Running on empty

[Andrew353w]

Had one of those "Willy Makeit" moments yesterday! The boss sent me to Farnborough, in Hampshire, on a "shout' job (i.e., get there by yesterday, but in reality by 4pm!) I left home and the yellow light came on while scooting round the M25, and I must have pulled into Farnborough on the fumes! Had 5 litres in a can in the boot, which I couldn't get to while I was racing there, (made it there by 3.57pm!) but that got me back to Watford (JUST!) where I bought a walloping 54 litres for £57! 44 litres in the car & 10 litres in 2 cans-that was TOO close for comfort! By the way, fuel's STILL £1.06.9 at Sainsbury's.Oddly my M.P.G. doesn't change whatever fuel I use, although I understand that many people do say that there IS a difference. Clearly the supermarkets don't refine the stuff themselves, so I can only think that they buy it in bulk & cut the margins on each litre. No refinery is going to make a different blend for a supermarket tanker the the "full fat" stuff for the oil company one....... or is it?

[Station]

I used to run out of fuel in my Porsche, purely because I bought a thirsty car after being made redundant and I couldn't afford to put any in. I sold the car with possibly a thimble full of petrol in the tank, and it got the buyer home on the fumes alone.I got a call two days later saying it had broken down and had to be towed (it had a few faults, but none of my advice helped). He later told me the 25 year old fuel pump was full of crud from all the times I'd ran out and sucked all the stuff from the bottom through!On supermarket fuel, you can see some Tesco/Asda tankers lined up at the Shell Refinery in Stanlow, it's all the same regular stuff. Might be different elsewhere.

[Parky]

You say the refineries dont make different fuel for supermarkets but do you remember that issue a couple of years back where silicon got into a batch of Petrol and ruined a load of emission sensors?? Only affected Tesco and Morrisons as I recall

[Pete-M]

I use supermarket fuel quite often. If I'm passing and Sainsbury's is open, I'll go there for my fuel. Same with Tescos.I have never ever experienced a drop in power using it.I have noticed that the high octane stuff makes a difference though

[Nervy Si]

As for those "range" gauges - you can play them up by changing your driving style mid-tank. If you have one, try cruising at 60mph in top for a few miles, then thrashing it, then cruising again - depending on how your particular car calculates range, this can cause havoc with the reading!

Very true. I reckon my car's low fuel warning light comes on when it detects less than 20 miles in the tank. Easing down a hill, right foot off, soon puts the fuel light out!In my old E28 520i one night, going up the M11 and realised I hadn't filled up for ages. Fuel light comes on, I'm wracking my brains, the manual says how far I can go with the light on but what did it say? 3 miles? 13 miles? 33 miles? The 520i didn't have a fuel computer. Not many services on M11 so I settle into a 55mph cruise in the left-hand lane and hope for the best. Another pair of headlights flies up behind me. hesitates, then follows me for 5 miles or so at 55 before zooming past, it was a 944! God knows what he was waiting for - must have though a saloon doing 55 on a motorway at night was too suspicious to overtake. Got to Cambridge and filled up without even noticing the price per litre. Did similar in my old M535i 3-4 years ago in North London, used to struggle to get 23mpg, I was overjoyed to buy unleaded at 1.27/litre, Christ on a spacehopper.