in these days of E5 - is it worth driving further and paying more for brands like BP ?

[Bfg]

In these days of E5 petrol - is it worth driving further and paying more to buy from branded stations like BP ?  or is supermarket fuel now OK ?

Thanks, Pete

[Tim D.]

Probably an almost impossible question to answer. It really depends what you define as "worth it"? I tend to use Shell optimax in mine but only because the shell station is closest and I like "treating" the car (probably just falling for the marketing hype.

We ran the last round britain reliability run in the fuel crisis so ran the car on whatever we could find (including E10, supermarket fuel and fuel from some small suppliers prevalent north of the border). Barely any difference (perhaps slightly more liable to pink at lower octanes, but I run a supercharger at 5psi and pinking can depend on many things). Generally got similar mileage as far as I could calculate. 

It should be noted as well that some have observed that supermarket fuel is actually supplied by one or other of the big players (e.g. Shell) and that E10 only means a max of 10% ethanol, what it actually is is unclear.

My only other rule is not to leave high Ethanol in the tank if I lay up over the winter.. The chemistry of Ethanol isn't very good on storage apparenty

Just my thoughts

Tim

[John Morrison]

Find the car tells me Pete.

certainly cheaper when nothing else is available and she ‘Pinks’

John

[brenda]

Hi Pete nice to see you on the forum again, I tend to use Shell as we have a few stations around us, but when we go on our trips I tend to find if it’s a long journey not using shell (Brenda) tends to pink a little if pushed hard and also runs on a little after switching off.

Mike Redrose Group.

Edited October 5, 2023 by brenda

[Phil Read]

Always used supermarket E5 in my 6, it wont run on E10.

[trevor]

I'm fortunate in that my local BP does Super unleaded at unleaded prices from 8pm to 4am.

[Hamish]

I’m in the same area as Mike ( Brenda) and the shell vpower is my preferred  fuel. Mike does a lot more miles but I hazard a guess mine are at higher revs. 
 

stale fuel is a killer so use a fuel station with a high turnover whatever the grade. Supermarkets are good for this.

i wouldn’t leave a car with E10 in the tank for long periods for fear of it absorbing water and settling in the tank. 

[monty]

Unless I use the higher octane E5 then I usually get a little running on.

[michaelfinnis]

I mostly use Tesco E5 in both my TR6 and in my every day car, which also requires higher octane fuel. Tesco always quite a bit cheaper than anywhere else for E5 even if the normal E10 isn't, and I've never noticed any difference compared with running Shell or other branded fuels.

TR6 really needs the higher octane anyway to avoid pinking unless the ignition is retarded, but I read an article somewhere recently saying that E10 has slightly less energy content and thus gives less fuel economy. A number of motoring organisations and magazines who carried out tests claim that the true loss is rather more than government figures admit and  offsets the lower price.

[TRTOM2498PI]

I use any high octane fuel (Tesco / Sainsburys / Shell / BP, all OK and zero issues.  I do around 5000-6000 miles per annum.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers.

[RobH]

30 minutes ago, michaelfinnis said:

but I read an article somewhere recently saying that E10 has slightly less energy content and thus gives less fuel economy.

True.

Ethanol only has 67% of the energy content compared to straight petrol,  so with E10 you lose about 33% of the energy from that 10% or 3.3% in total against straight petrol and half that (1.65%) against E5.   Not much of a reduction really.   E5 seems to cost around 8% more than E10 so you can still save money with E10 (8% lower cost v 1.65% lower range).  Of course that ignores any other additives which may be in Super E5 and not in standard E10, and also whether your car is happy on E10..

Edited October 6, 2023 by RobH

[Waldi]

During our trip to Shepton M I had to use supermarket fuel. The car started pinking within miles, and did so until I filled the tank again with BP-Ultimate.

I may be biassed because I worked for BP, but the pinking disappeared ever since.

Shell V-power is comparable with BP Ultimate, I do not notice any difference.

Waldi