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Around here, there is no "cheap" gas, nor is there "expensive" gas, except for Costco and Sam's Club, of course. They are cheaper.
All other stations have the same price. At the present time, that is $2.639 for 87 octane 10% ethanol regular. A couple weeks ago, they all jumped up to $2.699 for a few days, then dropped back to $2.639.
Cenex usually goes up first, then all the others follow. Holiday often goes down first, then the others follow after Cenex changes. Town Pump used to be a couple cents cheaper, but now they follow everybody else.
I was going to fill up at Costco the other day, after my shopping trip, but I couldn't sit and wait with frozen stuff in the car. It was nearly impossible to get to the pumps, so many vehicles waiting.
I was going to fill up at Costco the other day, after my shopping trip, but I couldn't sit and wait with frozen stuff in the car. It was nearly impossible to get to the pumps, so many vehicles waiting.
I was at a car dealer that gives free car washes and drove around back to check it out.
The was a line about 10 cars long waiting to go through that car wash.
First thought was "Here are a bunch of people whose time has no value."
Second thought was "I'm leaving."
The gasoline is all the same, coming from the same pipeline. What's different is the additives that are put in the gasoline when filling the tanker. There is a MINIMUM government mandated standard. No name gasolines and a few name brand gasolines meet just the MINIMUM standards. Top Tier gasolines have to meet MUCH higher standards to be certified Top Tier. Top Tier gasolines meet these standards in ALL octanes. Top Tier gasolines might cost a few cents more but it's worth it. Most of the time, Top Tier gasoline is the same price or even lower than minimum additive gas. Costco gasoline is Top Tier!
The additive costs $28 a gallon. They put a couple of gallons into an 8,000 gallon tanker load. Do the math and then tell me it's worth it for an average driver to spend 20 cents more per gallon.
Tank trucks have multiple compartments, so it may not be the same gas for every station.
The compartments are for different grades of gas (regular and premium only; midgrade/plus is mixed at the pump), not for different customers. The tanker will deliver the whole load to a single station in most cases.
I lived on the OR/CA border for a few years recently and noticed a HUGE difference in the performance of my truck when using one or the other. CA gas was hands down way better as far as how my truck performed.
I also notice my truck did better with Chevron with techron - but - I'd buy Chevron with techron in OR and my truck wouldn't do as well.
So, the higher quality gas in CA made a huge difference.
Also, if I bought CA cheap gas vs. Chevron with techron in CA, my truck did way better with the higher quality, more expensive gas.
I only ever bought unleaded regular for my old truck.
The Costco regular unleaded was cheaper and just as good, in my opinion, as Chevron with techron.
But, I was a long time believer that more expensive gas was a hoax, but learned from personal experience that it's worth the money. Especially for an older vehicle - it's worth buying gas with the cleaner in them such as techron, to keep the engine clean.
At face value, I wouldn't think that gas supplier would make much difference. However, a little googling brought up a recent AAA study - they have a 34-page white paper describing the experiment methodology which appears pretty carefully done, and the findings. Basically, what they found is that the additives in high quality gasolines, mainly so-called detergent additives, significantly reduce the buildup of carbon and varnish-like deposits on intake valves, fuel injector tips and cylinder heads -and yes, the lab was tearing the engines apart before and after each exposure to the fuels (5,000 mile+). They also ran a different experiment to see if gasolines can clean engine components that already have such buildup, and they found that they can.
See:"AAA FUEL QUALITY RESEARCH: Proprietary research into the effectiveness of fuel additive packages in commercially-available gasoline"
P.S. And this is the Top Tier... which seems to be a cooperative effort between automakers to provide specs and fuel providers to meet those specs https://www.toptiergas.com/
This should be the big takeaway from this thread= Buy cheap gas, every 5000 miles fill it with Top Tier gas, rinse and repeat.
Arco is not historically considered "off brand" though it does not have the name draw of Exxon, Mobil or Shell. If not at refinery where are additives or what is called in the trades "pixie dust" added to fuel? Does anyone know?More than half the time the placement of my supermarket discounts, i.e. Shell, Sunoco or ExxonMobil determines where I fill, since those discounts usually bring the price within range of the discounters. Unless I'm near a Costco, and that always wins.
Fry's (Kroger) lets you use your fuel points at Circle K. I usually pay 20-40cents under market price, which is good because I have two gas guzzlers, one of which requires 93.
I live in Las Vegas and Costco and Sam's Club gas is cheaper than the "cheap" gas stations. There are "cheap" no name stations that are still $.10 more than Costco or Sam's Club. Its a no brainer to me to use Costco since I get the 4% cash back from using the credit card.
Yea some people believe these cheap off the wall gas stations have their own refineries lol lol
Yeah, and some people believe that just because it all comes from the same place it's all equal. BTW there are about 135 refineries operating in the US.
Yeah, and some people believe that just because it all comes from the same place it's all equal. BTW there are about 135 refineries operating in the US.
I’ve used every type of gas stations cheap expensive and in between my vehicles acted do different it’s because of the vehicle computer doesn’t know the difference between cheap and expensive gas as long as it’s 87 octane or 93 if you have a turbocharger or supercharger.
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BTW there are about 135 refineries operating in the US.
