Is anyone else noticing Sunoco Gas NOT Top Tier anymore.

I'm in the South Jersey area convenient to a lot of Sunoco Gas stations. Latley since they are doing the sign upgrade the Top Tier stickers on the pumps are covered with Duct Tape ??? I have been very religious using Top Tier in all of our vehicles.

Is it really a big deal to use it ???

 

YES! It is really important to use TopTier rated fuel. https://www.toptiergas.com/ Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of gas stations carry Top Tier fuel. Even CostCo and Sam's Club sell TopTier gas. It is almost harder to find a station without Top Tier fuel. Just buy your gas at name brand locations and you are A-OK.

TopTier ratings assure you are getting the octane you pay for, the gas came from an proper refinery loading dock, and has security safeguards in place such that it was not tampered with before it was delivered by a clean truck to the station. Flow metered and sample checked. Etc... Etc... Etc....
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That being said, it is unusual for that your nornmal pump stickers are covered with duct tape. Very unusual. You can report that BTW --> refer to the web link above. I don't live in NJ so I think that is up to you.

Are these just cosmetic station exterior upgrades? Like they're just switching out the high marquee sign you can see from the interstate and pump facades? This is an image below that I just copy-pasted from a Q1 2025 PowerPoint presentation on their investor relations web page. That pump looks brand new.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time surfing. But every once in a while, corporations refresh their logos and branding icons and what not. I would think it is nothing more ordinary than that. And that all these stations are still going to be selling Sunoco fuel.

I do know the Sunoco arrow at one point in the past pointed down to the left. Instead of down to the right as shown. Some of those old signs can be really collectible and valuable and rare, like thousands of dollars, so if you come across any see if you can grab them!


Anyway, unless you start seeing more unusual stuff like underground tanks being excavated (meaning contaminated with dirt) while still in use. Or goofy looking temporary hoses and handles that are clearly not engineered, then I wouldn't worry a whole lot. If so, just drive to the next one.
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As far as the stickers being covered up while such work is in progress, my hunch is there is some flunky somewhere who is making an nuisance a$$ of themselves. Like an auditor or a compliance inspector. Possibly even a state agent. Like this. Ooooh, dear, I observed the pump fittings were broken apart while the renovation crew was installing new break-away hoses and new nozzles and pump facades.

Page 62 of some obscure manual of compliance states that since TopTier pump nozzle gasoline output cannot be proven until all such work is complete, and updated sample testing completed, the gasoline sold should not be guaranteed as TopTier/-. And so some idiot went around putting duct tape everywhere. Do not discount this absurd type of scenario.
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I worked for a Big Oil corporation for ~30 years and you would not believe the lunacy that existed around correct usage of the our "hallmark" logo. There were rules. A lot of them. I'm not kidding. If you were making an external presentation, say at an industry conference or a non-op joint venture partner meeting, you were supposed to have your presentation approved by the public affairs departmen for correctness. I am not making this up. The logo had to be in the upper left hand corner on every slide. Sized and placed exactly correctly with respect to the margins. I cannot make this up.

You would get emails back that would say things like "On slide 4, the header top text is font size 16. And the sub-text is size 14. Referring to the corporate manual of compliance, it must be changed to size 18 and 16 respectively. All other slide headers were reviewed and determined to be in compliance. Please make the style change(s) and re-submit your presentation for appoval. In the interim, your presentation was forward to the Legal department for their review."

Like WITAF.

 

According to the internet -- Sams Club can be removed from the list. We don't have any Coscos nearby. Thanks for a good read ! This was a write up on Reddit --

https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/gif7p2/sunoco_gas_is_no_longer_top_tier/

 

In SE Pennsylvania, I've noticed that Sunoco Unleaded 87 Octane is almost always .10 to .15 cents cheaper than WaWa, Sheetz, Turkey Hill, even Exxon and has been for months. Maybe this is why??

 

Thanks for the feedback. Indeed, Sam's Club is no longer listed on the Top Tier website. I did not know that. Apologies for my mistake.

On the other hand, that Reddit article is from ~5 years ago and appears to be no longer relevant. At that time, Sunoco suspended their TopTier participation, which is voluntary and does indeed cost some $$$ to be compliant, due to COVID. They have since resumed TopTier participation status. That's good.

We don't have Sunoco where I live (sadness), but I've always associated Sunoco with race fuel. Like for NASCAR. If I was paying an extra 50 cents per gallon for 94 octane Sunoco, no ethanol, that's what I expect to get in my tank.
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I remain interested in learning about what is going on with your NJ area stations. Hopefully, you can update us at some point.

Cheers,
Andy

 

Top Tier is a pay-to-play brand licensing racket, doesn't mean much nowadays. According to: https://www.toptiergas.com/gasoline-brands/
Sunoco still pays into the racket. Other brands that haven't paid:

US: BP, Speedway

Canada: Esso, Husky (formerly Sunoco), Petro Canada, Ultramar, Valero

Interestingly, Exxon pays to be part of Top Tier while its Canadian counterpart Esso (phonetic "S.O." i.e. Standard Oil) quit paying a few years ago.

 

I've never intentionally chased it. But I have used it. Never had a problem.

 

Maybe you mean 0.10-0.15 dollars?

Tenths and hundredths of a cent don’t amount to much…

 

I thank you guys for the kind input here. It is super difficult to talk to the attendants at these stations for obvious reasons. But the Top Tier stickers are gone. Either covered with duct tape or just removed. It does kinda amaze me the stations don't really advertise Top Tier a bit better anyway. I really haven't had any serious issues and I guess I'll just look for TopTier options when they are available without going too far out of my way. It does give me piece of mind knowing that I am doing something to keep the internals of my engine cleaner in a world where things are built to break vs. built to last.

 

A big bottle of Techron in a full tank of gas, running the gas almost empty before the next fill up, combined with a solid Italian tuneup, just before an oil change always seemed to keep my pickier vehicles quite clean and happy. Including my street driven soloII car