Using super unleaded

[J Henderson]

What if the sandwiches were £10 ? Would people be buying those without batting an eyelid? 🤔

Going off my last two fuel purchases, which were roughly the same. One with (Morrisons) E10, followed by some E5 V-Power.

I never ever fill my car completely, but the cost was the same on both occasions @ £44.00 (because, contactless limit). However, the price difference between the 2 fuels was huge at around 20p/L.

The Morrisons petrol was somewhere around the low £1.30s and the V-Power cost me £1.53.9/L. Even comparing like for like (Shell), the price premium for V-Power is still 15p/L, meaning I got around 3L of fuel less for my £44. On a full tankful, that would be somewhere around £10 extra if choosing V-Power.

The difference in MPG would need to be huge to offset that cost. In my experience, the economy does actually improve on the higher octane fuels, but only slightly. Nowhere near enough to make up the difference.

I prefer how my car feels on the premium fuel, so I'll continue to buy it but I feel the cost difference is being downplayed a little bit (its only a coffee!).

 

[Sundance]

43 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

What if the sandwiches were £10 ? Would people be buying those without batting an eyelid? 🤔

Going off my last two fuel purchases, which were roughly the same. One with (Morrisons) E10, followed by some E5 V-Power.

I never ever fill my car completely, but the cost was the same on both occasions @ £44.00 (because, contactless limit). However, the price difference between the 2 fuels was huge at around 20p/L.

The Morrisons petrol was somewhere around the low £1.30s and the V-Power cost me £1.53.9/L. Even comparing like for like (Shell), the price premium for V-Power is still 15p/L, meaning I got around 3L of fuel less for my £44. On a full tankful, that would be somewhere around £10 extra if choosing V-Power.

The difference in MPG would need to be huge to offset that cost. In my experience, the economy does actually improve on the higher octane fuels, but only slightly. Nowhere near enough to make up the difference.

I prefer how my car feels on the premium fuel, so I'll continue to buy it but I feel the cost difference is being downplayed a little bit (its only a coffee!).

 

Haha, fancy a sandwich at £10 ... what a great way to loose weight ... and customers of course! 😂

Interesting that you, way up in the wilds at the other end of the UK, have a 20ppl difference between standard and VPower whereas down here in pack-'em-in-tightville the difference is just 14ppl.  Currently £133.9 compared to £147.9.  Lowest supermarket cost is £130 'ish I think. 😉

Perhaps the oxygen is a bit thinner up there 🤔, or maybe it's to do with those strange accents that start just north of Watford 😂.

[Phil xxkr]

20 minutes ago, Sundance said:

Haha, fancy a sandwich at £10 ... what a great way to loose weight ... and customers of course! 😂

Interesting that you, way up in the wilds at the other end of the UK, have a 20ppl difference between standard and VPower whereas down here in pack-'em-in-tightville the difference is just 14ppl.  Currently £133.9 compared to £147.9.  Lowest supermarket cost is £130 'ish I think. 😉

Perhaps the oxygen is a bit thinner up there 🤔, or maybe it's to do with those strange accents that start just north of Watford 😂.

For the avoidance of doubt it was my understanding that non intelligible accents were now in the majority in London and the environs 😅

[Phil xxkr]

On 8/30/2021 at 10:01 PM, scudney said:

Yes I suppose you would but what would you expect for an extra 10p🤔

You pose a big Big question John. On the RRP of your lexus nothing but on the price of a therm of gas /electricity it's a stack. Same with car fuel, if you're on minimum wage of £9 an hour it sounds like an awful lot to me. 😢

[Mr Vlad]

John. Me thinks you went from almost one extreme to the other comparing g the price of a supermarket 'normal' fuel to a brand name super fuel.

I now fill up at tesco. I now use their E5 super fuel which is 140.8p per litre. Their 'normal' fuel is 136.8p per litre (well it was on Tuesday when I went there? So that's quite a negligible difference as far as I'm concerned. The brand fuel stations charge much more for basically the same fuel.

[toffee_pie]

I only ever used Super Unleaded V Power on my Subaru since day 1, actually also used on my IS250 SE-L - sure its expensive but my thoughts are

1. I have had zero problems with the engine on either the Subaru (5+ years) or the Lexus - so that is about 7/8 years of driving

2. Throttle response is razor sharp

3. No burning oil (keeping on top of oil changes of course)

So that's my 2C, its about a tenner or so more expensive per tank than regular unleaded (before the change to E10) but I only ever use it, and will be using it in my next car also, so no watered down fuel for me

shell sent me this in those shell drivers club things, I don't know if they were taking the mickey or not...

 

[J Henderson]

12 minutes ago, Mr Vlad said:

John. Me thinks you went from almost one extreme to the other comparing g the price of a supermarket 'normal' fuel to a brand name super fuel.

I now fill up at tesco. I now use their E5 super fuel which is 140.8p per litre. Their 'normal' fuel is 136.8p per litre (well it was on Tuesday when I went there? So that's quite a negligible difference as far as I'm concerned. The brand fuel stations charge much more for basically the same fuel.

True. When comparing Shell "FuelSave" and V-Power at the garage last night, the price difference was 15p/l - £1.38.9 v £1.53.9.

Seems supermarket fuel isn't as cheap as it used to be either - was under a quid per litre around the turn of the year, which was way cheaper than "brand" forecourts. Now it's only a few pence cheaper.

 

[peniole]

Looks like the difference between v power and fuel save differs depending on the station/location. The two locals I use are 8p difference 1.339 vs 1.419.

[scudney]

£1.339 vs £1.409 = 6p is the difference between the ron 95 and 99 down my local filling station in northampton 

[steve2006]

I popped into my local Co-op filling station today, waited patiently in the queue to get to the pump. Now they only have E10 and diesel on all pumps, I don’t think they ever sold SUP so that was that left without fuelling.

So much for “protected supply”

I might try some of this as it is on offer at the moment from Alibaba😀

[Thelongterm]

Seems like Esso don't add Ethanol at all to their super unleaded in most of the country.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/16012011/which-petrol-stations-still-offer-e5-petrol/

[Sundance]

15 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

John. Me thinks you went from almost one extreme to the other comparing g the price of a supermarket 'normal' fuel to a brand name super fuel.

I now fill up at tesco. I now use their E5 super fuel which is 140.8p per litre. Their 'normal' fuel is 136.8p per litre (well it was on Tuesday when I went there? So that's quite a negligible difference as far as I'm concerned. The brand fuel stations charge much more for basically the same fuel.

I've always looked upon supermarket fuel as being less abundant in such things as performance additives, detergents and friction modifiers ... but to quite what extent none of us shall probably ever know. 🤷‍♂️

Also, of course, site rental or land location costs are probably less for supermarkets as they are likely as not compensated by the retail outlet to which they are connected. 

But it's all smoke and mirrors (no pun intended!) to us proverbial petroleum punters. 😄

[ahmedali44]

Mine 2009 is250 b ok on e10 

[Sundance]

On 9/2/2021 at 6:03 PM, Sundance said:

Interesting that you, way up in the wilds at the other end of the UK, have a 20ppl difference between standard and VPower whereas down here in pack-'em-in-tightville the difference is just 14ppl.  Currently £133.9 compared to £147.9.

Filled up with E5 (99) today at usual Shell garage (supposedly one of the 'less expensive' around here) at £151.9 per litre, E10 now £137.5. Scandalous! Presume it must be even more expensive in bonnie Scottish land?

[J Henderson]

Sure seems that way, and I don't see why since there's a freaking refinery 10mins away from where I live!

£1.55.9 was the price I paid 2 weeks ago. That was for BP Ultimate.

That motivated me to try a cheaper alternative like the Tesco stuff, but my nearest one with a forecourt only had E10 available. I bought some though and immediately noticed the difference in throttle response when I drove off. 😒

[Mr Vlad]

What did you notice immediately after putting some E10 in your car?

[J Henderson]

The softer throttle response and general lack of "oomph". It's like the car is in snow mode by comparison

[Mr Vlad]

Interesting. When I inadvertently put some in my car but with a shot of Millers petrol ecomax I noticed the complete opposite and on a run to Yorkshire my mpg was a little better. Strange. 

[J Henderson]

Filled up yesterday with Momentum 99 for a far more palatable £1.40.9. Car felt good too (sharp throttle response).

I think this will be my preference going forward.

[eleveneleven]

My last three fill ups have been with Shell V Power, Throttle response is much sharper, even more so in PWR mode. MPG seems to be about the same though. 

I'd say i'm sticking to the premium stuff from now on but with how things are at the moment I'll take what I can get...

[scudney]

Lol welcome to the club,been using momentum 99 and occasionally v.power for years my preferred choice. Have tried the new e10 in my run around corsa and not a fan,the difference between the old e5 Ron 95 and the new e10 is pretty obvious to see 🤔

[toffee_pie]

As previously mentioned I have only ever used V Power, in my Lexus IS250 I had 6 or 7 years ago and my current 3 litre Subaru - throttle response as pointed out is far sharper and it helps if your ECU is mapped for this fuel also for even better bang for your buck

[Texas]

Won’t the ECU adapt for the fuel used after a while?

[toffee_pie]

1 hour ago, Texas said:

Won’t the ECU adapt for the fuel used after a while?

I dont know is the answer, a remap will or can alter timing and such - the engine should adjust itself for the higher rating tho

[Marleez]

I've only use premium unleaded. I've never used normal unleaded since I bought my car. Plus I do a service every 5000 miles too.