Does Gas Station Brand Actually Change MPG? 🤔⛽️

[Cherokee]

Another tid bit of useless life experience,

Tanker driver gets to his last stop and someone miscalculated the drop. He was suppose to offload 3,000 gallons of regular but the stop could only take 2,000 gallons.

Dispatch will find him a place to drop that last thousand gallons on the way back.
The fuel transport regulations do not want him coming back to get another load because he still has fuel onboard.
He is supposed to return with only a full tanker of fumes. Very dangerous shit.

Dispatch finds him a location to drop that last thousand gallons.

Re read post #40
He drops it.
It mixes well with the, ‘Top Tier fuel’
It was not top tier. It was the cheap stuff that the convenience stores sell on the poor side of town at the Indian owned mom and pop locations.

You bought it many times and didn’t know it.

That sucks but your ok as long as you use top tier most of the time.

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[MaverickDragon]

While that could happen, it doesn't mean that it does, just that it can.
How often, who knows.

 

[A112358]

While that could happen, it doesn't mean that it does, just that it can.
How often, who knows.

Not very often. Gas stations know within a few hundred gallons how much gas is in the underground tanks, and that's how they determine how much to order for the next delivery.

 

[MaverickDragon]

@A112358
I would think so - and what name brand station will take a load of gas that isn't their spec, just because they have some room in the tank...

 

[MaverickDragon]

E-15 a noticeable difference in mileage to E-10?
Good luck.

I would run a more controlled test comparing the two, but considering I don't want additional ethanol in my fuel I'm not going to do that.
Maybe someone else can report back after filling up with more crappy corn squeezins in their tank.

 

[Timothyd]

I try to use Costco cause of price. What's everyone's opinion on costco?

My Mav (hybrid) seems to love it.

 

[bighap]

I have exclusively used Costco gas because it's nearby and is the best price in town. I think I hit a Shell station once on a trip but there's no way to compare MPGs based off one tank on a route I've never driven before.

 

[JTBII]

Alright I can’t be the only one that notices this

I swear my Maverick gets different MPG depending on where I fill up. Some tanks feel like they last forever and other times the fuel disappears way faster even though I’m driving the same routes.


Sometimes the truck even feels smoother after certain fill ups and other stations make it feel kinda sluggish for no reason.
I’ve noticed:

• better MPG from some stations
• worse MPG from others
• different engine feel/sound
• some gas seems to burn way quicker

Curious if anyone else has noticed the same thing or if this is all just in our heads lol

• What stations have been the best for you guys?
• Which ones have been the worst?
• Does Costco actually live up to the hype?
• And is Chevron/Shell actually better or just expensive branding?

Interested to see if there’s actually a pattern here or if we’re all just gas station conspiracy theorists now
(Pic for attention)

I’ve had good luck with Shell which is TopTier gas, but on my trip from South Fork Colorado to Indiana I used Conoco after I read an article about that brand having 30% more of the important additives than almost all Top Tier brands. I have a 2024 XLT 4K F4 Ecoboost and I got up to 40.3 mpg for the first 25 miles and averaged 38.6 for 1200 miles. It’s by far the best gas mileage I’ve got in almost 30,000 miles total on my Mav. It makes a difference for sure. That was at Interstate and State Highway speeds.
JTBII

 

[A112358]

@A112358
I would think so - and what name brand station will take a load of gas that isn't their spec, just because they have some room in the tank...

An off-brand station might take it, specs unknown, at a discount price, but that's about .it. No "top tier" station would touch anything specs unverified.

 

[A112358]

I have exclusively used Costco gas because it's nearby and is the best price in town. I think I hit a Shell station once on a trip but there's no way to compare MPGs based off one tank on a route I've never driven before.

There are too many variables in day-to-day driving to precisely measure MPG variance from brand to brand. It would take controlled conditions on a test track to accurately measure any differences.

 

[Pointyears]

Not very often. Gas stations know within a few hundred gallons how much gas is in the underground tanks,

If they don’t they can just ask the Iranians.

 

[Joaquin F]

Use your search engine and ask which brand are top-tier.

Forgive me please. I was unaware that "top-tier" was an official ranking

 

[MavStangVa]

Forgive me please. I was unaware that "top-tier" was an official ranking

Joaquin here is a link to the top tier site.
https://www.toptiergas.com/

 

[FordPrefect]

Not very often. Gas stations know within a few hundred gallons how much gas is in the underground tanks, and that's how they determine how much to order for the next delivery.

When I was a kid my dad had an Esso service station. Before ordering gas we would always stick the tank and knew within gallons, not hundreds, how much gas we had. There was a measuring stick for each grade because the undergrounds were different capacities. You had to know how much to order because the delivery was a gravity dump and if you ordered too much a really serious problem came up, literally, out of the ground.

 

[A112358]

When I was a kid my dad had an Esso service station. Before ordering gas we would always stick the tank and knew within gallons, not hundreds, how much gas we had. There was a measuring stick for each grade because the undergrounds were different capacities. You had to know how much to order because the delivery was a gravity dump and if you ordered too much a really serious problem came up, literally, out of the ground.

One of my part-time jobs I had to pay for college was at a Citgo station. I would come in at 6:00 AM on a Sunday before the station opened and stick the tanks, and putting that paste on the bottom of the stick to check for water. Later in the day the manager would call in the order for Monday morning delivery.

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