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A decent quick-read about bargain gas


zonianbrat
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Do you mean as far as it being "watered down" or the condition of the tank contributing to the gas? I know the U-Pump-It that I got too just got some new tanks last summer. And they do huge quantity of buisness so I am not worried. Atleast I have been using the gas there for about 2 years now. So far no problems.

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Say discount gas is $.10 cheaper and you buy 15 gallons each fill-up 40 times a year.

 

You save $60/year maybe $100 if you save more or buy more.

 

Over 5 years you save $300-$500 dollars (the cost of fuel-related repair +/-).

 

After 5 years you'll probably have injector probs, fuel pump probs, or some kind of fuel problem in that length of time regardless of the gas you buy. I buy the cheap stuff for the pathy b/c its 20 years old and repairs are expected anyway. My wife puts Shell gas in her car b/c it cost $25000 and I'ts not paid for.

 

It depends on whats being protected is worth to you, and how far are your willing to go to protect it.

 

Water in gas shouldn't be considered because gas isn't delivered with water in it. That gets added at the station deliberately or from poor run-off and bad seals.

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Say discount gas is $.10 cheaper and you buy 15 gallons each fill-up 40 times a year.

 

You save $60/year maybe $100 if you save more or buy more.

 

Over 5 years you save $300-$500 dollars (the cost of fuel-related repair +/-).

 

After 5 years you'll probably have injector probs, fuel pump probs, or some kind of fuel problem in that length of time regardless of the gas you buy. I buy the cheap stuff for the pathy b/c its 20 years old and repairs are expected anyway. My wife puts Shell gas in her car b/c it cost $25000 and I'ts not paid for.

 

It depends on whats being protected is worth to you, and how far are your willing to go to protect it.

 

Water in gas shouldn't be considered because gas isn't delivered with water in it. That gets added at the station deliberately or from poor run-off and bad seals.

Theres a station around here that does that. Last time we filled up the pathy there, we thought the timing jumped 3 teeth. You wouldn't think you were driving the same truck after we dumped a sh!tload of water remover and premium fuel in.

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Yes, most of the time it will be just fine. Most of the time.

 

Another fact carefully overlooked by the article author is the "dregs" factor from the tank farm. I used to work near a tank farm, and yes, the discount tankers were drawing fuel from the exact same tanks as the name brands.

 

But from what I was told (yes, this is hearsay), the discounters got theirs right after the tanks were filled, and then when the tanks were almost empty. That way, any contaminants (particularly water) that may have made their way in and settled to the bottom or floated on the top would not be be drawn off by the name brand tankers.

 

Do contaminants make it into the supply on a regular basis? Probably not. But evidently often enough for them to give others a discount to take the risk.

 

Use that unprovable story as you want.

 

Another factor, personally verified by myself: In my old carbureted van, I could reliably run 89 octane from name brands and avoid pinging. But with discount 89, I had severe pinging problems about half the time. Why? I don't know. But it happened reliably enough to be a real issue for me.

So I had to use 91 from discount stations to consistently get same performance as name brand 89. Obviously, that would be a problem only if your vehicle is sensitive to octane levels.

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