Does fuel brand affect fuel consumption?

[Jay_Benson]

I have started keeping track of my fuel consumption on my new bike. I am also keeping a track of the different filling stations I have used to see if there is any trend related to the fuel supplier - I have a sneaking suspicion that the mileage I get from brands such as Shell / BP etc will be better than supermarket fuel due to the additives that are in the more expensive fuels. I am also tracking what changes I make to the bike so that, for instance, I know when I changed from a touring screen to the standard screen etc.

Does anyone else keep such information about their bike - I know that the big brands talk about reduced consumption with their brands but I wondered if anyone in the real world have any opinions / experience about the matter?

[brclarke]

Who do you think sells the supermarkets their fuel..?

Where I live at least, one distributor will deliver gasoline to all of the various stations around town. The fuel you buy at a Shell, Chevron, or an Esso might well have been delivered by the same tanker on the same day.

[shu...]

I haven't noticed brand affecting my gas consumption.

Four things affect mine radically, all but one related to air resistance:

1. High speed riding (70+ mph).
2. Big headwinds.
3. alcohol added to the gas.
4. Elevation.

Other than that, the only thing I have experienced from different brands or different stations is dirty gas, or water in the gas.

...........shu

[Alanymarce]

I think that the variation, if any, will not be noticeable - the variation in driving conditions (road surface, wind, temperature, tyre pressure, altitude, etc.) will have far more effect than the brand. Also, as brclarke says - the refiners sell their product to anyone (including their competitors).

Now, different countries? Absolutely, from our own experience in Venezuela (both living and travelling through) Venezuelan fuel is terrible compared with fuel in neighbouring countries and elsewhere. Which raises the question - "Is CITGO fuel made to Venezuelan standards or to USA customer expectations?". No idea, I've bought lots of PDVSA fuel but never, as far as I can recall, CITGO fuel.

[Jay_Benson]

I know that they all sell each other’s fuel as their own but the reality is that they have different additives for the fuel - those can be added at any point I would guess.

I used to have a company car and racked up reasonably large mileages each year. I consistently got better mileage than my colleagues driving the same car - they used supermarket fuel whilst i used branded fuel. I was also a notoriously slow driver which explains part of it but I think I got better mileage when I filled up with branded fuel - this may have been because I drove more conservatively subconsciously, or it may be because the engine ran cleaner and used less fuel, or both of the previous reasons. Hence the question of other people - gathering more data is always useful.I

[backofbeyond]

I do keep an eye on how much fuel I'm using but not to the point of cross referencing Esso against BP or even Tesco. If supermarket fuel is somehow less efficient than branded stuff it is at least cheaper. Do your figures show if those factors balance out - do you get more miles per pound paid with branded or supermarket?

I was driving through France last week and used supermarkets for all my fuel. What a number of them are doing now is offering three levels of ethanol - 5%, 10% or zero, with prices to match. The modern car I was using had a sticker saying it's happy with anything up to E20 (which I've never seen yet) and I used E10 because it was the cheapest - about 5 cents / L cheaper than E5. In the absence of concrete information about the relative effectiveness of each grade chosing the cheapest is about all you can do.

I've noticed the fuel lines hardening up quicker with E anything fuel on some of my old bikes but even with something super sensitive to fuel quality (a 70's two stroke) I don't notice any difference in how the engine runs.