NOVA is Northern Virginia, sorta like North Jersey, but don't get me started on North vs. South We actually have a few widely spaced WaWa stores, but 7/11 rules
Most ANNOYING in Calif is ARCO. They charge if you use your debit, have PIA central kiosks and they have the highest ethanol content of the majors.
anything but BP (noticed a 4-5 mpg lower difference.) Citgo...we don't support the anti-American Hugo Chavez.
I have used the Wilco-Hess gas for years. Hess has a tank farm at the state ports with ocean tankers arriving weekly. So, I know their gas is probably the freshest in the area. They are also the cheapest. As one other said, I see all kinds of gas company tanker trucks pulling out of the Hess tank farm area. I have seen where others have said that the different companies add different additives to the tank trucks. So, who knows whether the top shelf Exxon-Mobil, BP, Shell, etc. actually do add the additives or not ?
My wife gets upset because her family owns a company that builds gas stations, my father-in-law worked for mobil for over 20 years before that, he knows a lot about gas, gas stations, and gas station owners... he says, 'it's all the same, it comes from the same place, and it all burns the same' Even with that advice, i'm biased as i used to use only cheap gas with my old car and i noticed a difference even in MPG when using cheap vs expensive (both 87 octane) maybe it's all in my head but that being said: I mainly use 76/phillips, mobil or shell... they can be maybe 5-10 cents more expensive per gallon but when your looking at filling up say 10 gallons... your paying 50 cents to a dollar more... peace of mind is worth atleast that in my eyes.
Burnsville Toyota gave me two lifetime .04/cpg discount cards for Kwik Trip, and Toyota says Kwik Trip is on their approved list of "premium retailers" for having trustworthy gas. Whatever that means. Probably that they haven't been caught on video yet pouring water into their underground tanks after midnight. Price per gallon at Kwik Trip is usually .04 higher than surrounding stations, so I basically "break even" using my card. So my real reason for using them is bananas are always .38/lb, and the folks there seem nicer.
If I'm looking for the best mileage per tankful......then it's Mobil. If I'm a few $$ short and need gas, then it's Hess.
Usually Costco if I am near there. Otherwise a station that looks like it sells a lot of gas and is fairly clean and well maintained. If I'm on a trip and running low it's "any port in a storm, mate".
Shell or Gulf. I never use the cut-rate stations. Years ago, I had several cases of bad gas and in one case, a mix of diesel and gas.
After seeing the thread I was going to say the same thing - the gas in all stations comes from the same wholesalers. From what I understand just about all of the stations will get tankers from the same place and some of the name brands will put their own additives - such as the Shell nitrogen enriched gas that they advertise. Same thing goes for milk - the local store brand and dairy will be exactly the same even though the store brand will be significantly less - with milk it is pretty easy to confirm as there is an alphanumeric code printed on the bottle just below the opening that show the facility where it was bottled and the date it was done.
Costco - consistently $0.10 to $0.20 less than all others. All gasoline comes from a nearby common refinery.
Didn't see this in owner's manual, but the Honda manual recommended .... Top Tier gas. Check their website for a list of vendors. I use Shell in Prius. Couple of Shell stations close by.
In my area same price these days cut rate or top tier so i use Shell or Bp. They give me the best mileage. The cut rate stuff mileage falls off about 3 tested for years in five different vehicles.
I stay with Murphy USA because they have their own refineries, their own stations, they are usually about .05 to .10 a gallon less than the competition in the area. In most places where there is a Wal Mart, there will be a Murphy USA station. But Murphy USA also has it's own stand alone stations off the Interstate system. In essence they sell their own gas and diesel at their own stations. They may sell their gas and diesel to independent stations. But in their own stations it is their own product.