Technical Shell V Power

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Technical Shell V Power

Interesting. However, the different behaviour in the cold or when first running may be due to other factors presumably? Not just another year's mileage, but presumably you have had the car serviced in the last 12 months, so new filters etc?

We had the car last serviced in December and started using V Power in March this year; between that period it was still behaving in the same way as it did from new.

For that reason I do genuinely believe that the improvements stated are down to the change in fuel. It seems too much of a coincidence otherwise.

However it's not out of the question that it just "sorted itself out" - it is a Fiat after all!;)
 
All fuels for motor vehicle use in the UK have to conform to a British Standard and I think you will find the quality of fuels sold at outlets exceed the British Standard (especially on octane rating).

Looking at the discussion re cheap supermarket fuels, there is a distinct possibility that when purchasing from this source, you may actually be filling up with Shell/Esso or BP fuel because this is where it has been originally purchased from.

Similarly depending whereabouts in the UK you live -vs- manufacturing facilities (refineries) exchanges go on between the major suppliers i.e. a company who has refining/production in the south, but do not have a refinery in the North. It is not feasible to transport fuel from South to North so they do an exchange deal and load their delivery vehicles at another companies outlet in the North and the reverse happens down south.

Hope this makes sense ?


I was in the Manufacturing and Supply business for a major refiner for 28yrs so do not bother about brand loyalty. I have not noticed any difference or performance impairment on my 500 TA when using supermarket fuel.
 
Chas

I'll be frank and say I thought you were talking out of your seat base until I read the final para of your posting.

Is it really the case that supermarket petrol could in fact be Shell/BP? I thought they had their own deals with refineries (which is why the Morrisons fuel cock up a few years ago was limited to Morrisons)?
 
Robin

Like everyone in the market place, the supermarkets will go where they can get it cheapest and it could be that one of the Oil Majors could be in the frame at the time. (Market pricing, overcapacity for trading out etc.)

One of my jobs when working for a Major, was to collate annual sales figures of all marketable fuels and Tesco, Sainsbury always had a volume to be put against their name.

Even if Fuel is brought in from abroad and put into 3rd party storage for the supermarkets or small independent retailer, it still has to conform to our British Standard before it is marketed.

As such this fuel must come with an appropriate Quality Certificate and also the quality should be verified by an Independent 3rd Party Inspector once discharged into storage.

I could go on and on but won't bore you any further.
 
PS Robin

Surely you should change your name to Frank.

Don't call me Shirley.

dont-call-me-shirley.jpg
 
For years I have only ever filled up at Tesco. I've earned thousands of points which has bought me ridiculously low priced full Roadside/Recovery, cheap hotel deals and occasionally, a complete fortnightly food shopping.

What's more, I've never suffered any problems with their fuel. (I don't work for Tesco by the way!!) :)
 
For years I have only ever filled up at Tesco. I've earned thousands of points which has bought me ridiculously low priced full Roadside/Recovery, cheap hotel deals and occasionally, a complete fortnightly food shopping.

What's more, I've never suffered any problems with their fuel. (I don't work for Tesco by the way!!) :)
That may be so, but the wife had an Escort that broke down after filling up with Tesco fuel. The AA person on the day said "have you filled up at tesco?" she said yes and he said "You're the xth person so far in this area I've been to today"

Then there was her Subaru which was running fine and then a mile after filling up at Tesco popped the CEL and needed a new o2 sensor......

Personally I'll stick with the major oil companies.....
 
I hear what you say, trouble is, with well over ten years of filling up five different marques of vehicle using only supermarket fuel, I'll need a lot more convincing than your own unfortunate experiences.
 
When something goes wrong with the delivery of fuel to a vehicle, it is very rare that the problem is due to the manufacture (or blending process) but it can happen but as I said very rare.

Mostly it is to do with storage and it's subsequent movement to the point of delivery. Possibly water ingress, crap in the lines or contamination with other fuel product on supply.
 
When something goes wrong with the delivery of fuel to a vehicle, it is very rare that the problem is due to the manufacture (or blending process) but it can happen but as I said very rare.

Mostly it is to do with storage and it's subsequent movement to the point of delivery. Possibly water ingress, crap in the lines or contamination with other fuel product on supply.
Always seems to happen with supermarket fuel though.......
 
Always seems to happen with supermarket fuel though.......

That could be down to particular filling stations though, and maybe some of the supermarket ones simply aren't as thorough about how they maintain the vessels that the fuel is stored in.

Somebody said in an earlier post something along the lines of if you want carrots you buy them from a supermarket, not a filling station. Shell, BP, Esso etc - their business is storing and selling fuel, so you would expect them to get it right 100% of the time.

Supermarkets have simply jumped on the fuel bandwaggon, and although it must be a good moneymaker for them, it is not their specialism (though you'd expect them to know enough, and to be fair I think they do get it right pretty much most of the time).

If dodgy fuel was a trait of x supermarket (because they are buying in a certain grade/quality), then surely it would affect all of their filling stations across the country all the time, and not just isolated incidents?

Just my opinion anyway :p I'll get back in my box now...
 
I've just read that the major supermarket suppliers are dropping their fuel prices as from today, the lowest they've been since last February apparently. Predictions are that they will fall further still. The piece I read also stressed that they may not be the cheapest source of fuel in all areas. All info freely available on 'tinternet'.

Advanced regards to Maxi, this is not aimed as a deliberate wind up toward you. :)
 
I've just read that the major supermarket suppliers are dropping their fuel prices as from today, the lowest they've been since last February apparently. Predictions are that they will fall further still. The piece I read also stressed that they may not be the cheapest source of fuel in all areas. All info freely available on 'tinternet'.

Advanced regards to Maxi, this is not aimed as a deliberate wind up toward you. :)

Expected this, demand has shrunk

http://www.forecourttrader.co.uk/ne...984/Petrol_sales_down_1.7_billion_litres.html
 
That is a good and interesting piece. My only concern with the continuing drop in fuel sales, is I wonder what impact this is going to have on all of us who have gone green and changed our cars for low emission models? My wife and I are cases in point, giving up two very CO2 heavy emission vehicles for cars which emit almost less than half of the old cars and subsequently the annual tax we now pay is 30 and 155 pounds respectively. It is also obvious in the street I live, that many people are also changing their vehicles for much fuel efficient and green vehicles and thus the impact on the Government's finances if this is reflected across the country, will ultimately have a huge impact. How they intend plugging this black hole will be interesting to see. I mean, fantastic paying only 30 quid a year for the 500, but how long will that last? Will it go up by a tenner each year until such a point as it reaches the same sort of levels that most people currently pay?
 
That is a good and interesting piece. My only concern with the continuing drop in fuel sales, is I wonder what impact this is going to have on all of us who have gone green and changed our cars for low emission models? My wife and I are cases in point, giving up two very CO2 heavy emission vehicles for cars which emit almost less than half of the old cars and subsequently the annual tax we now pay is 30 and 155 pounds respectively. It is also obvious in the street I live, that many people are also changing their vehicles for much fuel efficient and green vehicles and thus the impact on the Government's finances if this is reflected across the country, will ultimately have a huge impact. How they intend plugging this black hole will be interesting to see. I mean, fantastic paying only 30 quid a year for the 500, but how long will that last? Will it go up by a tenner each year until such a point as it reaches the same sort of levels that most people currently pay?

Indeed the Eco car you buy today will be regarded as the spawn of the devil in 5 years time

The bar keeps being raised
 
That could be down to particular filling stations though, and maybe some of the supermarket ones simply aren't as thorough about how they maintain the vessels that the fuel is stored in.

Like I said though, it always seems to be the supermarkets. Whether contaminants get into the fuel at the refinery or in the tanks at the station, it's still a problem. I will put fuel in at Sainsburys if I get a 10p per litre voucher, but otherwise I generally don't bother.
 
Interesting, the AA article above said "A 1.7bn-litre drop in petrol sales says just one thing – too many car owners cannot afford these record prices and are losing mobility as a consequence" - I'd be interested to know whether public transport (ie National Express and the train companies) have recorded an increase in use of their services - or whether people really are just staying put?

Even when I had my gas guzzling car it was still cheaper for me to do a 400 mile round trip ooop North to see family in my car, than it was to get the train. As for the bus - forget it, it might ony cost £30 ish, but 7.5 hours each way!!!
 
Even when I had my gas guzzling car it was still cheaper for me to do a 400 mile round trip ooop North to see family in my car, than it was to get the train. As for the bus - forget it, it might ony cost £30 ish, but 7.5 hours each way!!!

Somethings are only cheaper is your time is worthless.
 
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