Supermarket Petrol V. Name Brand Petrol

[johnny37]

Friend who is a retired petrol station owner swears supermarket petrol damages your engine due to the additives they put in it.
Anyone know if this is true?

[douglas9401]

Untrue in my experience.

[mikey4444]

It sounds like a lot of Rolex to me !

[Prudie]

I have seen many purists, including on AB, who've made such claims about supermarket petrol. Personally I've always used it with no ill-effect.

[Voltage]

She who must be obeyed swears she gets more mileage from a well known petrol station than supermarket petrol..who am I to disagree lol

[Bazile]

Here's an opinion

https://www.regit.cars/car-news/is-supermarket-fuel-bad-for-your-car_65626

[whiskeryron]

Always make sure you order Supermarket fuel from the pump area & NOT over the counter at normal checkout. doh !!

[ladybirder]

Honest John, whose advice on cars I would take any day of the week, says it's true Johnny.
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/24490/supermarket-fuels---are-they-that-bad-

[Islay]

I have never had any issues and actually get the same out of a tank of well known or supermarket

[Old_Geezer]

I get Ocado to deliver mine. Save me a journey.

[ToraToraTora]

This harks back to the famous Nikasil bore issue suffered by some BMW engines in the late nineties. It was caused by high sulphur content of cheap supermarket fuels in the north at that time. I'm pretty sure now that the supermarkets have stopped buying the poorly refined fuels now but I still don't trust them entirely.

[Buenchico]

Back in my 'trade plating' days (delivering cars across the country) I hitched quite a few lifts with tanker drivers. They all told me that the petrol that they delivered to supermarkets came out of the same tanks as the petrol they delivered to other filling stations.

[albaqwerty]

I have no proof, nor a link to offer, only my thought is that once supermarkets started to sell 'cheaper' fuel, the branded ones were losing out so started a rumour.

It's difficult to get rid of a bad reputation.

[Bazile]

//Back in my 'trade plating' days (delivering cars across the country) I hitched quite a few lifts with tanker drivers. They all told me that the petrol that they delivered to supermarkets came out of the same tanks as the petrol they delivered to other filling stations.//

chris - i read somewhere that the tankers firstly go through different entrances at the refineries to take on the different additives , according to which company they are filling up to deliver to - e.g shell / total etc, for their non standard petrol .

They then proceed to the same tank that is used for other filling stations to fill up

[bhg481]

I use supermarket fuel whenever possible, both here and on the continent. My last car covered 150,000 miles and the current one is at 175,000 miles; neither have had any fuel-system or engine problems. I monitor my fuel consumption closely and neither had any change over the time I owned them.

[mikey4444]

I doubt whether this urban myth will ever really go away, no matter how many times we debate it.

[bhg481]

I suspect that you are right Mikey.

[waterboatman]

I use supermarket petrol, its 5p a litre cheaper and I get the same mileage, and no problems with anything else.

[mikey4444]

Boaty....and so does everybody else...and Tesco points !

[Flonska]

All petrol and diesel sold in the UK must meet British Standards, so filling up at supermarkets is just as safe for your engine as doing so at a "branded" garage.

Every petrol station uses a standard ‘base’ fuel which comes from the same UK refineries but different petrol retailers use different additives. The RAC and the AA both confirm that petrol and diesel fuel quality is governed by the same European standard, wherever it’s sold.

Approx 50% of the petrol and diesel is bought at supermarket pumps. If it were to be inferior, then we would probably have heard about it by now.