Blog: Supermarket Fuel v Premium Fuel?

We ran a quick poll on our twitter account @ukbestcardeals - to find out if our followers use supermarket fuel or the more expensive 'branded fuel'.

Surprisingly 23% of our followers who voted would rather spend that little extra when it comes to topping up our tanks.

77% let us know that they use supermarket fuel, which at the moment is 99.7p for retrol and a new 6 year low for diesel at 97.7p.

Fuel price campaigners believe motorists are being denied even larger savings on diesel because of increased profits in the supply chain.

A study by FairFuelUK found that, since May last year, oil prices in sterling have fallen by more than 54% but retailers have cut pump prices by just 35%.

The report claimed that retailers' profit margin for diesel is 11ppl compared with just 5.8ppl for petrol.

Diesel should be at least 3ppl lower than petrol, the organisation added.

Campaigner Quentin Wilson said there has been "weeks and weeks of increased profits on every litre of diesel sold and weeks and weeks of not passing savings on to motoring consumers".

Supermarket fuel v Branded fuel, what is the difference?

This is a subject that has been discussed on a regular basis throughout motoring forums, whether you get inferior fuel from a supermarket garage compared to the likes of a Shell, BP or Esso petrol stations.

All fuels that are sold in the UK, Petrol or Diesel, will conform to the relevant British Standards. What this means to the general user is that they should all work generally the same way and using the same fuel type from any garage should not cause any issues with your vehicle

All petrol stations use a standard ‘base' fuel which is supplied from the same refineries across the UK no matter what petrol pump it will end up being pumped from into your tank. The only difference is, the various additives that the different companies add to their fuel before it ends up in your tank. Baring this in mind, it could be the possible reason why some drivers report that their car runs better on some garage fuels over others.

So are Supermarket fuels poorer quality?

The simple answer is in general NO, the fuel all (as mentioned in the above paragraph) comes from the same refineries. BUT the different fuel outlets whether it be a branded filling station or a supermarket filling station, will define a minimum performance level required from the fuel, which results in different levels & types of additives added to the ‘base' fuel. These additivies can effect the MPG and general running of the vehicle that some drivers may experience more extremely than others, in some cases you may not even notice any difference at all.

Is it worth paying more for premium unleaded?

Most fuel brands offer "premium" or "super" unleaded petrol that they claim improves your car's performance and helps to protect your engine, while cutting your fuel consumption.

However, with these souped-up fuels costing up to 10p more per litre than standard unleaded petrol, the question is whether they are worth the extra outlay?

Depending on what type of vehicle you are driving, whether it's been tuned or has a standard map, you may notice differences between using different filling stations, even between the branded ones. BUT the fuel is all from the same refineries which all meets the Britsh Standards, so you can use any to fill up your vehicle with petrol or diesel, knowing it's all of the same ‘base' fuel.