Fuel company profits

Went to fill up last night at local Esso station. I was starting to use the 'premium grades' as the difference was 8p a litre and I reckoned it was economically slightly better with economy and the engine was definitely smoother.
To my dismay the difference has gone up to 15p a litre more in one jump.
They are 'having a laugh'   
Wonder if Shell have done the same with Vpower 

I think better 'mileage returns' are by using branded fuel as opposed to supermarket fuel.

PB

'Fraid I can't agree. I mainly use Sainsbury's fuel when at home. The van is my only transport so it gets used as a car - it probably more use and therefore gets though more fuel than other peoples vans.

When we are off on an adventure, I use whatever fuel is available - Esso, Shell, BP or ??? and I have never, ever noticed a difference between any of them, performance or ecomony wise.

I always maintain that as it is basically a commercial vehicle, it will have been designed to use the cheapest fuel rather than the dearest.

Frank

    

Don't relate fuel company profits with pump prices. Two reasons - most fuel outlets like Shell are franchised not owned and also the big oil companies make their money getting the stuff out of the ground, not in refining and distribution, which is why much of the downstream supply chain has been sold off. Already commented in the past about supermarket vs branded........

If a vehicle gets plenty of miles, the fuel used is largely irrelevant.
I used to run a small sports car which 'had to run on 98 RON' petrol and all other owners swore by VPower or the BP equivalent.
I was driving about 500 miles a week to and from work mostly at motorway speeds and found that the consumption didn't change by a measurable amount whichever fuel I used, staying around 50 mpg. (Smart Roadster, 700cc Turbo 101 BHP). I did as suggested and ran a good few tankfulls through but no difference. With the 95 RON petrol, performance felt very slightly down but it didn't change anything in the real world. So I saved a fortune. The only benefits with the fancy fuels is if you do a lot of stop / start short journeys letting the engine carbon up, the additives do help keep it clean inside. Me I'd rather just go for a long drive now and then to do the same.

I run a 1.9 turbo diesel car and a 2.8 HDi based motorhome.

I have logged the mpg over several years whilst using both for business and leisure.

I have found a definite improvement over all types of driving when using premium grade fuel, enough to balance the extra cost per litre.  I have not been able to quantify any additional benefits in servicing etc.

However this improvement in mpg pales into insignificance compared with letting Mrs B do the lion's share of the driving!

 She is considerably lighter of foot than I am . . .