Petrol prices

[is200 Newbie]

Anyone else notice the difference in prices...

I usually alternate between normal unleaded and V-Power (2 fills of normal to 1 fill of V-Power). Today I filled with V-Power. I noticed the price of that was £1.15 against a price of £0.98 for the normal lower ron.

Is it a misconception that when petrol prices come down that its just the advertised prices (for normal petrol) - I have only seen the normal prices advertised along with the diesel and some times the LPG is also up there on the garage sign and its that price you can see going up and down... does the higher rons stay high because not a lot of people use them. If that's the case, how long can petrol last before it degrades in the forecourts tank if its rarely used?

[toffee_pie]

interesting point that....does petrol degrade? I use shell v power every time, my engine going like a train so i see no reason to stop using it.

[andyk134]

With you on that Eric, I have used V Power (previously Optimax) since I bought the car and wold never use anything else. Mine is now turbo so I need the extra but always did before. Also shop around we have garages about 4 mile apart that are 8p a litre different but they still go into the expensive one. I would imagine petrol would degrade eventually and why those with cars they don't drive very often haver to drain the tank from time to time and refill, but you are probably talking a year or so.

The cost of fuel always amuses me when people talk about it. When you buy a new car it drops about 10% the day you drive it off the forecourt, which for a new Lexus is probably about 2 years worth of fuel anyway. We sell water at £1 for half a litre (and some idiots will spend £9 on a packet of cigarettes!) so is petrol really that expensive?

[Jamesf1]

V power at 1.15 is expensive. Down to 1.06 here at Xmas, paid 1.09 today..I also only use vpower in the 250.

[ahmedali44]

Just filled my is250 today with v power at 108.9 p, when normal was 99.9p, still had 27 miles left, filled up for £60.used to use v power in my is220d all time. 

 

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[mikeyv]

Petrol definitely goes off over time, you can actually smell the difference.

People often have trouble getting their petrol mowers to fire up after a winter lay up, due to stale petrol.

[J Henderson]

Yep, plus tests have shown that high octane fuels will start to degrade quite quickly and at a faster rate than normal 95 RON Unleaded before the curve begins to flatten out. Typically, a fresh batch of V-Power can lose roughly 2 RON within the first week or two of its lifespan, dropping from 99 to 97. So for the best possible results you should only buy enough to last a fortnight or so.

Buying from a busy forecourt will also maximise your chances of getting "fresh" fuel and avoiding the potential scenario described by IS200 Newbie.

I have exclusively been using V-Power in my IS250 since I bought it and paid 110.9 per litre when I bought £50 worth last night - 8p more than Unleaded, so I could've gotten another 3.5 litres for my money. In my experience though, V-Power can potentially give you another 1-2 MPG (this was certainly the case with the IS200 I used to own), so the price difference is fairly negligible in the long run. 

[is200 Newbie]

John - I had read that petrol does degrade over time but was unsure by how much or how quick

Just thinking about an experience i had a while ago where the car started "shivering" I put this down to carbon build up as its been reported that this is one of the symptoms - is it possible that this symptom could be a cause of bad fuel being used?

Not sure how the car processes the information regarding the different fuel rons it has in its tank but I have noticed it does perform differently between them - I have also noticed that my fuel range goes up when changing between 95 and 98 grades. So if the car actually received a 98 ron petrol and thinking it was that but it actually had a degraded petrol in it it may have spluttered a bit or just recognised that the petrol was a lower grade,

I presume petrol will degrade and produce a different chemical from that its designed to do and therefore find difficulty in burning it efficiently?