Motors Who sells the best diesel fuel in the UK?

It may sound like an odd question but if there is an answer to it I'd like to know.

In the UK, out of the major petrol stations in my area (Total, Shell, Esso, BP and then a couple of crappy supermarkets) who sells the best diesel fuel?

 

It all comes from the same few refineries no matter where you buy it...

 

Why would you want to know?

 

Some companies import it from abroad but its the same basic spec. A lot of the supermarkets buy from Vopak which imports from lots of places.

 

Much the same reason you want to know who makes the better petrol, it's better for the engine. Supermarket is a bit pants, shell and bp isn't, I was just curious.

I'll stick with shell then, although I am tempted to try that bp ultimate diesel, I'll see how much it is lol

 

Wasn't Vopak behind the fuel contamination problems last year?

 

I'm not sure if it was them or the actual importing company Greenergy, vopak are a shipping and storage company mainly.

Ninja Edit:
Wasn't greenenergy it was Harvest Energy apparently

 

It's all the same stuff, did you read my post? Shell and BP (etc) do not have their own special refineries that only "shell" and only "bp" fuel comes out of. Oil exploration and refinement are, for the most part, entirely separate businesses. Any stuff you buy on the forecourt will be from a small handful of refineries either in the UK, or on the continent, and the source will likely change quite often too. Quite literally, you could buy some fuel in london and it could be from the continent, but drive north into bedfordshire or something and it could be from a refinery somewhere nearer the midlands - all under the same brand. You might remember back a good few years when we had the fuel protests and you could see the lorries all lining up in their different brands outside the refineries...

 

Recently I have started filling up with Shell V-Power Diesel because I found that even though I have to pay an extra £4 to fill up my tank I get an extra 60 miles out of it so I actually save money. And I get a speed boost too but tbh I can't tell the difference!

Either way, V-Power for me to get more miles. With my old car V-Power (Unleaded) got me a speed boost I could feel but I got less mpg.

EDIT: RTT if I am correct the oil itself is sold to a middleman who, after the oil refineries, refines it further to get the best out of it so different middlemen will have slightly different oil. This is why Shell is able to create V-Power and the likes.

Tesco, ASDA and Morrisons use the same supplier but Sainsbury's use a different one - and they are very secretive on who their suppliers are. With experience of my old car which was unleaded I always found Sainsbury's was the best and most efficient fuel for me and one of the cheapest around whilst ASDA was utter crap.

 

http://www.petrolprices.com/about-fuel.html

 

Diesel engines are not picky. Any diesel will do. I think that "Super" fuels are a marketing gimmick.

 

Maybe with diesel, but with petrol you can see an instant difference.

 

Not all petrol is the same, even from the same refinery. To quote a guy from the RAC forum:

Linky

Diesel if far better on your wallet these days.

 

I buy shell V-Power petrol because it makes my exhaust note sound nicer

Can't say I've noticed a performance or mileage difference (though I get atrocious mileage anyway), so marketing gimmick it may but, but I'm sold. It does feel like there's a little more power when the the foot goes to the carpet, but I suspect that's mr placebo showing his head.

And I got a wind-up ferrari on my last fill, awesome!
EDIT: It broke within about 10 mins of playing though, so its not that awesome.

 

It may come from the same refineries but there must be something more to it, perhaps additive packages, with fuels from different garages I can noticed a difference to my engines performance, not so much power but things like idle noise, smoke levels etc.

There is a definate smoke reduction when using BP ultimate (zero, I never see it) but when i've not been near one of those and used another garage like my local Texaco (I think..) and I get a largish plume of smoke on acceleration in my remapped motor most of the time, though its hard to know what garage is going to have good or bad fuel, I filled up at morrisons the other day and there was no chnage from BP, cars was clean and ran well.

 

Hmmm, couldn't find a pump with V-Power Diesel yesterday, I'll have to look harder, they just had standard diesel, but then again the one i filled up at yesterday was only a small station, there are three bigger shell ones around. I'll give it a go next fill.

The V-Power Petrol's and Diesel do have additives that are better for the engine, I read somewhere the V-Power and BP Utilimate Diesels produce less soot as well.

 

What would the additives be? Is it possible to buy a bottle of the stuff and only fill up with the cheaper fuel?

I fill up very seldom as the commute is quite short, so tbh I don't notice much difference between petrol brands. I tend to just go with whatever's cheapest / nearest. However with most garages within 1p of each other, with a 40l fillup the 40p doesn't matter *to* much.