I've owned various petrol cars over the years, and not once noticed any difference in performance no matter what fuel I put in.
Now I've got a diesel, it seems to make a huge difference. I tried BP Ultimate when I lived near an outlet, and it gave loads of extra power below 1600 rpm, and made the car pull much more strongly. You wouldn't notice anything on the motorway, but I rekon it took about half a second off the 30-60 time in 3rd (very rough guess), and it definitely added about 4 mpg (~10%). It's also way more drivable in the city as turbo lag is much less of an issue, with near instant pickup.
I've been using 'standard' diesel for the last month as I can't get the good stuff round here. But. I put in a tank from a certain mainstream chain the other day (not a supermarket), and now the car's a dog. Noticeably less power unless the turbo's on song, and just feels gutless to drive. Haven't had a chance to investigate any acceleration numbers, but it's a really quite surprisingly large difference, and won?t know mpg until I?ve run the tank dry, so can?t comment. I better not name the chain ?cos of naming and shaming.
Is this a common thing? Do others find this? Or has my car just broken and I'm blaming it on the diesel? Or have I just gone mad?
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Now I've got a diesel, it seems to make a huge difference.
Yes, absolutely, I have an A4 TDi and my preference is definately Shell, although a couple of weeks ago I picked up a bad batch of Shell diesel which made the engine rough, noisier and MPG was down. However after putting in 64 litres of Shell the other day it is now back in excellent form again.
Personally I dont like BP ultimate much.
I drive on the continent quite a lot, and find that although the French and Belgian diesel is cheap, it is relatively poor quality and gives around 3 mpg less than UK diesel.
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Can't find BP Ultimate diesel anywhere, but the Shell diesel extra is good. Makes the engine a lot quieter.
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Interesting. I've not found any consistency but when I had the XM I found that it hated BP diesel (before the days of BP Ultimate). Occasionally it would also force the engine fault light to come on. Now SWMBO's Berlingo occasionally takes a dislike to Total, running rough and noisy. This happened twice when the car was new and again quite recently (it's now 5 years old). A fill up with Shell and a double dose of diesel power plus and it's right as rain again.
Could just be diesel from dodgy batches I suppose.
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Terry
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I've run diesels for many years and have consistantly found that fuel from the supermarket (No names no pack drill) near here consistantly returns 4 to 5 mpg fewer than branded fuel. With the Vectra DI the differance in power was noticable but not with this CDTI 150. Cheaper in the long run to buy branded fuel
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My HDi seems to prefer Shell over Sainsburys Global (5% biodiesel). Pulls better and slightly more efficient.
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Interesting - maybe it depends on how highly tuned the engine is?
I have a Merc C270CDi, and, as far as I can tell (and I used to have a Peugeot 406 Turbo *petrol* and Shell Optimax made a huge difference), it makes no difference at all to anything about the car (clatter/power/consumption etc) whatever fuel is put in. Millers Diesel Power Plus made no difference either, yet other people swear by it.
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The goona liked BP Ultimate, more low down grunt but did not give any increase in MPG. The rest all felt much the same
Now on the Touran, and that postively *hates* Texaco. Very rough.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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