I overheard someone I know is a mechanic and he said he would never buy petrol from a large supermarket in Hillsborough, as it is garbage. Is there a reason (no.879) for this?I always thought it was all the same petrol in different tankers, so is Shell and BP usually more expensive because it is better for our cars.Does it actually have additives in that improve the reliability,mpg and cut emissions etc?
In short is cut price petrol a false economy?

I've heard stories about supermarkets diluting petrol with meths or some such... I don't know if there's any truth in it.

In fact, it was over on the bargain forum. Someone said Tesco add 5% ethanol to their petrol and a few people claimed they got less miles to the gallon out of it. Someone also posted this little factoid:

"they tested "supermarket petrol" on 5th gear (95 ron) and surprisingly found that unless your ECU is mapped to 97/98 you don't see a blind bit of difference (even if it was mapped higher they sensibly concluded you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference the 3hp made)."

YMMV ;)

Who makes these storys up for heavens sake?

To go to all the trouble of making ethanol to add it to petrol?

They sell ethanol at the drinks counter, its called Vodka!

I'm all for these daft rumours that supermarket petrol is crap, the people that believe it can pay more and there will be shorter queues at Morrisons petrol station.

i use Morrison petrol station,n its not done my enjine any harm..( touch wood):huh:
oops engine...lol

I bet meths is dearer to buy by the litre than petrol - what a bag of sh*t

Sainsburys use BP fuel, supermarkets just buy it in larger more regular quantities than say an independant refueler, and can afford to cut a bit of their profit on it to sell more fuel.

It's a load of BS! Most non-supermarket garages are either privately owned or operating a franchise from the big companies, either way they are small businesses (these days anyway, there used to be big bucks in owning a franchise) and so they will charge a bit more. But it's all the same petrol from the same refineries.

how many people fill the car up whilst you're doing the food shop? Its convenient, its cheap and the money you save on the fuel , you spend on the fresh cakes and buns :)

It doesn't make the blindest bit of difference if all you ever do is potter round town in your car, but I've noticed a disturbing lack of ooomph once it's on the open road - something that is quite dangerous when you're timing your entrance onto an A1 roundabout :suspect:

Petrol is petrol isn't it, at least the stuff that comes from the pumps? I believe Texaco put some sort of detergent whatsits into their more expensive petrol, but I cold be wrong. Even so, does the addition of detergent do anything other than give the system a bit of clean? I thought supermarket petrol was cheaper as a rule due to the usual supermarket price wars.

Nope...different stuff added to petrol affects it differently...

anyways, Tesco are introducing 99-ron petrol at the end of the month...saves me having to find Optimax :D

It's still too bl**dy expensive regardless of where you get it from in this country.