Canucks - Fuel You Use?

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So with all the Shell stations in my area closing up or converting to other brands and all the Sunoco's converting to Huskey's I'm looking for another Top-Tier fuel supplier other than Shell.

Anyone use Petro-Canada? Your experiences?

Steve
 
Have used it on our trips to Canada (London, Toronto, etc). Frankly, my cars can't tell the difference between fuels for the most part. I try to buy what is economical and Petro Canada seems to fall into that category.
 
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I've noticed a bunch of Shell stations closing up around here too, unlike the Mohawk/Husky's, which are closing down, and renovating. Some of the new Husky stations / convenience stores look pretty cool.

Chevron's been doing some touching up on their stations too. LED lighting, modern pumps.

It's too bad the shells are closing down. Their 91 V-Power Ethanol FREE was a bit cheaper then Chevron's 94 Ethanol FREE, and 91 was great in an older car without having to sacrifice to 84 oct+5% ethanol = 87 octane regular or pay the premium for premium.
 
There are no Chevron Stations in Ontario. I buy my gas at Canadian Tire to get the 8-10 cent per liter discount with their MasterCard. I think the gas is all the same; one refinery supplies many brand of stations. In fact fuel delivery tankers no long have oil company names on them, just private truckers who deliver to all the stations.
 
I've posted before, but since you asked.... :)

For years and years I kept going back to Esso (91 or 92 depending on which year you ask me). Other brands I usually try are Sunoco 92 and Shell V-Power 91/92 (depending on which year).

I first started comparing fuel for my Porsche 968 I had from 2000-2005. It called for 93 AKI fuel but would run on "as low as" 91 IIRC. The only brand meeting that on the sticker was Sunoco 94 but I found that Esso (92 in those days) could also run fine without retarding the timing. Everything else caused knock-then-retard. It's off topic, but in 5 years of ownership I think I only ever got *3* great tanks of gas. As soon as I started the car and pulled away I could tell I got a good one. Smoother idle, significantly increased power (like, it briefly scared me once it was so much faster) and substantial increase in fuel economy (like 30% - the tank seemed to last forever). Next fill up at the same station, back to the "same old" right after re-starting
frown.gif
. I expect perhaps I was experiencing tanks with no ethanol, MTBE or whatever other [censored] they're putting in there other than gasoline to hit 94 AKI. In the 9 years I've been driving my current 1998 BMW I've had one extraordinary tank of gas from an Esso in Grand Bend. Both my friend and I noticed that fill up lasting a lot longer than normal.

Back to the topic. I kept coming back to Esso in my BMW because I found that between those three brands in my area I would usually get either good performance, or good fuel economy, or neither, but Esso consistently gave me both.

Often in the winter I use Shell because I like the Shell carwash better than the Esso one and I like the fill up discount. This winter I had new snow tires but I noticed that I didn't get a substantial fuel economy drop off that I usually see. As a matter of fact I noticed better fuel economy this winter on my new snows (Hakkapeliitta RSi) than I usually get in the summer (Michelin PS2).

I stuck with Shell all winter and never switched back in the spring. It seems that I'm no longer seeing the drop in either performance or fuel economy that I used to see with whatever their new formula is. The 0% ethanol is nice, but in the past it didn't seem to save V-Power from still losing in terms of economy or performance.

I did fill up at an Esso on holidays (only brand in town) and I was mixing it with a half tank of V-Power but I thought maybe there was some better performance after the switch. Maybe I'll have to try a tank of Esso next time again and see.

People used to bash Esso for high sulphur. Since that became regulated I don't think it's an issue any more and, in some ways, the lubricity of some sulphur might be good if it weren't for the pesky SO2 in the exhaust and H2SO4 formed in the oil.
 
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Craig, I hate to tell you this, but the gas is all the same. Esso, Petro-Canada, Shell. Its all the same stuff, and comes from the same refinery. If an Esso station is near a Shell refinery, that's where its gas comes from. It's a pure commodity. They may add a different additive to it, but that is likely all the same as well. Remember Shell gas with Platformate? Well Platformate was just a name Shell gave to an ingredient that was in every brand of gas.
 
Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Craig, I hate to tell you this, but the gas is all the same. Esso, Petro-Canada, Shell. Its all the same stuff, and comes from the same refinery. If an Esso station is near a Shell refinery, that's where its gas comes from. It's a pure commodity. They may add a different additive to it, but that is likely all the same as well. Remember Shell gas with Platformate? Well Platformate was just a name Shell gave to an ingredient that was in every brand of gas.


I know it's shipped in bulk, I've read it a thousand times, but it can't be *all* the same. V-Power is E0 - are you saying that all 91 AKI fuel in my area is also E0 but everyone else says it's E10? Sunoco offers AKI 94 - are you saying that all "premium" fuel is actually AKI 94 and not the AKI 91 it says on the sticker? Or perhaps that the 3 point bump in AKI is solely from the additive package added at the last minute by the tanker driver?

There are a couple of ways you could say that the gas in the pipeline is all the same, but it's not the same once it comes out of the pump.

You can tell me it's all the same all you want, but my performance and economy observations have consistently followed the brands. Every year or so I "shop around" and kept coming back to Esso (at least for this car).

I don't care what they call their additives, or how fancy their glossy brochure is. I do care about how the local station is run (my local Esso never seems to change the pump filters - sloooooow) and how the fuel performs in my car - regardless of whether the differences are due to the base fuel or the fuel+additive. Performance is just as important to me as fuel economy - I notice changes in both.
 
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I was talking to one of the tanker drivers a couple of weeks ago and when he pulls into the Sarnia Shell refinery there are "branded" and "unbranded" storage tanks for him to load from. The Canadian Tire station next door to me is supposed to get Shell gas but sometimes there is a problem getting a full load from Shell (reg. premium, diesel) as required so the driver is sent to Esso to pick up his load.
I would assume that a "branded" gas station (Shell, Esso etc) would always have their own fuel but the "unbranded" stations (SuperStore, Canadian Tire etc) are a toss-up as far as where the fuel came from.
 
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No Shell or PetroCan here, so I stick with Esso. They're everywhere here, and one is almost right next door to my house.

-Spyder
 
Shell is what I use 99% of the time for the RDX and Prelude. The ACcord since it is on regular I pump it anywhere (usually petro canada as i have a discount card from 407 etr plus my 2 cents off for Citibank petro can card in total 4 cents off per a litre)
 
Up there with the brand of gas (and maybe even more important), is the frequency its being sold at. I think the low-turnover stuff that sits forever in its storage tanks before being replenished, is more likely to be higher in contaminants than the stations that are replenishing regularly because they have a steady stream of customers.

Aside from the two stations I use being top tier (Esso), they both sell a lot of gas. I've never gotten a bad tank, and my fuel economy has been consistent when other factors are taken into account.

-Spyder
 
All the stations in my area are high-volume so I'm not worried about that... Just wanting to see what fuel everyone uses and whether P.C. or Esso is the same or better than the Shell I'm using because Shell stations are harder and harder to find up here.
 
I can only ever remember seeing one here. Then it closed out and is now an Ultramar. Lots of those, ESSO, and Irving here. They are our big 3.

No Petro Canada here that I can think of either.

-Spyder
 
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