Most major oil companies share oil/gasoline pipelines and storage tanks (at least in Northern California they do). So, all gas companies (Shell, Exxon, 76, AMPM, etc...) sell pretty much the same stuff. The ONLY difference between the types of gas is the additives that each company uses. There's a huge storage tank by the place where I used to work in North San Jose, and I've seen different companies' trucks pull up to the same storage tanks & fill up from time to time. If the truck is going to a Chevron station, then Chevron's Techron additive is added to the load. If the truck is going to a Shell station, the the load gets the V-Power additive. I've actually had a friend of mine (Shell gas station owner) tell me that Costco gas is better than his stuff!!! Costco gas seems to work a little bit better for me, no matter what car I drive.

 

Thanks for the info guys, this is good to know!

 

I used to live in New Hampshire (Derry, to be exact) some gas stations there had 93, 98, 101, 110 used to mix octanes in my VR4. Since I've moved to the west coast I can't find 93 and up (what's the deal ?!) But, I have noticed a drastic change on this coast in quality of gas. Unless the station has a quick turn over there maybe water deposits, potential breakdown etc. I filled up with 91 from a Shell station and my car was gagging. Filled up at another one on a busy corner, ran fine. Some stations have their 'patented' special cleaners and blends etc. You don't need that, it's like adding more fluff to make you pay more for less octane.

 

No matter which one you use, it doesn't help your gas mileage when you are always at wot....

 

If you're in the U.S. you should be fine but in some european countries, due to the high gas prices private gas station owners sometimes mix in some other fluid with the gas. So you basically get less gas than you pay for and also you fu** up your engine bacuse of that other liquid. And I'm talking about prices like $8.00 a gallon, so it's very tempting..

 

Also the gas you buy might have dirt or stuff that it might have picked up along the way. We call it dirty gas and you can usually feel it when your tank gets close to empty cause it sits in the bottom of your tank.

 

I was reading an article recently about a new oil company from Russia. This is good for us as they do NOT belong to OPEC like Exxon-Mobil and other global oil giants. The company is called Lukoil they are Exxon-Mobil's biggest rival as of....now. They only have to ship their oil 1/3 of the distance and it's refined right in the 'motherland', the president of the company said that they can have a 48 hour turnover in most US gas stations.
You may in some areas notice how oil prices are going down, this is in direct response to Lukoil's buying out tons of ex-Exxon-Mobil stations in the US selling from 50 cents to a whole dollar cheaper. Granted buying their gas supports Russia's economy, but I think that's fine considering OPEC is pretty much a monopoly.

 

If you go high enough in any industry you'll find that you are almost always buying form one company anyway...Anti-trust laws are pretty much useless at this point. with all the mergers and buy-out's by big business, monopolies are inevitable. ****!ng capitalism. it's kinda nice to know there's some new competition in the oil market.

 

I will agree shell is the best!!!!

 

+1 for the v-power. I use shell 93 octane exclusively. My car acts better when it has it and its price is much cheaper than sa exxon or mobil.