The mysteries of gasoline in my beater sedan

[dukewellington]

The results are in:

I drive a ‘05 Hyundai Accent as my daily beater. Totally paid off. No comprehensive because I have guitars worth twice as much as the car. Replaced the radio faders with knurled chrome knobs from the last partscaster. Windshield tint stripe. CD player. Beads on the seats, Christmas tree air freshener. 145k old lady miles on it. I can love it even if it isn’t a Subaru. But I got suspicious about this particular Phillips 66 station where I formerly bought gas, primarily because their coffee sucks but also because I tended to be stopping there an inordinate number of times. Why was I filling up twice a week? I mean, the car is a sewing machine. It’s basically a lawn mower. It shouldn’t be eating gas like that. So I did a test.

4 weeks on Phillips regular 87 = 19 mpg;
4 weeks on Kwik Shop regular 87 = 31 mpg;
4 weeks on QT regular 87 = 30.5 mpg.

My city vs highway routine hasn’t changed in three months, the wind has been consistent (this is Wichita where a 20 kt wind is a slow day), and each month the car traveled within 15 miles of the target mileage. The oil was changed 250 miles prior to the test. On a lark, me and a buddy filled it with supreme from the Phillips. 21 MPG! Case closed.

AND the Phillips coffee still sucks. Kwik Shop has 100% Colombian and Lamar’s donuts. Need I say more.

 

[Milspec]

We have a station just a few blocks from me that gained a new owner 3 months ago. It went out of business already because it was no longer able to get it's tanks refilled although all the other stations didn't have the same problem.

i spoke with the owner of another station and they told me that the guy was buying some budget fuel from a farmer's CO-OP instead of from the major fuel supplier like everyone else. The mechanic in town said that the budget fuel was bad news and contained a lot of ethanol far greater than what was listed on the pump. How it got by the inspectors is another question worth asking.

That Phillips might be doing the same thing. Where one gets fuel is as important as the price, but most people just see fuel as being the same everywhere.

 

[JL_LI]

+1 on what @Milspec said. Phillips may be trying to pass off E85 as regular. That’s the mileage reduction I’d expect burning alcohol. My wife and I have been using a neighborhood Valero station for years. The prices for 89 and 92 octane have been better than competitive and we’ve never had a problem. There’s no reason to shop for pennies on a tank.