Is petrol petrol or do brands differ

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Stroller

Is petrol petrol or do brands differ

Some people claim that a certain brand of petrol is superior to another because it gives better consumption or the car feels that it has more power. Surely all petrol in Cape Town comes from the Chevron refinery? There is no way that Shell or BP will rail down petrol all the way from Durban. Similarly, all fuel consumed in the Garden Route is sourced from Mossel Bay

I don't think that the additives that are put into the fuel can make any difference as claimed by the various suppliers.
In another forum a poster says that third party transport without any brand id will deliver fuel to places off-the-beaten track and do drops at service stations of different brands from the same tanker! This implies that the particular additive of a brand is not added.

Can one assume then that, while the quality of fuel from the various refineries may differ slightly in terms of spec, there is absolutely no difference between Shell, BP, Caltex, Sasol, Engen and Total.

Status: Open May 02, 2018 - 08:51 PM

Questions on fuel

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Answer

Martin

May 02, 2018 - 08:51 PM

Hello there

Thank you for your interesting question. The long and the short of it is that the base fuel is pretty much identical between brands, because they're all made to similar specifications (regarding octane number and alcohol- and aromatic content) from similar base resources (either coal, gas or crude oil). However, the additive blends between the brands do differ, with some additive packs containing specific components to (amongst others) stabilise the fuel during storage, and using different detergent compounds.

It is indeed true that non-branded tankers often deliver to far-out places at different branded stations, but in these instances, the brand-specific additives are added during delivery. Whether this actually happens according to instructions is another matter altogether, though. These additives do make a difference in the vehicle's performance and fuel consumption, and it has actually been measured as making those differences. The best advice would be to try all the different brands in your area, monitor the fuel consumption, and stick with the one which returned the lowest consumption, as this would indicate which specific additives work best with your vehicle.

Hope the helps!

The AskAutoTrader Team

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