Lukoil is pretty much the same price as any other gas stations in my area. However, one thing I've learned today is Lukoil is from Russia. :P

 

ya I agree, Lukoil does seem to have the same prices. Funny thing though, a Lukoil in my area has already gone out of business.

 

I've been told that california has to refine the gas twice because of the strict emission laws out here, that why cali's gas is always more. but i just know to avoid ARCO, they just seem to have crap. i stay with Shell and 76, shell is next to my house and 76 is always cheapest around here, besides the no namer stations.

 

I usually go for cheap but I have started using Lukoil recently. I am thinking about just using Shell from now on but it's more expensive then other 93 around here.

Either way I haven't really noticed any difference using different gas stations.

 

I'm not sure if the gas in California has to be refined twice, but we do have stricter emissions than the rest of the country. California gas also gets trucked to Reno, Stateline, and Vegas. All the gas in Lake Tahoe, CA and Stateline, NV is MTBE free, cause MTBE reduces the visibility in the lake. Quite a few gas stations in CA are using more ethanol, because they finally figured out that MTBE was bad for the environment. And it took them a couple of years to figure this out!

 

The only thing I have to add is I have been told by a lot of VW and Audi folks to avoid BP due to the high levels of detergents. However I have had to use them and seen no problems.

 

I get 20oz bottles of Techron for $6

I also changed the oil, coolant, air filter and manual transmission oil (synthetic) for under $100 in my Jetta.

My for my Audi, I changed the oil, coolant, manual tranny, coolant, rear diff, air filter, and cabin air filter, and cleaned any sludge buildup for under $200.

Gotta love those company discounts.

 

I use sunoco all the time..but recently my gas mileage has been shitty the bed. I am assuming that this could be due to some winter additive?

 

For what this is worth, Veloracer is right on line with the differences between gas suppliers / refiners. With very few exceptions the gas in a given geographical area is supplied out of the same storage facility. The tanks in that terminal may be filled with gasoline refined by a single or many refineries and can change as market conditions change. The primary difference between one supplier and another is the additive that they add to the gasoline while it is loaded out of the storage terminal.

Companies like Costco, Sam's, or other off brands sell gas cheaper because they do not add the additives during loading.

I have lived in several parts of the country, which has allowed me to know a few gasoline terminal managers, and the story is pretty much the same in every region.

As for the claims of improved mileage or performance, you probably have not narrowed the field of variability enough to make a valid determination. Just the other day I travelled through Montana, on a road I normally travel, with gas from my "normal" station and my milage was off by nearly 20%. This was due to the 30 MPH head wind I was drving in to, not my gas.

 

There's another storage tank in Tracy, on the way home from my girlfriend's work, and I saw a Shell truck parked behind a Chevron truck waiting to get gas from the storage tanks. Chevron and Valero have huge oil refineries in Contra Costa County (CA), so my guess is that most of Northern California's gas comes from these refineries in Benicia and Martinez, CA, no matter what the brand of gas you buy... alll comes from the same places. Logistically, an easy place to get to by the big oil tankers (Benicia and Martinez) bringing in oil from Alaska and the Middle East.