When you put fuel in your car, do you have a particular station you stop at or grade you buy?

Should you buy top tier gas?

Brandy:

When you put fuel in your car, do you have a particular station you stop at or grade you buy?

Should you buy top tier gas?

Yes, and yes.  There is a station near my house that sells Conoco/BP gas that is also usually the cheapest in the area, so I usually fill up there.  My owner's manual recommends mid-grade (87 octane in CO) which is what I use - but the article appears to be about detergent level, not octane.  I don't use off-brand gas and haven't for at least 14 or 15 years; my previous car needed a new fuel pump when it was about 4 years old, which the mechanic blamed on using gas from 7-11; he may well have been right, as I switched to Conoco and the rebuilt fuel pump (and all other engine parts) was still going strong when I was rear-ended and the car was totalled over 8 years later.

karenteacher:

but the article appears to be about detergent level, not octane

It seems that different levels of detergent may vary by the company's that provide the fuel so different stations would play a part in purchasing top tier or not.

I deal with mostly one gas station. Why ? Because I got some bad gas a few months ago.

Also, it helps me to know where I have gotten bad gas if I have a car problem.

There has been a lot of bad gas being sold in this part of VA in the last month.

I use Shell gas. I used to use Exxon.

Brandy:

karenteacher:

but the article appears to be about detergent level, not octane

It seems that different levels of detergent may vary by the company's that provide the fuel so different stations would play a part in purchasing top tier or not.

Yes, I read that in the article, but your original question mentioned grade, which quite a few people I know use interchangably with octane, but not with top tier, so I was a bit confused.

karenteacher:

so I was a bit confused.

I was asking about people's choices in gas with several questions. Sorry about the confusion!

 i use cheap!  i've been putting in the cheapest i can find, for the 10 years i've been driving this car.  i do put dry gas in every winter.  also, it's a standard shift, and i'm a fan of "hyper-miling" techniques- lots of downhill in neutral, rolling to stop signs and lights, looking ahead to check the flow of traffic.

I found out the hard way not to buy after a hard rain at a station which is lower than its surrounding land--that is, situated at the bottom of a hill or near to one.  I purchase regular for car, used to purchase regular for the Coleman stove as a test for a station.  If I got blue flame, regular was good enough--yellow flame means low octane or contaminants.

During a high-price period, purchase the best you can get.  I used to flea market with a fellow who once had a small fuel service, and he admitted to cutting gas with kerosene and water during high-price periods to increase his supplies and profit.

Many sites tell me that ethanol-laced gasoline will eventually eat fuel pump diaphragms.  Cuz's truck just had the pump go out and he is blaming me for running the truck twice on under 1/8 tank, and letting the station go blameless for using ethanol gas.

Right now I am using BP, because I won a generous BP gift card a few months ago. DH and I buy 87 grade octane, and we will only use BP, Chevron, or Shell whenever possible. A dear friend of ours has done some research on lots of different brands of gasoline, and his findings were that these three chains were the best.

We basically use 2 or 3 places. I use the Casey's convenience store on my way home and buy the 89 octane 10% ethanol gas. DH's car needs premium (91 octane) gas, and he fills it up at a Kum N Go convenience store near work (Casey's doesn't carry premium at all it's stores). We fill the SUV up at either Casey's or another Kum N Go with 87 octane (non-ethanol) gas. DH used to have a pickup truck that he ran the 87 octane gas in. He tried the ethanol gas one time and the fuel pump died, so he refuses to buy ethanol gas.

I don't shop by price because prices here are pretty much the same anywhere you go. The places that are cheaper are also way across town, cancelling out any money you might save.

Jill