Fact or Fantasy?

DennisN · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:24 am Post subject: Fact or Fantasy?

Yesterday, by force of circumstances, I happened to fill up with Shell Vpower diesel, the first and only time I have ever bought any of this type of stuff - Vpower, Ultimate, Whatever.

It was a tankful, so the mix in there was mostly the new stuff.

I have always considered these things mythical - extra power, extra mileage - a pipedream loved by marketing gurus.

But I have a sneaking feeling I got extra power and extra mileage out of it. Certainly after 300 miles of "progressive" driving, my fuel gauge looks a lot higher than I would have expected. Until I refill, I won't know the rate of fuel consumption, but previous experience would have me expect the gauge to be showing far less fuel than it does right now.

So does anybody know the truth about this? At something like 5 or 6 pence a litre dearer, the tankful cost me an extra £2.50 or so. If I get over 10% extra mileage as indicated by my fuel gauge, it would be worth it. But I rarely do progressive driving, so I may be imagining it.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

PaulB2005 · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:40 am Post subject:

I've been using BP Ultimate for a few years now and i noticed the same thing at first. Thought it was all marketing hype and just me compensating but when prices went sky high last year i "downgraded" to normal full fat fuel and lost 20-30 miles per tank over 3 months. Switching back to Ultimate has gained me those miles back.

Darren · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:16 pm Post subject:

But do the extra miles compensate for the extra cost at the pump?
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PaulB2005 · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:58 pm Post subject:

More than... I think i pay about £45 to fill up when the orange light comes on, it's £2 a tank more expensive than full fat petrol but i get 10% more miles, so that's paying £2 for the mileage of £4.50 worth of fuel.

I think....

253 · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:01 pm Post subject:

Interesting post.

Every so often i stick a couple of tankfulls of the Super stuff into my bike. And I reckon I get about 15 miles more before the red light comes on.

Never thought of going it for the diesel in the car. Having said that, most of the time I get fuel at Sainsbury or Tesco and they only seem to have the normal 'City' diesel that I notice. I get a satisfying plume of black soot out of the exhaust every so often when cold, so I assume it's all working fine Confused

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MaFt · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:00 pm Post subject:

[scientist mode]
i believe it's due to the higher percentage of organic material in the fuel. ie - there's more combustible fuel in it per litre therefore each combustion requires less fuel...

there's definately a science behind it. also, because there is less 'junk' in it it looks after the engine a bit better too.
[/scientist mode]

PaulB2005 · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:08 pm Post subject:

Video on this page is quite good.

253 · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:41 pm Post subject:

Nice one.
Now the next question, can the same results be obtained using the engine addatives - like Redex and such.

Hope this is not off the original post.
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PaulB2005 · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:45 pm Post subject:

Well i used to use Redex once every 3 or 4 months but now i use BP Ultimate every fill up instead.

DennisN · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:27 pm Post subject:

alix776 · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:39 pm Post subject:

i found that sainburys fuel wes the best to clean the injectors out with run a tank through the engiine but dont drive it gently. then i always used standard shell desiel.

morrisons was to bad either
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999tommo · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:46 am Post subject:

I have a Focus ST and currently run on standard unleaded (95 octane). I have always believed this better efficiency on dearer fuel to be an urban myth, but I will now try it. I am off to Northampton on Friday, so will see how the car performs on the 99 octane stuff. I usually get about 35mpg on a run, which compared to some cars is still rubbish, but I love the car so will keep at it. 25mpg around my local area !!
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richard345 · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 3:14 pm Post subject:

I've been wondering about this myself for some time. My fuel light came on this morning, so I'm going to give the Tesco Super Unleaded a go and run a couple of tanks through my bog standard 1600 Astra SXi 5 door.

I have religiously kept mpg figures for all my cars on a tank by tank basis, with a moving average over the previous four tanks. This car is only a year old next week, so I have the full set of all the figures for every litre I have put in it.

If I do four tanks, I should have some reasonable numbers to report back with and cost / mile etc.
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999tommo · Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 2:07 pm Post subject:

Well I'm back from my trip to Northampton. My original thoughts about the Super Unleaded better efficiency myth were found to be just that, a damn myth. Due to the thirst of my car, it takes the best part of a full tank to get there from sunny Edinburgh, I fill it when there and do my running about, then top up before I come home and fill it once back. I always fill right up, rather than sticking ten or twenty quid in at a time. Here are the figures from last year (95 ron unleaded) and from this year (99 ron super unleaded).

2008 - 95 Ron - North to South - 35.10 mpg
Running about - 30.29 mpg
South to North - 33.02 mpg

2009 - 99 Ron - North to South - 34.21 mpg
Running about - 29.09 mpg
South to North - 34.18 mpg

So to sum up....I won't bother with super unleaded again. Overall it is less economical and it's 5ppl dearer.
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Tommo...

Regularly absent, but still here in spirit !

DennisN · Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:57 pm Post subject:

I stuck with the super power diesel for several fills and I have now concluded it's a myth too. For my 45,000 miles this year I have an overall average of 53.35 mpg, with best of 62.01, worst of 44.47. (Previous van in 2006 grand leisurely tour of Europe, I returned over 64mpg for the whole of the 3,500 miles). The super power stuff didn't do anything noticeable except cost me at least £3 a tankful extra. So I'm back to basics again.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

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