Supermarket Fuel, Facts Please

[anonymous-user]

dazwalsh said:

I run a citroen beringo van for work, and i couldnt care less what fuel went into it. Over winter it started cutting out on me when i was going up hills or accelerating quickly, until the point it wouldnt move unless i was ever so gently getting up to speed and any sort of incline and it would go again.

Anyways i called AA out to it and he immediately said it was due to cheap supermarket fuel gunging up the filter in cold weather. He showd me a photo of him curting open a filter and it was a milky sludge. Said it was his third of the day and numerous for the week. He mentioned tesco as having pretty horrendous quality fuel.

Anecdotal again.The AA man is hardly a specialist.And I'm fairly certain he never kept a record of the fuel that every car used that he saw that year, particularly the ones that did't have fuel problems - which means his "evidence" is pure nonsense. It is very misleading to hold value to claims like thsi AA man made.

Milky diesel is when it gets cold and waxes up. Uk fuel sellers have to conform to BS EN 590 during the winter and add more chemicals to keep it from freezing down to -15c. Perhaps he'd seen vehicles with "summer fuel" still in the tanks... but did we get close to -15? no. Perhaps some supermarkets broke the rules? perhaps some independent filling stations broke the rules? Perhaps we had a suprise cold snap and summer diesel was still on the forecourts?

[chris4652009]

coldel said:

So a random garage owner, based on his customers cars coming in and some anecdotal evidence thus deducts that you can claim without any reasonable doubt that supermarket fuels are much more likely to wreck car engines. Amazing that with all the media out there that investigates bad business practices not one has come out and said 'hey our investigation shows you are 500% more likely to damage your car with supermarket fuels' - probably because its a long running myth that people without the expertise to comment on continue to pedal rubbish to customers who do not know any better.

So who is the garage owner? Possibly a small business, near a Tesco, who looks after customers in the local area. Here's a thought - maybe is a coincidence that his local customers, who come in with problems, just also happen to fill up at Tesco because its also local - that if that Tesco were to disappear and get replaced by a Shell, and those customers still come in with the same problems, would your garage owner then say 'avoid Shell' ?

Could there be issues with the way "that" tesco stores fuel and or condition of their tanks/contamination............................. ?

[MDMetal]

No doubt some garages have dubious crap swilling around in their tanks but that's down to the garage not the fuel.

My 650i happily runs on morrisons unleaded most of it's fill-ups finely tuned etc etc

[Super Slo Mo]

Shell V Power is a little different as it contains GTL fuel, made from natural gas.
In my experience the exhaust tips take longer to soot up using V Power over Tesco.
It’s difficult to tell if it’s much more economical, my figures suggest a slight improvement but I’ve never ran more than two or three tanks back to back of V Power so it’s not conclusive.

[anonymous-user]

There was the big issue a few months ago at Tesco Billingham too. You'll find it on Google. Hundreds of cars around here were damaged.

[Deesee]

coldel said:

Deesee said:

Different but did not stop them with the horse meat a few years back, I’d doubt the supermarket checks the fuel, everything for them is lowest price please.

Tesco sell more fuel in the UK than either Shell or BP, their operation is enormous - its not some side business attached to the food division. I would suspect given the billions it makes, it has a team in place checking fuel.

The horse meat you are right, is completely different. It was something deliberately covered up by a supplier - which is one of thousands of suppliers that feed into the food business. It is quite plausible that it could have been missed. Fuel however is all that the Tesco Fuel business does, its checks would be as stringent as BP or Shell, again as they are bigger fuel businesses in the UK than either of them.

Tesco fuel turnover is 11/12% of turnover. Say 6 billion pa, profit who knows.? They won’t say..

Shell and BP clear that in opperating profits most years.

I don’t even trust them to bake the bread.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com...

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com...

[soupdragon1]

Deesee said:

Different but did not stop them with the horse meat a few years back, I’d doubt the supermarket checks the fuel, everything for them is lowest price please.

This pretty much sums it up for me, public misconception. Tesco/Sainsbury/Asda etc all sell crap fuel and were caught selling horsemeat. When the reality is, big supermarkets don't actually make food, yes that's right - they don't make food - neither do they make petrol. They sell it. They are retailers. They sell stuff.

If Findus decide to put horsemeat in their frozen lasagne, its only going to get picked up on some random check. Findus probably weren't even aware of it either. Dodgy wholesale meat supplier somewhere in the supply chain was likely the issue. But Joe public thinks Tesco went out and found some cheap horsemeat and thought - we could sell this as beef - what a great idea.

The mind boggles but its so true - misinformation and urban myths are alive and well here in the UK! (and probably everywhere else to be fair, human nature etc)

[Ares]

I'd love to see some empirical evidence on the difference between V-Power, BP Ultimate and Tesco Momentum 99.

I have to run SUL, and usually just suffer the cost of the V-Power.

Mrs Ares MINI is usually fed a diet of supermarket fuel, but her engine is c75bhp/litre, mine is c170bhp/litre.

[chris4652009]

Thornaby said:

There was the big issue a few months ago at Tesco Billingham too. You'll find it on Google. Hundreds of cars around here were damaged.

As suspected, so it could be an isolated issue at the "my friend the mechanic said" poster area as well then

[Pica-Pica]

BAM225 said:

Thesprucegoose said:

diesel and petrol all comes from the same refineries. they add additives that are blended to the relevant spec. (only real difference is biofuel added)

if it makes you feel better to buy it branded as shell etc then do it.

Tried to explain this on pistonheads time and time again, I used to do some work at a fuel refinery in fact, but alas people think that shell and bp use wizzardry to make there fuel better and this thread will almost instantly by tomorrow drag into a arguement.

Our fuel chemist at a major automotive design centre, found Shell the best, supermarket fuel the worst. Knowing her background and capabilities, I trust her analyses.

This discussion runs regularly at least twice a year, whether it petrol or diesel fuel.

I used Shell V power petrol in my E36. Now I have a 335d, and use Shell V-Power diesel. Sometimes I use Shell fuelsave diesel.

[WestyCarl]

cheesesliceking said:

“highly tuned lump”
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope

It’s a fking dag,dag,dag,dag, diesel, albeit with a nice body. It’s not highly anything. Just use whatever diesel makes you feel better. I’d be putting the cheapest stuff in I could find, I mean you bought/leased it to save money right? So why pay more for Shell/BP’s bullst.

[chris4652009]

WestyCarl said:

cheesesliceking said:

“highly tuned lump”
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope
Nope

It’s a fking dag,dag,dag,dag, diesel, albeit with a nice body. It’s not highly anything. Just use whatever diesel makes you feel better. I’d be putting the cheapest stuff in I could find, I mean you bought/leased it to save money right? So why pay more for Shell/BP’s bullst.

lol at the diesel lot that claim to have a "highly" anything. no mate it's a diesel. get a grip

[Gojira]

Over the years, I've driven well over a thrd of a million miles, almost all of it on supermarket fuel...

No problems whatsoever

Do people -really- believe that (insert supermarket chain name here) would risk the bad publicity from knowingly selling substandard fuel?

In these days of social media, or even in the bad old days of newspapers, that would be a really good way of committing financial suicide!

Yep, the do extremely rarely get a dodgy batch, and it makes the news everywhere, so people get a greatly exaggerated view of how common it is...

[Krikkit]

Mr2Mike said:

Thornaby said:

a friend of mine runs a garage and he says that people who fill up at Tesco provide most of his business.

51% of people in his area fill up at Tesco?

[unsprung]

soupdragon1 said:

The amount of urban myths circulating the UK is comical. This is another one. As long as 'my mate Dave' believes it, then so should everyone else it seems!

and in every country -- even the wealthy / worldly Scandinavian ones

what would we do without the likes of Snopes and so on

[CS Garth]

Thornaby said:

a friend of mine runs a garage and he says that people who fill up at Tesco provide most of his business.

Presumably he runs a Tesco filling station.

My personal preference is Shell only, mainly because I like guessing how long the hot dogs on the rotisserie have been there.

[Camelot1971]

BAM225 said:

Thesprucegoose said:

diesel and petrol all comes from the same refineries. they add additives that are blended to the relevant spec. (only real difference is biofuel added)

if it makes you feel better to buy it branded as shell etc then do it.

Tried to explain this on pistonheads time and time again, I used to do some work at a fuel refinery in fact, but alas people think that shell and bp use wizzardry to make there fuel better and this thread will almost instantly by tomorrow drag into a arguement.

Just to be clear, you are saying that all fuel, regardless of brand, is exactly the same?

[coldel]

Deesee said:

Tesco fuel turnover is 11/12% of turnover. Say 6 billion pa, profit who knows.? They won’t say..

Shell and BP clear that in opperating profits most years.

I don’t even trust them to bake the bread.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com...

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com...

Nope its Tesco, bigger than both Shell and BP last year
https://www.statista.com/statistics/312071/motor-f...
Its no surprise really, supermarkets have the locations, scale, better supply chains and leverage to get cheap land rents etc. so can certainly cut costs in many ways BP and Shell cannot.

As for listing out left or right wing news articles, sorry but they are hardly factual - certainly an element of fact but clearly sensationalized for the benefit of selling papers.

[KTF]

Camelot1971 said:

Just to be clear, you are saying that all fuel, regardless of brand, is exactly the same?

The base product is, the squirt of additives that are added to make it unique to each brand, no.

[S100HP]

KTF said:

Thornaby said:

a friend of mine runs a garage and he says that people who fill up at Tesco provide most of his business.

Really. What business do they provide then?

Misfueling repair?