Tesco fuel is rubbish

Xantic · Unread post by **Xantic** » 23 Apr 2011, 22:37

I had to put £15 worth of derv in the Xantia at my local Tesco store last week.
I expected to get approx 150 miles from this amount..
What did i get.. 115 miles.

This confirms to me that Tesco fuel is rubbish.
I detest Tesco anyway but thats my own fault for not travelling the extra 5 miles to my usual Total garage where i 99% of the time fill up.

Last week i recorded approx 63mpg from my Total fuel.
Using the Tesco rubbish on the same sort of roads and speed i was expecting to get more..

If there is anyone affiliated with Tesco on this site i will not apologise for slagging off Tesco, in fact an email is on it's way to the head office as i write this, I shall also call in to the petrol station to make a complaint. I know it wont get me anywhere but at least i will feel better..lol

I am not an old miserable old git, i just hate being ripped off.. I found the car goes better with the Total fuel too.

This has probably been all said before but i felt i had to make my point..
Rant over..

What beautiful weather we are having, it spurs me on to do some more mileage over the weekend.
We have done in excess of 1500 miles over the last 2 weeks, here there and everywhere.
Long may it last.

Have a good Easter everyone..

Russ..

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 23 Apr 2011, 22:58

I've got the same feeling, I think I've only used supermarket fuel once or twice when in desperate need.
We have a big Tesco garage just up the road from the Shell one and somehow the latter is always able to match and sometimes beat the Tesco garage on price. Even when its matching I get the idea that many people have the same idea as us as the Shell one is always packed

Xantic · Unread post by **Xantic** » 23 Apr 2011, 23:06

Our local Tesco is heaving everytime you go past it.

People are too lazy and find it convenient to fill up when leaving the supermarket..I, travel the extra 5 miles and up until now the Total garage has been 3 pence or more cheaper, but lately it has been the same, but i still go there.

One day this country will wake up and make a stand, or will they.. Perhaps i am a little too optomistic there..

As long as i make my stand i feel better..

Deanxm · Unread post by **Deanxm** » 23 Apr 2011, 23:13

most people dont care, its cheap and thats it, same with most day to day stuff, its bought on price nothing else (this is why Kia/daewoo/Hyundai exist in this country) and there is the old adage, you get what you pay for. most of the time it is true.

D

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 24 Apr 2011, 10:15

sounds like a case for your local Weights and Mesures to get there teeth into,

regards malcolm

andmcit · Unread post by **andmcit** » 24 Apr 2011, 10:31

Buy cheap, buy twice? Usually actually borne out to be true.
Mind, I've seen some shoddy stuff sold that's also expensive too...

citroenesque · Unread post by **citroenesque** » 24 Apr 2011, 10:52

Carry some Millers Eco Max and add it to a tankful if you end up filling up at somewhere like Tescos. It boosts the Cetane rating too. I use it unless I am filling up at Esso/Total/BP/Shell. I will certainly be using it in France, whilst still avoiding the cheepo supermarket and small independent stations. You can get some really duff fule: petrol or diesel, over there.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 24 Apr 2011, 12:40

Beats me why anyone buys supermarket fuel. The filling stations are always heaving and their queues move at the speed of a glacier. Maybe the lives of the patrons are so boring and pointless that sitting in a Tesco fuel queue is high adventure for them.

I get most of my fuel from our local BP at the end of the road and normally at silly o'clock when the palce is all but deserted...

I really do have better things to do than waste time queueing for (inferior) fuel at supermarkets. It's bad enough I have to go to them for food...

Speaking of which, some supermarket food is like their petrol. So we have the situation where they feed themselves on rubbish and then go and do the same to their poor, defenceless car...

Unread post by **myglaren** » 24 Apr 2011, 13:47

True enough with possible exceptions.

I used Sainsbury's for years - it is the nearest fuel station for me and always seemed to be OK and my son swears he gets far better mileage from it than most of the competition - Tesco fuel was dreadful in his Mitsubishi thingy.

I fuelled up at Asda as I was there anyway and the roads to my now usual Shell station were closed - 11 mile detour to get there.
It appeared to be going down faster then the usual Shell or Total then evened out and was the same within the usual variation from tank to tank.

411514 · Unread post by **411514** » 24 Apr 2011, 16:11

Rather than the quality of the fuel maybe it is simply a dodgy pump, i worked for a tesco fuel station for around 2.5 years and in that time the actual amount of fuel dispensed was only ever checked once, and when it was checked it was found to be dispensing only 0.95l for every 1l indicated which when your filling up a full tank is a big difference. We were always having complaints from people thinking that the wrong amount of fuel had been dispensed. We always had to deny it but i never used the pumps myself.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 24 Apr 2011, 16:40

I was under the impression that pumps had to, by law, be very frequently calibrated - weights and measures regulations... Every month I seem to recall?

Having a pump under-dispensing is a great way to apparently sell cheap fuel at a good profit..

But surely, enforcement of weights and measures would scupper such a fiendish plot?

HDI · Unread post by **HDI** » 24 Apr 2011, 17:15

This supermarket V premium fuel debate really bugs me. I use the cheapest fuel possible, diesel in the case of the Xantia, that I can find and care not whether it's supermarket or whatever. I have never noticed any difference between Tesco or overpriced premium brand name fuel, in either economy or the way the car runs !
Even my Evo runs fine on supermarket normal UL or SUL. This fuel thing is all in the mind due to fuel company indoctrination.

There was a test in Evo magazine a few years ago, comparing all the extortionately priced V power type fuels etc against Tesco 99, the result was that the Tesco gave best power and economy !

Toby_HDi · Unread post by **Toby_HDi** » 24 Apr 2011, 17:29

HDI wrote:This supermarket V premium fuel debate really bugs me. I use the cheapest fuel possible, diesel in the case of the Xantia, that I can find and care not whether it's supermarket or whatever. I have never noticed any difference between Tesco or overpriced premium brand name fuel, in either economy or the way the car runs !
Even my Evo runs fine on supermarket normal UL or SUL. This fuel thing is all in the mind due to fuel company indoctrination.

There was a test in Evo magazine a few years ago, comparing all the extortionately priced V power type fuels etc against Tesco 99, the result was that the Tesco gave best power and economy !

Not so.

I always notice a marked difference in fuel economy and the way the car pulls when using cheaper fuel. It never goes as far as premium fuels and the car always feels a little bit held back.

It's true that in some engines, it makes no difference but in the case of my two - a turbocharged engine and a V6 with VVT - it certainly does and it is not in my mind.

411514 · Unread post by **411514** » 24 Apr 2011, 18:25

citrojim i always had that opinion as well, common sense would lead you to that conclusion but as i said it was only ever done the once in 2 and a bit years, i imagine tesco know the relevant law regarding this down to a tee and do the bare minimum. Might i add that the testing is not even an external government affair but an internal tesco contractor so even if the pump is miles out there is no fine that tesco must pay, not unless a consumer was able to prove a loss and take action throught the civil courts i imagine. If tescos policy on fuel quality is the same all over as it was in the station i worked at we regularly left the tanks on too low so that the fuel being drawn would be the dirty full of particles and water fuel from the bottom of the tank rather than turning the tank off at 1000l or so, simply because we were told to as the manager would get a kicking for running out of fuel

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 24 Apr 2011, 18:30

HDI wrote: There was a test in Evo magazine a few years ago, comparing all the extortionately priced V power type fuels etc against Tesco 99, the result was that the Tesco gave best power and economy !

From a purely technical point of view, this is an interesting debate. In theory there should be no difference whatsoever. All commercially sold fuels have to meet British Standards applicable to the grade of fuel being sold. That applies to the permier brands as well as to Sainsco's special value brew.

In the case of DERV there should be no noticeable difference at all. They might claim it has a higher cetane rating but in practice this only is applicable to cold starting ability. Cetane is almost the inverse of a petrol Octane rating in that it determines how readily a DERV fuel will detonate under heat and pressure. Diesels will quite happily run on anything oily basically (e.g. cooking oil) and that runs well so why should Tesburys el-cheapo Town Diesel be any different compared to Fossil's Hyperfuel?

A high-octane petrol, whether it's Austinson's 99 or PB Extravagant must meet it's specified Octane rating and in a modern car the ignition timing will adjust to make the most of the rating. Higher octane means the ignition can be advanced further and thus the engine can develop more power as the mix can be ignited earlier and burn for longer.

The problem is in the way Octane is measured. There are two tests, MON (Motor Octane Number) and RON (Research Octane Number). the latter is more flattering whereas the former is a sterner test more typical of the real world. Also, under the specifications laid down for fuels, the fuel in question must meet a minimum Octane value. Often, Siansco supermarket stuff just meets it and Fossil's Extrordinary exceeds it by several points.

Therefore, in an engine that can take advantage of it, Fossil's brew will appear to perform better than Sainsco simply because the former has a higher basic octane rating.

It gets more complicated. All petrols have additive packs to bring their octane up to the required level and it very much depends on what additives are used as some perform better than others at high temperatures and pressures as found in a real world engine. Cheap additives used by the supermarkets added in quantity to inferior base stocks will not give such a good finished product as high-quality additives added to high quality base stocks in a smaller quantity. These additives determine the fuel's 'sensitivity' - that's the measured difference between the Octane MON and RON figures. The nearer they are to each other, the better the fuel will perform.

There, I think, is where the observed difference can be seen in petrol at any rate. I still cannot explain how the super Carlos Fandango diesel can give much of a difference due to the sheer physics of burning it in an engine. Again, I can only assume the additives used help in some way to improve combustion but how is another matter the petroleum companies do not disclose.

In the case of petrol, I have noted a difference in the Activa of using the gold-plated stuff but its current higher cost (for me at least) nullifies any economy savings it brings about.

I have no practical experience of premium diesel at all except that during the fuel shortages a few years back I was forced to buy some for the 2.1TD and noted no discernible difference. Maybe in a modern common-rail diesel it does make a difference as the electronics can somehow take advantage of whatever is in it that gives enhanced performance.