imagine a smart station owner would protect his pumps (that crud can't be good for the pump either)
So I really don't know how much merit to place in your concern.
TB
This can't be a good thing..
anything that doesn't indicate "damn tough trucking inc.", "transport inc.", or other independent trucking outfits that own fleets... and that doesn't have oil company logos on 'em, usually also leased or run by owner/operators under contract, is likely an owner/operator trying to make his payments on $150,000 of rolling stock by hauling fuel around the city.
these guys don't have access to a leaking seam of a pipeline under the drainage ditch, they are picking up the same gas (with different additives according to contract) at the same pipeline terminals everybody else uses. interesting to see the Sinclair, EZ Stop, Holiday, Mississippi Transport, etc. tankers all in line under the roof at Williams taking on the same fuel from the same tank, with a little additive poured in the top. there are a lot more different trucks now at the Tesoro (formerly Amoco) pipeline tank farm across the road than just the Amoco leased trucks that still park inside at night.
The shorter version: Gasoline companies do product 'exchanges' across the entire US. In other words, if ABC Oil does not have a close supply somewhere, it takes gas from XYZ Oil, and give back gas to XYZ somewhere else where it has the supply.
There is usually only one or two pipelines serving any area. Exceptions may be the coastal areas where refinerys are concentrated. So, all stations for all brands in most locations are probably brought gas from the same pipeline terminal. They do specify the additives they want to be put into the gas.
Most of the additives are also generic. All gas is supposed to meet certain 'cleaning' specs now. When fuel injected cars were first put on the road, there was no specs. Companys put more cleaner/detergent in premimum than regular. A lot of injectors fouled, and the government set specs, so now regular gas should have enough detergent to keep injectors clean. (The specs are based on tests developed by Mercedes or BMW, don't remember which.)
There are several other additives. Octane enhancers, vapor pressure modifier, anti-icing, etc. Most companies will use the same chemical to obtain these requirements. They call their additives by some neat marketing name, but the chemical is the same. Now, there might be some minor additives used, but in general they are all the same.
Bottom line, all gas should be about the same.
Now, the problems may be that a company will want to run on the cheap on some of the additives and this might cause some 'drivability' problems with their gas.
The biggest problems probably come from the terminal operations. Gasoline, aviation gas, diesel, heating oil, etc may ALL COME DOWN THE SAME PIPELINE! The products are separated by big rubber 'pigs', or SLUGS OF WATER! The terminal people know how to get their product out of the pipeline without mixing (too much) with the water or other product. There is always a mixture of junk at the terminal that is usually trucked and sold back to the nearest terminal for re-refining.
But, if their operations get sloppy, you might get some water or heating oil in your Exon super-premium.
As Forest says, '--it happens'. How much or how often depends.
That is really another 'bottom line' on gasoline, 'it depends'. On a lot of stuff.
P.S. My qualifications - I worked for a major oil company for 34 years. Not in refining, pipeline, or marketing, but after this many years you hear how this stuff works, in general.
Dang, this also turned out to be long.
I really wish people would quit bring up this question.