Favorite Gas for your IS?

[pavelekPL]

Shell V-Power! Chevron? i don't even know what that is :P But like everybody stated, it's all the same!

[Kurtz]

Originally Posted by eternal07

I use shell, Sunnaco or Exxon/Mobile...mostly sunaco due to cheaper price and good mpg

here is the result according to our trip computer on 95% similar driving habit and road
City/Hwy 50:50 avg mpg all in 93oct

bp: 19.5mpg
Shell: 23.2
Exon: 23.5
Sunaco: 22.8
Gulf: 18
Wawa: 16

i've found out that after 5000 miles of engine oil (right before oil change due), gas mileage drops 2-3mpg from normal avg mpg

Weather, and seasonal fuel formulation (and if it has ethanol in it) will all significantly impact mileage. The "brand" apart from the above) won't.

FYI, my _lifetime_ average is 22.8 mpg. 85-90% city driving only 10-15% highway.

Using whatever the cheapest 91 or higher fuel I can find every single time, only criteria being avoiding ethanol content when possible. Because, largely, gas is gas.

[smpis350]

Guys GAS IS GAS! I'm not trying to be a ****, but some simple REAL research will give you the answers, and my best friend works for SHELL as a chemical engineer, and does this science daily, for a living.

So Do you all realize that each and every refinery or tanker is pumped into central pipelines, therefore it's all a mixture.

Oil companies pay fees to use the pipelines/storage tanks and monitor the amount of fuel they pump in and then only take the exact same amount out.

At that point each different oil company chooses to add there own "additives" such as fuel injector cleaner and the such. But are governed by Federal law to meet minimum standards.

And for all those who don't know they only refine 2 grades of gas, usually 93 and 87 grades and then "mix" them to get mid-grades.

But, as for the "additives" MOST companies use similar items to reduce knock and deposits.

ANY of the major brands are nearly identical and your cars ECU/engine CAN NOT determine what is in gas, only it's O2 content ( which determines it's grade 87/89/91 ).

YES, cheap gas from mom and pop stations MAY NOT have such "aggressive" additives, but FEDERAL mandates ALL gas meet certain cleaning and "anti-knock" standards.

SO whether you buy Mobil, Exxon, Texaco, Shell, Chevron, or BP..THEY ARE ALL 99.9% the same, and the .1% difference will NOT affect the performance of ANY engine. Modern cars automatically adjust to different O2 levels found in gas, NOT to it's additives.

A dirty engine is a dirty engine, and read your car manual or ask a ASE tech, a lot of the current aftermarket additives people use, can actually damage O2 sensors in your car, making your car run differently. But this is NOT the gases fault, it's the aftermarket additive you put in.

It's just your brain, guys. You think your engine is running differently, but if your engine was being diagnosed by a ECU computer, it would not be any different for ANY major gas.

The human brain and ones perception are great things, but because we love our cars and take care them and they become part of us, we THINK we notice it's running differently, when i reality it's just a machine, running exactly the way it was designed...Those annoying 'check engine" lights on the dash will be more then happy to let you know when there is a problem.

So save money, if Chevron is cheaper, use that. If Shell is cheaper, use that...

I use them all and may 350 runs like a dream, quiet at idle, fast and stronger when I floor it...

[cadfael_te]

smpis, not going to convince eachother I suppose. I will say this, I would be comfortable using most main-line gas stations gas. It's the really low end (racetrack, etc) that I'd definitely be leery of. The folks that water down their tanks and use other 'additives' to stretch to the next truck arrives and generally don't care.

[eternal07]

Originally Posted by Kurtz

Weather, and seasonal fuel formulation (and if it has ethanol in it) will all significantly impact mileage. The "brand" apart from the above) won't.

FYI, my _lifetime_ average is 22.8 mpg. 85-90% city driving only 10-15% highway.

Using whatever the cheapest 91 or higher fuel I can find every single time, only criteria being avoiding ethanol content when possible. Because, largely, gas is gas.

ethanol does give you poor mileage.
but with same ethanol mixed gas from different gas company, does give you different mpg.
btw.. numbers dont lie.

[Kurtz]

Originally Posted by eternal07

ethanol does give you poor mileage.
but with same ethanol mixed gas from different gas company, does give you different mpg.
btw.. numbers dont lie.

Numbers don't lie... conclusions drawn from them can be drastically wrong though. Like a guy who resets his ECU when he installs an intake and is SURE the difference in how the car drives right after is from the intake, and can show you numbers. But the change is really from the ECU reset, the intake did almost nothing.


It's simply impossible for "brand of gas" that is otherwise the same (octane, ethanol, driven in the same car under the same traffic and driving and road conditions, in the same weather) can produce 20-30% differences in mileage.


There's lots of variables that CAN cause significant mileage differences other than brand of gas though, that I suspect your numbers don't honestly control for.

Go talk to an engineer that actually does this for a living sometime (smpis350 has done so and posted about it)... he'll laugh at you if you try and "scientifically" claim the brand of gas changed your mileage like that.

Gasoline is fungible. In part this means that the base fuel is the same from one brand to another. The differences that are added afterward simply can not make significantly changes to mileage from one tank of gas to another.

Now...drive the car aggressively, in traffic, in certain weather conditions, on certain roads, using a fuel blended with ethanol.... then drive the car passively, without traffic, on different roads, in different weather, using a fuel without ethanol, and you can see drastic mileage changes. None of those things reflects the brand of fuel though.


AFAIK there's no brand that universally avoids ethanol year-round though (but you might find a certain station that doesn't have it in your area)... part of the reason is what was stated, tankers delivering to stations draw fuel from the same sources, and then just put in the brand-specific additive package (which can, in no way, have the sort of impact on mileage folks are claiming).

[AZ JB]

With all this being said, you do have to be careful with the STATION you go to. My dad stopped at a little privately owned gas station and filled up and had to get his whole fuel system fixed cause they had watered down their gasoline so much. It's not common, but does happen.

[Kurtz]

Originally Posted by AZ JB

With all this being said, you do have to be careful with the STATION you go to. My dad stopped at a little privately owned gas station and filled up and had to get his whole fuel system fixed cause they had watered down their gasoline so much. It's not common, but does happen.

Sure... and occasionally a given station might have some kinda tank failure that allows things to seep in without even knowing it or whatever too... but it's not relevant to the brand.

[AZ JB]

Originally Posted by Kurtz

Sure... and occasionally a given station might have some kinda tank failure that allows things to seep in without even knowing it or whatever too... but it's not relevant to the brand.

I agree.. I think to some extent with regards to brand, people just like the hype over certain things and for whatever reason or another they trust only certain brands.

[MiiK350]

I have 2 cars. My IS350 and a 1986 Mercury sable(FORD) which was my first car. My dad bought that car brand new, and has put nothing but MOBIL Gas and MOBIL1 oil since day one. It has 256000 miles and still runs good. MOBIL GAS FTW!!

[Kurtz]

Originally Posted by MiiK350

I have 2 cars. My IS350 and a 1986 Mercury sable(FORD) which was my first car. My dad bought that car brand new, and has put nothing but MOBIL Gas and MOBIL1 oil since day one. It has 256000 miles and still runs good. MOBIL GAS FTW!!

And clearly if he'd put some Shell in there it would've burst into flames!


What's great is if you search these gas threads you'll find, for virtually every brand in the world, one guy who posts "I know a car that ran on nothing but brand X and it has eleventy pepsi miles on it and still runs" and then 3 pages from that post you find someone else who posts "I once just put 3 drops of brand X gas in my car and I immediately lost my job, my house, my wife, my dog, and the car died too!"

[IS-SV]

How many pages of nonsense will eventually be posted here, lol.

[Clay Easto]

Costco. I use Techron Fuel System Cleaner a couple times a year.

[1SICKLEX]

I use Shell Premium...............
















































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In loaners

[IS-SV]

Loaners get no love.