Arco vs. Chevron vs. Exxon vs. Shell vs. 76 vs. Valero vs...

Yes, another import newsgroup cross-post.
Anyway, does anyone have opinions on the quality of gas from different stations?
It always surprises me to hear people say things like "my 240SX runs way
smoother on premium Chevron Techron" or "Arco gas totally screws up my Tercel's
mileage." Don't most companies pump gas from the same refineries, and simply
add their own, mostly ineffective, additives? Rumor has it that Shell's is tops
and Arco's is bottom.

yep, gas is all the same....it is pumped in a pipe and additives are mixed
in at the distributor. the deal out here is bp, they're selling amoco 93
cheaper than anyone.
"Crunchy Cookie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsu80c.2007$PR3.30461@attbi_s03...
> Yes, another import newsgroup cross-post.
> Anyway, does anyone have opinions on the quality of gas from different
stations?
> It always surprises me to hear people say things like "my 240SX runs way
> smoother on premium Chevron Techron" or "Arco gas totally screws up my
Tercel's
> mileage." Don't most companies pump gas from the same refineries, and
simply
> add their own, mostly ineffective, additives? Rumor has it that Shell's
is tops
> and Arco's is bottom.
>
>

simpleton wrote:

> yep, gas is all the same....it is pumped in a pipe and additives are mixed
> in at the distributor. the deal out here is bp, they're selling amoco 93
> cheaper than anyone.

I wouldn't always say that. I rememeber reading an article about a
refinery being closed here in California, and how it would affect
the price of gas. They had a list of refineries - including several
independent refineries, but most were owned by BP, Chevron, or Shell.
Some of the "off brands" such as Valero or Tesoro had their own
refineries. Strangely enough - Arco no longer has a refinery in
California.

I would suppose that a Chevron station primarily uses Chevron fuel.
However - refineries have shortages, and they're not above buying
fuel on the open market to fill their needs. If the brand name isn't
attached to a local refinery, then it likely comes from one of the
bigger brand refineries.

Google Search "techron" to give you some insight. Other additives are also
discussed.
"y_p_w" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Jxa0c.13701$(E-Mail Removed) link.net...
>
>
> simpleton wrote:
>
> > yep, gas is all the same....it is pumped in a pipe and additives are
mixed
> > in at the distributor. the deal out here is bp, they're selling amoco 93
> > cheaper than anyone.
>
> I wouldn't always say that. I rememeber reading an article about a
> refinery being closed here in California, and how it would affect
> the price of gas. They had a list of refineries - including several
> independent refineries, but most were owned by BP, Chevron, or Shell.
> Some of the "off brands" such as Valero or Tesoro had their own
> refineries. Strangely enough - Arco no longer has a refinery in
> California.
>
> I would suppose that a Chevron station primarily uses Chevron fuel.
> However - refineries have shortages, and they're not above buying
> fuel on the open market to fill their needs. If the brand name isn't
> attached to a local refinery, then it likely comes from one of the
> bigger brand refineries.
>
>

On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 22:20:19 GMT, "Crunchy Cookie" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Yes, another import newsgroup cross-post.
>Anyway, does anyone have opinions on the quality of gas from different stations?
>It always surprises me to hear people say things like "my 240SX runs way
>smoother on premium Chevron Techron" or "Arco gas totally screws up my Tercel's
>mileage." Don't most companies pump gas from the same refineries, and simply
>add their own, mostly ineffective, additives? Rumor has it that Shell's is tops
>and Arco's is bottom.

Raw gasoline is a commodity. All the refineries (with a few
exceptions) make it the same to meet the State and Federal smog laws,
which is why the areas requiring "reformulated gasoline" are a bit
higher.

It all gets commingled out of necessity - it takes a few days (or
weeks for long pipelines) for one particular gallon of gasoline to get
through the pipeline system from the refinery to your local tank yard,
so they operate on a "1 gallon in, one gallon out" system.

When they fill the tanker truck to bring it to your local gas
station, they either add the oil brand's proprietary additive &
detergent package (like Chevron's Techron) or a generic for
independent stations buying their gasoline on the 'spot market'.

--<< Bruce >>--

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

bruce lays it down....
fungible is the word. it is shipped in a pipe.
"Bruce L. Bergman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 22:20:19 GMT, "Crunchy Cookie" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
> >Yes, another import newsgroup cross-post.
> >Anyway, does anyone have opinions on the quality of gas from different
stations?
> >It always surprises me to hear people say things like "my 240SX runs way
> >smoother on premium Chevron Techron" or "Arco gas totally screws up my
Tercel's
> >mileage." Don't most companies pump gas from the same refineries, and
simply
> >add their own, mostly ineffective, additives? Rumor has it that Shell's
is tops
> >and Arco's is bottom.
>
> Raw gasoline is a commodity. All the refineries (with a few
> exceptions) make it the same to meet the State and Federal smog laws,
> which is why the areas requiring "reformulated gasoline" are a bit
> higher.
>
> It all gets commingled out of necessity - it takes a few days (or
> weeks for long pipelines) for one particular gallon of gasoline to get
> through the pipeline system from the refinery to your local tank yard,
> so they operate on a "1 gallon in, one gallon out" system.
>
> When they fill the tanker truck to bring it to your local gas
> station, they either add the oil brand's proprietary additive &
> detergent package (like Chevron's Techron) or a generic for
> independent stations buying their gasoline on the 'spot market'.
>
> --<< Bruce >>--
>
> --
> Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
> Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
> 5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
> Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

Crunchy Cookie wrote:
>
> Yes, another import newsgroup cross-post.
> Anyway, does anyone have opinions on the quality of gas from different stations?
> It always surprises me to hear people say things like "my 240SX runs way
> smoother on premium Chevron Techron" or "Arco gas totally screws up my Tercel's
> mileage." Don't most companies pump gas from the same refineries, and simply
> add their own, mostly ineffective, additives? Rumor has it that Shell's is tops
> and Arco's is bottom.
>
I'm not familiar with American gas brands. But here in Canada, Canadian Tire
gas is probably the worst quality gas one can get (among known brands),
regardless of octane. It made my '93 Honda Accord ping on acceleration. I
usually fill up with Esso, Shell, Petro-Canada or Sunoco (87 octane), and my
car runs well with all of these. Up until recently, my father was using
Crappy Tire gas in his '04 Corolla. But I finally convinced him to switch to
an aforementioned better brand. :-)

They're all priced about the same (within the same locale), but the quality
of some brands is higher than others.

Horseman wrote:
> Crunchy Cookie wrote:
>>
>> Yes, another import newsgroup cross-post.
>> Anyway, does anyone have opinions on the quality of gas from
>> different stations? It always surprises me to hear people say things
>> like "my 240SX runs way smoother on premium Chevron Techron" or
>> "Arco gas totally screws up my Tercel's mileage." Don't most
>> companies pump gas from the same refineries, and simply add their
>> own, mostly ineffective, additives? Rumor has it that Shell's is
>> tops and Arco's is bottom.
>>
> I'm not familiar with American gas brands. But here in Canada,
> Canadian Tire gas is probably the worst quality gas one can get
> (among known brands), regardless of octane. It made my '93 Honda
> Accord ping on acceleration. I usually fill up with Esso, Shell,
> Petro-Canada or Sunoco (87 octane), and my car runs well with all of
> these. Up until recently, my father was using Crappy Tire gas in his
> '04 Corolla. But I finally convinced him to switch to an
> aforementioned better brand. :-)
>
> They're all priced about the same (within the same locale), but the
> quality of some brands is higher than others.

Here in Edmonton, Canada, gas is *not priced all about the same*. At the
very least, I pay 7.5 cents a litre less than the sign price: the pump
price is 4 cents less than the sign price at Save-on Gas and one can opt, on
production of their *gasp* *horrors* Save-on loyalty card, for a further 4
cents a litre off the sign price, redeemable in merchandise. This I spend on
loss leaders or on staples, such as milk which costs about the same as the
lowest price store in the city. Some of the independents circulate coupons
good for 5 cents off a litre, e.g. Domo. Canadian Tire here gives about 5
cents a litre off a litre in Canadian Tire money, good on merchandise
at...Canadian Tire. Sometimes Save-on in their weekly flyer has a coupon
good for $2 off a minimum 30 litre purchase *in addition* to all the other
discounts I mentioned. So, with the coupon, if the sign says 70 cents a
litre at Save-on and I buy the minimum 30 litre purchase, in effect, I'm
getting gas at 55.84 cents a litre, a discount of 20.2 %. By the way, for
years before switching to Save-on, I did buy Canadian Tire regular gas for
my 99 Camry 6 cyl. and NEVER had any trouble whatsoever with it. YMMV,
obviously.

I've been told that the Big Three always use Chevron gas when they take
their cars in for EPA testing. Not sure if this is still true (or has ever
been true), but if it is, one may draw the conclusion that Chevron gas must
either have lower emissions, give better gas mileage, or both. Can anyone
out there confirm if they use only Chevron gas for EPA testing?

"SHARX." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Ywe0c.33711$A12.12136@edtnps84...
> Horseman wrote:
> > Crunchy Cookie wrote:
> >>
> >> Yes, another import newsgroup cross-post.
> >> Anyway, does anyone have opinions on the quality of gas from
> >> different stations? It always surprises me to hear people say things
> >> like "my 240SX runs way smoother on premium Chevron Techron" or
> >> "Arco gas totally screws up my Tercel's mileage." Don't most
> >> companies pump gas from the same refineries, and simply add their
> >> own, mostly ineffective, additives? Rumor has it that Shell's is
> >> tops and Arco's is bottom.
> >>
> > I'm not familiar with American gas brands. But here in Canada,
> > Canadian Tire gas is probably the worst quality gas one can get
> > (among known brands), regardless of octane. It made my '93 Honda
> > Accord ping on acceleration. I usually fill up with Esso, Shell,
> > Petro-Canada or Sunoco (87 octane), and my car runs well with all of
> > these. Up until recently, my father was using Crappy Tire gas in his
> > '04 Corolla. But I finally convinced him to switch to an
> > aforementioned better brand. :-)
> >
> > They're all priced about the same (within the same locale), but the
> > quality of some brands is higher than others.
>
> Here in Edmonton, Canada, gas is *not priced all about the same*. At
the
> very least, I pay 7.5 cents a litre less than the sign price: the pump
> price is 4 cents less than the sign price at Save-on Gas and one can
opt, on
> production of their *gasp* *horrors* Save-on loyalty card, for a further
4
> cents a litre off the sign price, redeemable in merchandise. This I
spend on
> loss leaders or on staples, such as milk which costs about the same as
the
> lowest price store in the city. Some of the independents circulate
coupons
> good for 5 cents off a litre, e.g. Domo. Canadian Tire here gives about
5
> cents a litre off a litre in Canadian Tire money, good on merchandise
> at...Canadian Tire. Sometimes Save-on in their weekly flyer has a
coupon
> good for $2 off a minimum 30 litre purchase *in addition* to all the
other
> discounts I mentioned. So, with the coupon, if the sign says 70 cents a
> litre at Save-on and I buy the minimum 30 litre purchase, in effect, I'm
> getting gas at 55.84 cents a litre, a discount of 20.2 %. By the way,
for
> years before switching to Save-on, I did buy Canadian Tire regular gas
for
> my 99 Camry 6 cyl. and NEVER had any trouble whatsoever with it. YMMV,
> obviously.
>
>
>

Crunchy Cookie wrote:
> Yes, another import newsgroup cross-post.
> Anyway, does anyone have opinions on the quality of gas from different stations?
> It always surprises me to hear people say things like "my 240SX runs way
> smoother on premium Chevron Techron" or "Arco gas totally screws up my Tercel's
> mileage." Don't most companies pump gas from the same refineries, and simply
> add their own, mostly ineffective, additives? Rumor has it that Shell's is tops
> and Arco's is bottom.
>
>
BP stands for bad petroleum.