Better gas mileage from one particular station?

[j_mac]

Can someone help me explain this?
There are 2 different gas stations that I've filled up at in the last 2 months that have given me about 3 mpg better economy. I measured over the same roads at steady interstate speeds. No other variables.
The car always gets 32-33 mpg on the interstate. But 3 different times with gas from 2 separate stations I was able to get 36 mpg. I'm pretty sure the only gas available where I'm getting it is 10% ethanol, so I don't think that has anything to do with it. No wind or any other variables like that either.

Any ideas.

 

[Dakota1820]

Could be your car likes one gas over the other. Could be different variables. No two drives are the same. Though I know when I go to the local Murphy station which is usually a penny cheaper I get 28 MPG out of my Saturn vs 32 from bp. Its usually how it works everytime so I pay the extra few penny's now .

 

[CourierDriver]

could be an error in ur calculater IMHO>

 

[CharBaby]

My wife car('01 Lexus RX-300) consistantly gets better MPG on HESS 93 octane than any other brand of 93 or any other grade from any other station including HESS. I've tried all octanes from all stations and many tankfulls of each octane at that! It likes HESS 93!

And this is not only evident on the dash display but, my personal calculations as well.

I see little difference with our other cars/gas stations/MPG but, If I had to pick a local station for better(IMHO, MPG) it'd be SUNOCO for the other 3 cars.

Although I feel no performance differences in any of the vehicles during day-to-day driving reguardless of the octane, even when driving through the mountainous areas of our country. The engines perform quite well while climbing up to whatever feet above sea level.

 

[pcoxe]

The information stickers on the gas pumps say MAY contain up to 10% ethanol. Sounds like you are getting 100% gas at a few stations, regardless of what the ethanol policy may be.

 

[Bluestream]

Originally Posted By: pcoxe
The information stickers on the gas pumps say MAY contain up to 10% ethanol. Sounds like you are getting 100% gas at a few stations, regardless of what the ethanol policy may be.


X2

 

[spock1]

Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Originally Posted By: pcoxe
The information stickers on the gas pumps say MAY contain up to 10% ethanol. Sounds like you are getting 100% gas at a few stations, regardless of what the ethanol policy may be.


X2

X3

 

[Boss302fan]

My wifes 2011 Santa Fe V6 runs better on Shell then on BP gas. Not sure why, but the vehicles that I have owned in the last 7-8 years really did not idle smooth with BP gas and the mileage goes down slightly(.5 mpg) on the Santa Fe. Is BP considered a good gas? I know people seem to like Chevron and Shell.

 

[Garak]

Agreed. It's either just the "noise" in attempting to calculate mileage, or it's ethanol versus pure gas. For whatever reason, up here, when I filled the Audi at Esso versus just about anywhere else, I always got about 75 more km out of a tank of fuel. I have no idea whether or not their premium has ethanol. Further, I haven't noticed the same issue on my other vehicles.

 

[Bluestream]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Agreed. It's either just the "noise" in attempting to calculate mileage, or it's ethanol versus pure gas. For whatever reason, up here, when I filled the Audi at Esso versus just about anywhere else, I always got about 75 more km out of a tank of fuel. I have no idea whether or not their premium has ethanol. Further, I haven't noticed the same issue on my other vehicles.



Esso Premium has no Ethanol

 

[Timothy Ferguson]

We don't have ESSO here in the states they are called EXXON or MOBIL. Also, most locations in Canada still does not have ethanol in the gas from what I understand its in big city areas and maybe not even that.

 

[Timothy Ferguson]

My Forester gets aprox 4mpg more on name brand top tier gas like BP which it really likes and Shell than if I get it at my local Kroger (grocery store) or Flash Foods. There has to be something in the additives that the name brand top tiers have that the generics don't. I don't trust that stuff in my car anyhow. The few extra pennies you spend now which isnt much anyhow could end up paying you back in that little extra mpg you get.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Esso Premium has no Ethanol


There's my answer, then. The Audi didn't like ethanol and the Esso premium had none. I know that the Coop premium and Shell premium here also have no ethanol. I don't fill up at Coop too often, since their business hours policy is still evolving from the 1950s, and Shell uses Airmiles up here, which is of little use to me.

Do you happen to know whether or not Petro-Canada premium has ethanol? I'm under the impression it does. Husky/Mohawk provides conflicting data, but I also suspect theirs has ethanol as well.

I'm no big ethanol hater. For the most part, I don't care much either way, and have used ethanol gas for many, many years with no issues. I just don't want a flame war.

Originally Posted By: Timothy Ferguson
Also, most locations in Canada still does not have ethanol in the gas from what I understand its in big city areas and maybe not even that.


It depends on the province. In this province, every station must sell ethanol blended fuel, with a certain percentage of ethanol required, averaged out over their sales. That's how they can get away with having premium ethanol free. They sell regular as E-10, and midgrade around E-5, and straight gas for premium. They sell much more regular than premium, so that gets them over the percentage requirement for their total sales.

 

[Timothy Ferguson]

I"m from northern NY but now I live in GA. I am certainly used to Ontario as where I draw my info from.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: j_mac
Can someone help me explain this?
There are 2 different gas stations that I've filled up at in the last 2 months that have given me about 3 mpg better economy. I measured over the same roads at steady interstate speeds. No other variables.
The car always gets 32-33 mpg on the interstate. But 3 different times with gas from 2 separate stations I was able to get 36 mpg. I'm pretty sure the only gas available where I'm getting it is 10% ethanol, so I don't think that has anything to do with it. No wind or any other variables like that either.

Any ideas.



I found the same thing depending on which pump I used at the same station. Certain pumps give you more fuel per gallon: their calibration is in your favor.

 

[friendly_jacek]

Once I discovered that gas from Summit gas station gave me 5% more MPG. I was not the only one and soon the station had long lines of cars. That even attracted local TV coverage. After that the MPG premium disappered. I figured the station had a problem with pump calibration and dispensed more gas than it should.
I had opposite experiences in some generic no name stations that cheated on gas volume.