My understanding of the situation came from an engineer who worked for Sunoco, here's exactly what he told me about gas.

There are 3 tiers of gas. You should only ever buy from the top 2.

All the major players will have the highest quality gas because they have the most strict standards. They are only allowed to purchase from certain sources.

The second tiers like Coastal etc can get gas from other sources, but are still governed by rules therefore their gas isn't that bad. It's just not up to Sunoco, Shell, etc.

The unbranded stations get the cheapest gas from ANYONE who is selling it. You get what you pay for her. Use at your own risk he says. The gas they buy cannot be purchased by any of the tier 1 or tier 2 players because it doesn't pass ANYTHING but the minimum standards.

The contract with wawa and sunoco ended about a year ago. This is the main reason they don't carry 93 @ Wawa anymore.

This was a conversation I had with an engineer who worked at Sunoco from working at the bank. He knew a lot about a lot and didn't just say get Sunoco, he mentioned all the top brands and how they are almost identical.

I always use sunoco 93oct for my fun cars, the beaters get whatever i can find cheapest.

The xB and the Bronco get wawa 87. If they made 86, i'd put that in the bronco lol.

This is just word of mouth and the info is close to 10 yrs old at this point so take it for what it's worth. I was given some "inside information" by a friend that "knows a guy" who's job it is to go around to gas stations and test the octane ratings to make sure the fuel meets the minimum advertised ratings and that gas stations aren't doing shady things like labeling 87 octane 93 and charging more for it.

What he said was that, while the major brands are all basically the same thing with different additives, there is some inconsistency when it comes to octane ratings and that Amoco Ultimate had the highest average octane ratings at the pump of the major brands. (ie: amoco's 93 octane over the course of a year might average out to a 93.9 octane minimum, while exxon's tested at 93.1)

I've been trying to find an Amoco station ever since. :lol:

Sunoco 93 all the way. Car runs best when I fill up there over any other place.

Amoco is BP ;-)

http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarti...tentId=7027814

On a related note, does sunoco still sell 94 octane? That's what I used to put in my S10 before I swapped heads and dropped the static compression ratio to a more pump-gas friendly 10:1.

Bah!! I guess we can just disregard my previous post in that case. I'm sure things have changed since BP took over.

No wonder there are no more amoco stations.

93 Sunoco or Exxon in the WRX.

87 **** for the Accent.

94 Sunoco is gone! Havent been able to find it for a couple years now.

alot of people dont notice much of a difference between the cheap gas and the top tier gas because of knock sensors, i noticed it ALOT more in my car because my car has no knock retard system. Therefore I would either ping and knock or i wouldnt. All depending on the quality of gas I would get.

i use sunoco 93 most of the time. If im in a pinch or want to save some money I use Giant 93.... it has netted me the same mpgs and i havent experienced any problems.

for my jeep though, i use whatever I can get lol

oneday for President!

Well, I am old enough to run ... just not rich enough ... so, campaign contributions can be made to my PayPal account. :thumbup:

LOL.


Thanks for the info guys, very informative.

Nick, 87 on a V6 Rav4? No issues?

I generally stay w/ one of the following top tier fuel companies: shell, exxon and sunoco. while making sure I don't drop bellow 93 octane, if the station is out, I end up going somewhere else.

The others are last resort

Hess 87 for the Pia. I go with 89 occasionally for the Capri. Hess is closest and has good prices but the Valero 5 miles away has the cheapest hands down

so Sunoco is not a top tier brand? I would think since the Sunoco refinery is in Philly we would get the cleaner gas.

Same here.

I saw that some people mentioned how they feel like they are getting ripped off when gas is up to 10% ethanol. I feel that way about gas stations that only carry 92 octane premium. It always cost the same as premium 93 anywhere else nearby. I always avoid this, but Sheetz is one of the most prevalent gas stations in PA and they are one of the ones who do it. Due to this, I usually use Sunoco or Rutter's for gas. I would always use Sunoco, but Rutter's is also everywhere around where I currently live so I use it frequently as well. I have no idea where their gas actually comes from though.

Recently for work I was down by the docks in Delaware to visit a facility that turned out to be the gasoline tank farm where Wawa unloads gasoline from tankers and then distributes it to their gas stations. Next time I'm down there I'll ask about the sources of their gasoline.

No, regular unleaded is the recommended octane by Toyota. I've not heard of anyone testing (like maybe 1/4 mile trap speed) if resetting the ECU and running higher octane is of any benefit but I'd bet it's not. I keep meaning to hit the track with this "beast" to see how deep into the 14's I can bust :-p It does have 269 bhp so it's quite peppy.

On the other hand, our four-banger '04 TSX @ 200 bhp only runs optimally on premium grade (91 or more) as recommended by Acura. The K24A2 motor is a pretty high strung, higher compression (10.5) motor.