Gas brands: does it matter?

[space-time]

Do you try to get gas at major brand names (Exxon, BP, Chevron, Shell, etc.) or it doesn't really matter and price is more important?

to be honest, if I am on highway and I see an exit with Exxon and "I never heard of", if course I try to use Exxon, even if the Exxon is 10-15 cents more expensive. But does it really matter?

And Costco claims they buy gasoline from tier 1 producers, but lines are so long that I won't wait 20 minutes to save $1-2.

[Ombligo]

I generally just go to Murphy (Walmart) or RaceTrac. Of the big names, Shell is my first choice. I've never noticed a difference in MPG or proformance.

[M A V I C]

Depends on your car. Some won't run very well without top tier gas.

[mstudio]

I will buy branded if given a choice. Years ago I used to drive German sports cars and got burned using Clark gas. I still won't buy that brand even though I'm sure it's fine now.
I use Premium in my Eurovan and I try to stick to BP since they don't use any Ethanol in that grade. While traveling I have had to use off-brand gas and 50% of the times have noticed a performance hit.

[Forrest]

Depends on the car or truck- check your owners manual. Many new car manufacturer's recommend Top Tier gas. Top Tier gas only costs about 3 cents per gallon more than no-name gas - see TopTierGas

[OWC Jamie]

space-time wrote:
But does it really matter?

.

Unless you are driving an older car without an on board computer constantly adjusting the fuel/air mix, no.

[davester]

There's a lot of mythological nonsense and magical thinking surrounding gasolines. There have been many tests of performance vs gasoline brand/grade. The only differences are:

1. The only difference between "Top Tier" rated gasoline brands and others is that Top Tier has higher levels of detergent to keep valves and injectors cleaner when compared with non-Top-Tier gasolines. There is no other measurable difference and measurable effect only occurs over 10s of 1000s of miles. It won't hurt your engine or harm performance to run non-Top-Tier occasionally. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Tier_D...t_Gasoline http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/larr...uff-column

2. So-called "premium" (a complete misnomer) gasoline differs from regular only in the quantity of anti-knock additives, and is designed to stop knocking/pinging that occurs in engines with high compression ratios. Modern high-compression-ratio engines automatically dial back the ignition advance when they detect knocking, thus reducing power. If you don't have a high compression engine (i.e. the sticker on the gas cap door says to use premium, then premium gasoline does nothing for you except damage your wallet. http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...premium-g/

[GuyGene]

Still, for my vehicles, I only use the top tier, more cleaners gasoline. Chevron/Texaco, Shell, BP, Costco, Exxon, Mobil.

[Dennis S]

There was a local chain that started here in the 70's. Everyone knew the gas was awful but everyone only had theories as to why. You could smell it. It stunk. They got through it somehow and are still going but for months or maybe years, their gas was bad. I still won't buy gas there although I figure it must be OK by now.

[vicrock]

Price only