Branded vs Un-branded gasoline

I was reading another thread about a starting issue and someone mentioned using branded instead of non-branded gasoline.

Is this a thing?

Where I live, the same company owns several different gas stations that are each a different brand. I am friends with a couple of their delivery tanker drivers and they have told me that they get their marching orders daily to go to whichever plant has the cheapest gas that day and then they deliver it to whichever station needs it the most - i.e. they may take gas from a Super America plant to the Shell station and vice versa.

So, there is absolutely NO way to know what brand of gas you're actually buying and almost 100% guarantee that it's the cheapest crap on the market. I actually only buy gas from our local Food City grocery store gas station. I only ever see one truck in there and it's from a Marathon plant.

Anybody have any additional insight to this? I have had a couple times where my truck is hard to start but I always think I accidentally stop cranking it before it actually starts. Then, if that happens, I have to crank it several times to get it going. I just read that it might be a CPS issue but I'll explore that further if it keeps happening.

Thanks!

 

I was chatting with an oil refinery foreman a couple weeks ago, he mentioned pretty much the same thing as you did. He did say though that each brand has their own "unique" additive, which amounts to - literally - a coffee cup full of stuff per loaded gas truck.

 

The gas is all the same, it's just the additives are different. But yes, they go with whatever terminal has the cheapest gas that day. Also fyi, Shell and Murphy don't add anything to their regular 87 gas. I'd suggest using newer gas stations with newer tanks and maybe a more up to date filtration system.

 

I just make sure to fill up at a 'top tier' gas station, there's an official list online you can look up to see which stations qualify...its pretty much the ones you'd expect.

 

Yeah, but, that's actually the thing I'm talking about. For example, the BP station near me belongs to the same guy that owns the Exxon station on the other side of town. He also owns a Chevron and a Shell mart (and Valero and....well, you get the picture - the guy owns like 100 stations or something). His very own drivers told me personally that they deliver whatever gas they have in the truck that is picked up from the refinery with the cheapest gas that particular day to whatever station needs it. Regardless of brand.

I use the local grocery store station because it's one of the newest in town AND because I have noticed that only one truck makes the deliveries. Plus, they are the busiest in town and the gas should be "fresher" if that even matters.

I would pay extra for "top tier" if I was convinced I was getting what I paid for....

Neil

 

I'm not positive either but I do know that in order to be labeled "top tier" it has to meet certain standards/criteria. I found the site that lists them...

http://www.toptiergas.com/licensedbrands/

Whether or not it really makes any difference over "non" top tier gas stations is a matter of debate I suppose, but personally I like the peace of mind. Especially when you see random one-off gas stations selling for far less than their competition...makes me uneasy about the quality of their product. When I was a kid driving around a beater I couldn't care less, just wanted what was cheapest. But my Taco gets the good stuff or at least what I hope is the "good stuff", lol.

 

I use Shell, and that's only because you can sign up for their fuel rewards and get money off per gallon. That normally puts their prices below even the grocery store gas

 

^ This.

The so-called "additive" is literally one part per thousand. So yeah gas is gas, the only difference between say Shell and a no name, is literally marketing.

 

Valero is the only station in my area that is Top Tier so I buy there as often as I can.

 

Yep, the "additives" are generally nonsensical. Even Techron, the well-known Chevron (and now Texaco) additive... is still only 4 parts per 10,000.

Marketing, marketing, marketing.

 

LOL. I bought diesel for work in mass amounts and got to know the Shell station owners. He said the grades are different but everyone is buying from the same suppliers it's just that HUGE places like Fred Meyer can survive on a thin profit margin for fuel where as the immigrant who only owns 1 station across the street from Freddy's needs to make a 30 cent profit per gallon to survive.

To sum it up, if you think you're getting far superior fuel from Chevron or shell VS the cheaper places like Costco, Sam's, or grocery store, you're not. It's the same stuff but by all means keep wasting your money if you want.

 

I go to WaWa and Sheetz cuz you know...MTO.

Who gives a shit about gas when you can make a fried chicken sandwich with egg and nacho cheese sauce, bacon, tomato on a pretzel roll in the morning.

 

I don't give a shit where I buy my gas from it's a Toyota truck not a sports car with a finely tuned engine. These things run on shitty third world gas all around the world with no problem. Any gas you buy in the states is more than okay. I fill up at crappy old gas stations in the middle of the desert and don't think twice.

 

For a sports car, I would always use Sunoco 94, for the Tacoma, with an engine design shared with the third world, whatever is nearby is fine.

 

Nah, the rest of the world runs on Diesel lol.

 

Yep, whatever is closest and cheapest. Works fine, has for more miles than I can even imagine on all kinds of vehicles. Never a fuel issue.

I really only have 2 criteria. I prefer a higher volume location, as they will have a lower chance of 'aged' fuel, always getting their tanks refilled.

I also prefer a somewhat newer location (as in the last 15-20 years) as they are more likely to have no issues with in ground tank corrosion, ie water in the gas.

Always run the bottom grade the vehicle calls for. There is no magic in performance or MPG or 'cleaning things' by stepping up to a higher grade.

 

I can confirm you are 100% accurate for the North American market. Shell gas station will not be supplied with gas from a Shell refinery 100% of the time. The only difference is the additives that get mixed in at the time of pumping it into the tanks. Also the "contains up to 5% ethanol" labels are usually bogus as well, the actual % is all over the place, it can contain 1% or 6%. (I'm making up % here), it's a crap shoot.

 

Never seen that before. Good post. Makes me feel better about using Arco to see it ranked the same as all the others.

Honestly Arco just makes a tad less per gallon by charging you the $0.35 up front for the charge fee. But if you're filling up 10+ gallons that's 3.5 cents per gallon. Usually less than the difference between an Arco and Chevron or otherwise.

I tend to base my decisions on if there's a tanker giving it the fillup that day or not and how many drug deals appear to be happening... Or homeless people begging... etc.

 

what about going to a cheap station and adding your own additive (Lucas, Seafoam, whatever)? i think you can even buy the Techron shit.

 

Yeah you can. I always keep a bottle of Lucas additive in my truck as well as octane booster in case I can't find a quality station with 91 octane (supercharger).