I see the forum is a bit quiet lately so I thought I would toss in the good old nugget of petrol types once more. It’s a regular and solid topic so what the hell.

Due to where I drive regularly I have my favourite watering holes that are convenient for the side of the road I am on and being optimum for re-filling for the distance I will drive and these are Shell and Texaco garages. I do the same route regularly and I can say the Shell Fuel Save petrol doesn’t save fuel. Whereas the Texaco Regular does everything the Shell petrol is supposed to do.

My Sirion 1.5 is very well maintained and I have a bond with my car and I know when it feels different and with the Shell it feels sort of ordinary and just doing the business, but with the Texaco it feels liberated and a bit more urgent. My journey is a 600 mile motorway journey and I cruise at an indicated 80mph with bursts to keep up occasionally and not be a “mimser” and get in the way. With Shell I get 42mpg and Texaco I get 45mpg. How the car feels is subjective of course but the figures don’t lie. For the life of me I can’t see how this can be from Shell petrol that is touted as being able to save fuel.

I have read a lot of different forum material about petrol and what people think and I can’t see any pattern that states that one petrol brand is definitively superior to the others – it is completely random. This makes me think it is just one of those things in my case and my engine just prefers one type of petrol over another. I am sure the average driver out there couldn’t care less but whatever the additives in petrol are they can and do make a difference for me, and if you find one that works for you then stick with it I guess. I, after a year of trials with these two petrol brands, will now be sticking to Texaco from now on.

Texaco petrol does contain Techron which is their name for the additive package in their petrol and Techron goes way back and is highly regarded, whereas Shell has had some failure with additives in the past and whether that has anything to do with anything who knows, but I mention it nonetheless.

And on the subject of additives I never use extra-additives and have always advocated an occasional tank of Shell V/Nitro Power but I have even changed my mind on that now and just use a good fuel with regular hot running and the detergents in the fuel supplied will do the job.

All I have to do now is come to terms with the range/distance from a full tank to use the Texaco garage at either end of my journey because I don’t see any in between. It is do-able but it leaves the tank a bit low at either end and any traffic jams will leave me with some range anxiety or having to pay motorway prices. Which will it be, range anxiety or wallet anxiety?