There are two major dealers down here that i got my two vettes from, with a full tank of gas,Well" they ran great on that free tank of gas,last year i found out that they only have 87 octane at the pump.Cheap A$$'s.

 

Locally, name brand top tier gas is the same price as non brand name gas. I'll stick with the Top Tier brands, as they might be better, but surely they are not worse then non top tier brands. I run ethanol free Top Tier gas (91 octane Top Tier the same price as 91 octane E10 non Top Tier, but 94 octane ethanol free Top Tier is $0.10/gallon more then 91 octane). My Z06 is fed a steady diet of the 94 octane ethanol free Top Tier Phillips 66 gasoline. I can afford the extra $20/annually for the 94 octane ethanol free Top Tier Phillips 66 gasoline, if I skip two meals a year at Golden Corral.

 

Hess Premium will be just fine. Forget about the Top Tier stuff. If you are like me you would have to travel 40 to 60 miles just to find a Top Tier station. I have been using the Mobil (not a Top Tier brand) station two miles from my house for the last 30 years and haven't had any issues with their gas.

Bill

 

SURPRISE, SURPRISE(in my best Goober impersonation)...Mobil is a Top Tier gas.

http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html

 

How about Citgo, Rotten Robbies, Tesoro or Mohawk gasoline?

 

Don't confuse people by supplying facts.

 

Funny thing here in massachusetts I notice all the time GENERIC oil trucks bringing gas to so CALLED top tier stations such as shell,sunoco,mobil,ETC. Funny how the same generic truck that delivers to such stations as BJ's, hess,gulf,bring the gas to the PRESTIGE name stations makes no sense to me.For me I go with 91 or 93 octane at all stations that carry premium gas since in massachusetts all stations are delivered from just a few sources.

 

The gas straight out of the pipelines is the same. It goes to a terminal where they then off load the gas into tank trucks for final deleivery to the retailer. Depending on the receiving retailer, that's where the different additives are added to the gas along with ethanol if required. Doesn't really matter what it says on the side of the truck, but what's inside the truck when it is unloaded at the retailer.

 

You will get better mileage with NON ethanol gas!
That's what we all want. Keep the government out of it.

 

 

Excellent, thank you for posting, your article is a great read.

 

93, top tier, always have, always will, and btw Audi recommends the same.

3 weeks ago I had to put an off-brand gas in an emergency, pumped 93 but within 5 minutes of getting back on the highway it was pinging under load (this was my 05') - added Techron and some Bel Mix-i-go when I got home, problem solved.

First thing I did when I bought the GS last week was add Techron to the 3/4 of a tank.

Toptier is primarily a detergent standard - but I did notice Costco is now advertising 5 times the required levels in their new clean fuel so I might give it a try.

I run either Shell or Chevron. Same for my wifes VW CC and Audi A6 before that.

 

I noticed that sign at Costco too but remain a skeptic. I run it in the Yukon, seems okay but really, unless you run it consistently and tear the engine down to see the results. Until then, I'll stick with Chevron or Shell (prefer Chevron), and of course., Mobile 1.

 

As mentioned above, you are betting your engine's life on the knock sensors working properly, any time you get on the throttle with regular or (to a lesser extent) mid grade gas.

If you drive 10,000 miles per year at 20 mpg, you burn 500 gals per year. If Premium costs 30 cents/gal more than regular, the Premium will cost you about $150/year. Doesn't seem worth the risk and reduced power, to me.

 

or better yet, if you can afford a vette, then you can afford the gas.

 

Why is so hard to read the manual? I read it before I bought the car, there are on line versions in case you are allergic to paper

 

What I find interesting is people will spend a heck of a lot of money on these cars only to go cheap on the gasoline or oils that run it. So many think there is a charlatan behind the motivation of a major auto manufacturer that builds arguably one of the finest sports cars in the US and warrants this automobile for 100,000 miles and suggesting the best gas and cost effective oil to keep it running smoothly for at least that long. My wife just came home from the Chevrolet dealer where she likes to go to get her oil changed and tires rotated in her 2011 Equinox. She was talking to a guy there that had a Chevy Silverado with over 250,000 miles on it and followed the maintenance recommendations to the letter. If it works for a truck, I think it will work for the Corvette. We have been doing the same with our 2006 Yukon Denali we purchased brand new and have had zero problems with it. Why anyone would want to screw around with the recommendations just to try to save a few dollars is sometimes hard to understand, unless of course they have suddenly found themselves unemployed and every dollar counts until they are on their feet again. Been there - done that.

 

 

The “all from the same pipe” story gets repeated often on the forum, and there are some areas of the country where it’s true. But let’s talk about two realities: one for the base gasoline and one for the additives. There are three possible base gasoline delivery methods. Two are easy to understand. First is straight from that company’s refinery through a dedicated distribution system. That is most likely if you are in a big city and close to one of that company’s refineries, such as BP, Shell, or Exxon in Houston, Chevron in LA, BP in Chicago, Shell in SF or Seattle, etc. Second is the “all from the same pipe” story. But third is a modified version of the “all from the same pipe” story, and it’s slightly more complicated. Furthermore, it’s almost impossible for a layman, and difficult even for an expert to tell the difference between #2 and #3 from casual inspection. It is possible to segregate by brand even in the same pipe. If you don’t believe that, just consider that the same pipes carry gasoline (of various octane grades), jet fuel, and diesel fuel. You just send the material down the pipe in slugs, and then pull the product that you want at the other end by timing the slugs. And even if it’s the same terminal at the other end, dispensing gas into the delivery trucks from the same truck loading rack, the terminal can have dedicated tanks for different companies if that’s what the companies want. It’s more likely that a company would want such an arrangement in a big city where they have lots of stations. So bottom line on the base gas, if you’re in a big city, with lots of that company’s stations, there’s a pretty good chance you’re getting that company’s base gas, either by method #1 or #3. If you’re in a rural area, small town, or area with only a few of that company’s stations, the “all from the same pipe” option #2 probably applies.

Now the additives. They are added to the truck that delivers to the station. So even if you are in option #2 from above, if your station is advertising Chevron with Techron, or nitrogen enriched Shell, or some such thing, you can be 100% sure you are getting that company’s additives. Legal risk to the company would be too great for that not to be true. There are only two possible variations that I know of on that story. One is that sometimes, in remote areas or areas with only a few of that company’s stations, you might come across a Chevron station that just says Chevron, or Shell that just says Shell, with no posting anywhere in the station that says Techron or nitrogen enriched. In those few and unusual cases, you probably are getting gas from option #2, with just the standard EPA additive package. The other is that sometimes, you can get more than you pay for (but never less). That is happening if you see a delivery truck leave, for example, a Chevron station and then pull into a Wal Mart. In such a case, the Wal Mart store is getting the Chevron/Techron additives, not the standard EPA additives. But you have no way of knowing whether that is a contracted, routine procedure, or an occasional happening. You can be sure the Chevron station will always have Techron, but next delivery to the Wal Mart might be standard EPA additives. You would never see (unless you were witnessing an illegality) a truck leave a Chevron advertising Techron and then go to a Shell advertising nitrogen enriched.

 

I agree with your post but I'm betting door #2 is where most gas stations get their gas. Not many cities have their own dedicated oil refinery for each brand. If your city has a refinery, chance are most, if not all, brands in that city get their gas from that refinery.

Locally, we have a large storage terminal in Brookline, MO, that supplies not only Springfield, but a huge portion of southwest Missouri, and parts of Arkansas. Unless a station has a special gas (like the two Phillips stations that have ethanol free 94 octane premium) I doubt if the remaining stations are trucking in gas from Bartlesville, OK or Ponca City, OK or Derby, KS, when they can truck it from a storage terminal on the outskirts of Springfield that is supplied by a pipeline.