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 12 Month National Average for Regular Unleaded by AAA.com |
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Posted on 06/23/2004 1:30:48 PM PDT by Willie Green
Mark Krug leases his Rosedale service station from Exxon, buys his gasoline from Exxon and pays the oil giant to use its gold-plated brand name.
At his Petro stations in Timonium and Ellicott City, Krug owns the property, buys generic gasoline from whoever gives him the lowest price and hopes consumers don't much care about a tiger in their tank as much as they do about shaving the price of a fill-up.
Stations such as Petro may lack the market power of a well-known - and highly marketed - brand, but they can usually beat the prices of stations that carry logos like Exxon, Shell and BP Amoco, and make more money doing it. And at a time when pump prices have risen sharply, that has meant a boost in business for unbranded dealers.
"People's perceptions about gas are changing," said Paul Fiore, executive vice president of the Service Station Dealers of America and Allied Trades. "They're not as concerned with brand names anymore."
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
I never have cared about the brand of gas I buy, but I highly resent having to buy gasoline that has been adulterated with ethyl alocohol by the farm mafia.
I've heard that with today's computer-controlled engines, it doesn't really make a difference.
He also noticed a long time ago that the station takes fuel from whatever truck is available, regardless of branding.
I actually have cared in some cases (I've had poor performance in the past using Shell gas in some of my vehicles).
I also bought gas at 7-11 for a while back in the '80s, and stopped after I had to take my truck in for a thorough de-carbonizing. I always thought it was the ethanol in their gas that caused that....
Refineries have become regionalized. I've worked outages at many around the country (WV, IN, IL, KS, TX et al) and one constant has been the same: It's all the same gas going out. Differences in advertising stresses one of many variables. If you go to watch tanker loading at any refinery, the lined up trucks will have logos fron Conoco, Exxon, Shell, Casey's, Quik-Trip and whatever, but they load from the same tap.
We had speculated about that- thanks for the info.
Gasoline is gasoline. The primary difference between brands are the detergents which are added after the refining process.
This would make the proprietors an easy target for prosecution. While it may look suspicious, I would not be surprised if the tanker driver throws a switch to draw from, or process different grades at time of delivery. Or at least he spits into the cheap gas. He certainly doesn't move the hose from one fill to the other without turning off the pump. I would also think the state regularly tests for grade and quantities before certifying the pumps.
No, I am not an expert, but I doubt all gas at these pumps is the same.
That would really surprise me. I would advise anyone who drives a vehicle requiring high octane fuel to avoid that place. There is a real reason for having different octane fuels. Engines that use higher compression ratios or are turbo- or supercharged need to use higher octane fuels to prevent spark knock, which is essentially the fuel combusting prematurely from the high compression. All modern cars have "knock sensors" which can help the situation, but using low octane fuels long term will cause engine damage.
It is not the same between pumps. The octane difference is real.
Running regular gas in a high compression engine will eventually cause damage.
| FINDING DEAL$ ON GA$OLINE: |
12 Month National Average for Regular Unleaded by AAA.com |
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You can get good or bad gas from just about any station on a given day. Some stations are worse than others (specific locations, not brands).
There was a station where I grew up that regularly had the entire lot covered under water every hard rain. This includes the covers where the tanks are filled. I knew better than to buy gas there ----
I have also bought gas at Exxon stations that literally choked my vehicle. IT wasn't directly Exxon's fault - it was the station that also had a lot of water in their gas.
Pretty much any station that has the proper required tanks now should be able to sell gas that works. If you get some bad gas, it doesn't necessarily mark that brand as bad....but I would not go back to that station.
I had an old VW that absolutely hated Shell gas, no matter where I bought it. I had the same experience with Shell in my Toyota down in Houston. Probably had something to do with regional blends or something -- I don't have the same problem here in Colorado.
The only problem I ever had with gasoline was back in 1979 during Jimmy Carter's gas crisis. I rode my motorcycle into a station that was in the process of having gas delivered from a tanker truck.
I filled up and drove about a quarter mile before the condensed water that is usually on the bottom of all gas tanks shut me down. Seems that when tankers pump their delivery to a station, all the crap at the bottom of the tank gets stirred up. It took me a couple of hours to figure it out. Finally I looked inside the gas tank, and you could see the layer of water sloshing around the bottom of the tank, underneath the gas layer.
On more than one occassion since then I have bypassed a station that was getting a delivery.
I’d find it hard to believe he’d have any idea which compartments have what in them. Anyway, the hoses aren’t particularly heavy, especially when empty – and they aren’t going to be switching hoses full (usually) because you’re guaranteed to make a mess.
But cross-dumping causes a hell of a problem, mainly for the station owner. They typically have to gauge the tanks either at the start/end of business or once daily (if a 24 hour operation). They also have monthly (usually first of the month) physical gauge readings and they better match up with amounts sold/delivered.
So it’s true, you could order 8,000 gallons of unleaded and have the driver push 1,000 over into the super. But it causes a problem eventually because you’re selling more super than you have invoices for, plus it appears that something is wrong with the no-lead because you’re ordering amounts that will eventually exceed your capacity (but somehow doesn’t). Essentially, it appears that you have a leak in the no-lead tank(s) and the state department of environmental-whatever is going to require a pressure test to verify at some point. That’ll shut you down for 48 hours or so. At that point the state weights and measures usually get into the act too.
Then when it turns out there is no leak (or even worse – they actually find one that you weren’t aware of), they’ll know you’re up to tricks. Usually just a fine, but it can be hefty.
He also noticed a long time ago that the station takes fuel from whatever truck is available, regardless of branding.
That’s wet-dumping. It’ll get whatever-company you’re branded with all over your butt (usually getting you sued for breaching the branding agreement), plus it’ll get you fined. If the sign says Exxon, you better not get caught with non-Exxon fuel in the tanks. Not saying it doesn’t happen, but you better hope you’re not caught.
But then again, I worked for a Texaco jobber. Nice pretty truck with Texaco down the side, but we can pull fuel from wherever we have an account and deliver it to whoever wants to pay us. It probably does look funny for a truck that says Texaco to be delivering to an ARCO station or whatever. But if you look at the invoice you’ll see that it was ARCO fuel pulled from an ARCO loading facility and delivered to an ARCO station.
The only reason the truck had Texaco decals is because, being a Texaco jobber (primarily), Texaco offered to put them on free if we wanted them. Someone though it’d look snazzy, so that’s how that got started.
We occassionally get some generic brand in Tucson that's super popular (yes, even during the boom period of the 90s), gets huge lines. I never understood the popularity, sure you save a couple of pennys a gallon, but how much is your time worth, especially in the hot Southern Arizona sun, and how much more gas do you need because of al lthe gas you burned idling waiting to get gas? And inspite of the lines these places always seem to go belly-up in six months.
Gas? I've been making my own for years.
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