Best gas brand for fuel economy?

Are you comparing MFD mileage or the MPG you calculate yourself after each tank? Also, are you maintaining a lifetime log of MGP?

If you have this information at hand (and you track the seller and seller's location), you will be able to answer some of your questions with more certainty.

 

In my area, the days of Shell using only Shell gasoline and Exxon using only Exxon are over. Usually the delivery trucks are unmarked and you get what ever is delivered. I have even seen Shell trucks deliver gas to Exxon and vice-versa. I did some research on this a couple of weeks ago. The bottom line is each brand uses its own additives. I would stay away from no-name convenient store gas that is 10 cents/gal cheaper than anyone else.

 

It's pretty much all the same. Up north of Boston in Revere you can watch all the different labeled tanker cars line up to be filled up from the same storage tank.

 

All gasoline comes from just a few refineries which house the gas. Depending on which gas station the tanker truck is going to fill, just before leaving the facility the operator pumps in the proper additive group. Shell has one as well as Exxon, the same goes for all the major brands. The off brands get 40 gallons (in the 10k of generic gas) of the generic additive mixture. So different brands can give you slightly different mileage. The only way to tell what you are actually getting is keep a log & check your exact mileage. Now to get back to Sam's Club, BJ's & Costco. They call up the different gas companies and buy from who ever has a surplus or offers them the best price. So, one day you'll get Shell, the next day Exxon and so forth and so on.

 

As has been posted throughout this thread all the major brands and almost all gas brands are very similar except for their "additive packages". These too may only differ but amounts and "secret" ingredients like Fast Times at Ridgemont High ... what's the secret ingreient at Wonder Burger "Ketchup/Mayonaise" and hear "Mayonaise/Ketchup" ... blah blah blah.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned and that I would recommend is to avoid the dreaded "This gas contains 10% ethanol" sticker. That thing is the devil incarnate and contrary to Lil' Bush (great show by the way) ethanol is major problem not a solution.

You will lose 10-15% MPG GUARANTEED running gas with ethanol simply because of the the physics involved in ethanol burning less efficiently. That is a different subject though.

 

My Prius does not discriminate against different brands of gasoline. Whatever is the cheapest will do for my Prius. I usually get it from SHELL which is only about 1 mile away in our small town.

 

Best mileage I ever got was on Conoco gas, also pretty cheap. When I drove the Jag I'd fill up at Valero or AMPM and get 280 - 330 miles between fillups. When I went to MS I started filling up on Conoco, 2 octane higher and lots cheaper, and was getting 380 miles consistantly. When I drove back to Cali I planned my trip around Conoco stations and driving 350 miles per fill up. Can't find it out here in Cali, mostly a southern thing I think.

 

The poster above who said it is all the same and that they add the individual gas stations additive package in the tanker is correct. In my opinion if you frequent the gas stations that are either at wholesale clubs / grocery stores or generic convenience stores because they are cheaper it is probably a good idea to add a medium priced fuel system cleaner additive every at each oil change (easy to remember that way) they only cost about $5 - $10. Those stations mostly only have the minimum additive packages that are required by law, the few exceptions is when the tanker does the delivery up the street at the big name oil company station, brings 10,000 gallons and the stations underground tank wont hold it all so they just drop off the remaining 2500 gallons or so at another location of the same name, if none are close by they drop it at one of the nearby budget stations that they do business with. Unfortunately this also means that many times they also have 3 or 4 different types of additive packages (from the various brand companies) that are actually dilluted beyond their individual effectiveness.

In your case I suspect that the Hess gas additive possibly cleared your injectors a bit.

By the way almost every major brand fuel stations in the US has had 10 % ethanol gas since the mid to late 90's.

 

I switched to Shell because of the 5% kickback on the MasterCard. Now that most stations charge ~10c more for credit (or ~10c less for cash) it is still cheaper to use the plastic.

Instead of using the AC lower the windows.

 

Sorry, my good Jersey friend, but lowering windows at highway speeds is worse on gas mileage than running the A/C with the windows up. Open windows are a drag. Your soulution probably helps in city traffic at low speeds. Or so say Cklick & Clack on CarTalk.

Top Tier gas is good for injectors and intake valves, but usually more expensive, so your idea of using inj. cleaner once in a while is good.

BTW, my first job was in south Jersey, polishing cars at a Simoniz station in Bridgeton when I was 14.

 

I just filled up at a BP station with 10% ehtanol and immediately noticed a big drop in the displayed MPG - it had been running 49 to 52 and it went down to 42 to 45. I sure will avoid the ethanol but aren't all the brands adding ethanol?

 

Yeah. I have that card, too. That's 20 cents a gallon off--not bad.

 

Not so,Wal Mart and Sams both use Murphy Oil Co. only.
Murphy is located in El Dorado,Ar.Same state as Wally World Headquaters.
Their gas is as good or better as anyone's.:usa2:

 

My 2006 Prius is getting great mileage here in New England with a slight edge to Hess gasoline for the highest MPG.

 

There's no way to avoid 10% ethanol in northern Illinois! I think we may need to go to another thread to discuss the problem/solution business with ethanol (at least from corn), but for many of us there is no real choice. In any event, the idea is to burn cleaner fuel and be less reliant on foreign oil. Ethanol may not be the answer, but it is at least a start.

If I'm losing 10-15% on MPGs, I'm doing pretty well on mileage for using E10 -- 50+ lifetime. Maybe I should start posting 59.2 (my current 50.3 is the 15% reduction from 59.2)?!

 

Ethanol (E10) is mandated here in the Houston Galveston area but there is talk of mixing sugar & corn based ethanol so instead of a few % decrease in MPG there should be an increase ! Sugar may be stirred into the ethanol mix | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

 

Ethanol is in CA Gas. Phase 3 CaRFG fuel in California prohibits oxygenated compounds other than ethanol. So, while ethanol isn't mandated, its use is the only way fuel can meet the Predictive Model of Title 13 phase 3 reformulated gasoline regulations in CA, typically its 10%.