Tesco Fuel - Inferior?

PaulBrewer

A local car dealer I spoke with recently suggested Tesco Petrol is of a lower standard than 'normal' petrol.

He suggested that even though it's within the band of acceptable Octane measurement it's always at the bottom of that band i.e. minimum requirement.

The dealer spoke of some of his customers cars failing NCTs on emissions. Then the customer changes fuel and with no other changes, the NCT is then passed.

Does anyone have definitive info on this?

Berty

Not quite possible considering Tesco petrol is actually Topaz Petrol.

Previously when there were only 2 stations in Ireland it used to come the whole way from Cardiff.

PaulBrewer

quirke_folder wrote: »

Not quite possible considering Tesco petrol is actually Topaz Petrol.

Previously when there were only 2 stations in Ireland it used to come the whole way from Cardiff.

Interesting - however that doesn't remove the possibility that Topaz and TescoTopaz are different does it?

I don't know either way, just being devil's advocate.

Holsten

Well they get filled up by Statoil tankers...

Bandara

quirke_folder wrote: »

Not quite possible considering Tesco petrol is actually Topaz Petrol.

Previously when there were only 2 stations in Ireland it used to come the whole way from Cardiff.

Its Statoil petrol supplied via depots in the North. Nothing for Tesco comes out of the Dublin Docks, ie. TOP etc.

Seth Brundle

It sounds like the dealer is talking a lot of crap. The only thing that I'd believe is what he said about some of his customers failing the NCT (hint: run away!!!)

PaulBrewer

So to clarify -

Topaz or Statoil's (as was) fuel comes from the North?

Is it possible they use a different blend for Tesco, which I believe is usually the cheapest, compared to their own filling stations?

Seth Brundle

Its possible but I wouldn't pay too muych to a car dealer making claims about something that he knows little about!

brendansmith

I do believe that tescos fuel is inferior.
I used to work in a petrol station and tried the tesco fuel due to its price a couple of times, i always notices the petrol tank emptying noticably faster with it compared to esso or statoil petrol. Alot of customers noticed the exact same thing tbh.

Try it for yourself

PaulBrewer

kbannon wrote: »

Its possible but I wouldn't pay too muych to a car dealer making claims about something that he knows little about!

Ah yes, this guy is an acquaintance so it was an during a social chat. I don't think he had any reason to be tin roofing in this instance.

PaulBrewer

brendansmith wrote: »

I do believe that tescos fuel is inferior.
I used to work in a petrol station and tried the tesco fuel due to its price a couple of times, i always notices the petrol tank emptying noticably faster with it compared to esso or statoil petrol. Alot of customers noticed the exact same thing tbh.

Try it for yourself

Interesting Brendan! However all we have so far is anecdotal evidence.

Does anyone have some hard facts?

Mitch Connor

brendansmith wrote: »

I do believe that tescos fuel is inferior.
I used to work in a petrol station and tried the tesco fuel due to its price a couple of times, i always notices the petrol tank emptying noticably faster with it compared to esso or statoil petrol. Alot of customers noticed the exact same thing tbh.

Try it for yourself

My fuel consumption went from an average of about 5.7L/100km, to 6.2L/100km when i filled up in tesco recently. A friend went to Bundoran (Sp) for some surfing, and filled in tesco before driving over - car sluttered a lot on the way down. Filled in an Esso or Topaz for the drive back up and had no issue. Girlfriends brother had to fill his tank 3 days earlier for the same driving after filling in tesco.

All these happened around the same time, about a month ago now.

Royale with Cheese

I have to say I think the tank drains faster when I've filled up at tesco, so much so I don't bother going there anymore. And I'm far from a snob, actually I'm a cheapass. If lidl did petrol I'd be there.

PaulBrewer

There's a body of circumstantial evidence forming ....

But can we get facts, fact that could stand up in court, or even harder again, in front of Boards.ie Posters?;)

brendansmith

PaulBrewer wrote: »

There's a body of circumstantial evidence forming ....

But can we get facts, fact that could stand up in court, or even harder again, in front of Boards.ie Posters?;)

I have the company directors from tescos tied to chairs here with electrodes attached to the goolies.
As soon as i get a confession ill forward you the link to the youtube of it.

PaulBrewer

brendansmith wrote: »

I have the company directors from tescos tied to chairs here with electrodes attached to the goolies.
As soon as i get a confession ill forward you the link to the youtube of it.

Wouldn't cut it in front of boards.ie ....

Holsten

Might be all in our heads but yeah I have noticed it too, as I'd get most of my petrol from Tesco.

Tesco would run out the quickest while Maxol E5 would last the longest.

ART6

The pumps at Tesco are marked with the BS standard 4040, same as all the other pumps around where I live. I assume that means that Tesco's petrol is the same as everyone else's. The price difference could be accounted for by 1) Tesco's normal marketing strategy of dropping the price a little and making up the profit margin by increased sales, and 2) Using petrol as a loss leader to get people into the store to buy premium priced goods.

DublinWriter

I filled up with Maxol diesel for the first time last night. I've been getting my diesel in Tescos for the past 2 years.

I was shocked at the difference. The car went like a rocket. Even the missus commented that the car seemed to be going a lot faster, and I didn't even tell her that I filled up at Maxol.

A year ago my neighbour had to have the engine in his then new Merc C220 completely rebuilt by a main dealer. The reason the dealer gave was 'cheap petrol'. Again, like me, the neighbour used Tesco for petrol.

I know this is all very anecdotal, but I'm seriously having second thoughts about using Tesco for fuel ever again.

John Mason

i have to say, i used to use tesco all the time, as it was the closest garage to me.

i stop going there because the staff were so rude and it could take 10 mins for them to reset the pump but the difference in the mileage and how well my cars runs now is unbelievable.

Down with Tesco, i say, they will never get anymore money from me

mcwhirter

There used to be a petrol staion company in GB called JET. They were always cheaper than the competition and were always rumoured to be of lower quality( a bit like tescos value apple pies!). I'm not sure if there was any official investigation mind you.

L1011

There still is Jet in the UK; about the only station I ever use in NI is the Jet in Dhu Varren in Portrush.

http://www.conocophillips.co.uk/JetBrand/index.htm

Tabnabs

I asked a guy who delivers fuel for a rival company for a living. He said they load in Dublin Port just the same as everyone else, the only difference is they don't put the additives that other companies use into the Tesco petrol. In his opinion, it wasn't really inferior at all.

(They never transported it the whole way from Cardiff :rolleyes:, there is a huge Chevron refinery at Pembroke where they convert crude oil to Petrol and diesel etc. and then it gets shipped across the Irish Sea to Dublin port for the Irish market).

PaulBrewer

Dyflin wrote: »

I asked a guy who delivers fuel for a rival company for a living. He said they load in Dublin Port just the same as everyone else, the only difference is they don't put the additives that other companies use into the Tesco petrol. In his opinion, it wasn't really inferior at all.

(They never transported it the whole way from Cardiff :rolleyes:, there is a huge Chevron refinery at Pembroke where they convert crude oil to Petrol and diesel etc. and then it gets shipped across the Irish Sea to Dublin port for the Irish market).

What sort of additives? Salt? Pepper?

L1011

PaulBrewer wrote: »

What sort of additives? Salt? Pepper?

Detergents, oxygenates, all manner of stuff in theory can be added.

PaulBrewer

Why would these be added?

cashmni1

Not too sure why that stuff would be added, maybe to increase the quality of the fuel. i.e. detergent - I think Shell are running an advertising campain that says the fuel is cleaning your engine supported with a picture of a few pistons hanging on a clothes line.
Anyway, if you believe that.....
However, the addition of additives and detergents to the fuel might very well increase the quality (for burning) of the fuel. It seems the only logical explanation at this point.

OldmanMondeo

My car was running at 43.4mpg using Tesco, I started using "branded" diesel and it has increased to 44.5mpg in a short space of time.

L1011

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Why would these be added?

To increase fuel quality / efficiency / cleanliness (in theory, for all three).

jimmycrackcorm

Reminds me of the Lidl/Aldi discussion re cheese - you know how , like, Tesco cheapie cheese only contains like 19% cheese, like.

PaulKK

I noticed that using the tesco diesel in my TDI that it caused it to idle rough and be down on power and the consumption was also poor. After filling up in Maxol all was well again, so I would definately say it is of a lower standard from my experience.

I have heard of a few others with the same problems in VAG diesels and also in the saab diesels.