Go the cheapest you can put in your car.

I used to feel the pinch from fuel prices too. Until I moved to NZ and started paying 2.12 a litre for 91 octane. never knew how good I had it in Aus.

Australia is a petrol paradise.

newguy said...

So there's no real difference between Caltex, Shell, BP etc mate? My worry is down the line, I find something wrong due to dodgy fuel and have to fork out much more to get the car fixed.

Cheers for the advice either way mate. It's decent except when you are trolling the SUP'ers

If you are worried about fuel quality you can get fuel system treatments, Im sure I can get some from work fairly cheap if you want some

Most fuel in Perth is pretty good though, I dont worry about it.

No more SUP trolling for me, they have big sticks and stuff

One way to get better value for money when buying fuel is to buy it in the early morning. When it's cooler the fuel is denser very litre of cool fuel weighs more and has more energy in it than a litre of warm fuel.

In regards to fuel brands, dunno but I normally buy whatever is cheapest or most convenient. I think fuel is pretty well the same and it's probably better to buy fuel from a busy station so the fuel isn't stale.

Dunno how true it is, but fuel retailer employees recently told my folks that anywhere taking discount vouchers (eg Coles Shell / Woolies Caltex) is stocking older or lower quality fuel to account for it.

Sounds like crap to me, especially the "older fuel" part as they get deliveries every second day. However they do only make 1c/L and turn over a lot, so a 0.01% improvement in profit is a big deal. And it came from a couple of people supposedly in the know.

It also fits with (anecdotal) experiences of BP being better, this thread is not the first I've heard of it. A few years back all the performance car crowd were talking about BP being fine but their cars pinging on anything else, even though supposedly the same octane.

Mobydisc said...

One way to get better value for money when buying fuel is to buy it in the early morning. When it's cooler the fuel is denser very litre of cool fuel weighs more and has more energy in it than a litre of warm fuel.

In regards to fuel brands, dunno but I normally buy whatever is cheapest or most convenient. I think fuel is pretty well the same and it's probably better to buy fuel from a busy station so the fuel isn't stale.

The temperature bit is true but very marginal as the tanks are underground. Having said that, I fill in the early morning if possible. Consider though that if you fully fill the tank near your destination, as the day and road surface heats up, the fuel will expand and come out of the overflow. Wasted.
My car is ancient. I go purely on price. A car requiring high octane fuel is a car for people who don't have to worry about the price of fuel IMO.
Another tip; if you know when a servo is visited by a tanker, try to visit after rather than before as the crap at the bottom of those tanks is a car killer. I have memories of my old man's car choking soon after filling at some station. A bloody samboy chip packet was pumped in and through the fuel line.
That was a long day.

the main thing is to get the right octane rating for your car- we used to run old clunkers on the cheaper 91 octane fuel, but found that using 95 the car ran better, didnt ping and got way better milage (kilometerage just doesnt sound right) it was actually cheaper to run on 95!
Every few weeks- or if towing- I would go for 98 octane and the old car ran even better.
Our new car gets nothing but 95 octane as thats what is specified, if I am doing a long run- or 98 is at a reasonable price, I will top up the tank, but thats more exception than the rule.

Many years ago, grandfather was delivering petrol from the Perth refinery,
depending on who he was delivering to (BP, ESSO, SHELL, GOLDEN FLEECE, CALTEX and so on and so on etc), he had to pump in different amounts of additive to thier fuel as he delivered it!
Both super, and standard (and other grades) all came from one tanker- I suspect they were just adding methanol or something like that as a booster to "standard" fuel to turn it into "super".
A couple of years ago- a lot of W.A. petrol stations were sprung for watering down thier petrol with methanol- methanol was at the time a lot cheaper than petrol, so they would top up the underground tanks and bump up the profit margin.
It went well until they messed up the ratios and engines started falling apart- and the federal govt. whacked a tax on methanol to raise its price above that of petrol.

Stephen

http://www.viacorp.com/wa-oil-petrol-diesel-supply-security.html

"There is only one oil refinery in Western Australia: the BP refinery at Kwinana. It pumps out most of the fuels used for WA cars, trucks, farm machinery, aircraft that refuel here, ships. Nearly any machine that moves from place to place.

The rest of our petrol and diesel (less than a tenth) is imported. It arrives by ship. Much of it comes from Singapore, where they have large new refineries, good prices and plenty to sell.........."

This sort of question comes up a lot on the motorbike forums and I've discussed it at length there. I'll give you the skinny here.

They all sell the same stuff and share fuel beween each other depending on demand. There may be minor alterations to the quantity of additives used in final processing but this equates to jack all and certainly does not affect the chances of getting a bad batch of fuel. Bad fuel is usually a result of having sludge stired up in the tanks after a recent re-fill or fuel that has been stored too long and is now a lower RON than it should be.

Your car will produce the most power and be most economical to run if you use the lowest possible RON without engine pinging. Using a higher RON fuel will not hurt your car but you may lose some top end power and recieve no benefit. Most 91 RON fuels have cleaning additives. Cars that are tuned for premium fuel and old clunckers that are designed to run on super need higher octane to avoid pinging and will make the most of the fuel. Most cars in Aust are tuned for 91 and will run best on that. Consult your fuel cap for the best advice regarding your car.

Don't put E10 in anything. It is for bonfires and nothing else. Some manafacturers these days say it is ok, but what they really mean is it won't kill the car before the 3yr warranty runs out. 5-6 years running E10 is probably out of the question though and most manafacturers are still saying don't use it at all.

Cheers
Coles & Woolies would source best price suppliers (margin positive) like anyone else you'd think.
sidenote:The two cheapest servos are Independents in Naval Base & the one in Coolup south of Pinjarra (everyday that is) although I've heard there's one in Warwick that can be cheap

Edit: the guys I feel most for are the farmers - must be a nightmare life these people to survive let alone make any sort of living

If cost is the main problem download the Fuelwatch app on your smart phone if you have one or set up a daily Fuelwatch email that allows you to choose the servo you go to based on price......

Fuelwatch doesn't do anything magic like keep prices down but it gives you the heads up on the day to day price changes the day before they happen. That way if your local is going to hike their price by 10c the next day you can duck in and fuel up before they do.

Works for me

newguy said...

Ahhhh cheers all. Filled my last tank of BP to the fullest (had some left). Will give some of the other companies ago and see if there's any difference. If not guess I know where to next get me fuel then!

Just put $50 of each in and re-set the trip meter each time. Allow for any wild variations in prices of course.

You will see which one your car likes best by the one you go the further est for the money......