[Nellytheroc]

Not something I had ever thought about as I always fill up at my local Tesco cos it's just round the corner, it's cheap and I get club card points but a mate a work said he wouldn't ever fill up his car with supermarket petrol as it isn't very good quality.

So the question is; does it matter? Is cheap petrol a false economy? Do you always use the same brand? Can you tell the difference? Am I really bored listening to a bunch of pundits talking crap waiting for the England game to kick off?

 

[audaxit]

I fill up with super unleaded on the advice of the garage I bought my spider from. I use both branded and supermarket fuels ( whichever is closer when I need to fill up) and don't notice any difference in performance nor economy. Don't know if standard unleaded would change this.

 

[Mitch916]

Supermarket fuel is not the same as branded.

All my Alfas run better on super or premium or whatever it's called.

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[cgc]

Very hard one too answer without scientific study. The car was designed to work with RON 95 and should be fine with that, I think if you use a higher RON every time the engine ecu learns to change the ignition timing. The other choice is cleaning agents, I know asda has some and Texaco with 'techron', but how effective they are or if different companies have them I really couldn't say.

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[spankdanny]

The ECU can't tell the difference between 95 & 97 Ron. It can however adjust for very poor quality fuel that was causing pinking/knocking detected by the knock sensor on the back of the engine.

 

[cgc]

Isn't the RON97, or RON99 in the case of Shell and Tesco's, more stable under pressure and so be able to be compressed further and so delay the ignition at touch. If the ecu can't handle this learning in its factory state I would hope it could be after a remap.

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[jurdy1]

It's the Ethanol content that is the thing to watch for. Search the forum as this has been covered a few times.

 

[Headgasket17]

I have been running my spider now for 4 years on ASDAS own unleaded. No issues so far. (The odd bit of branded on long journeys).

 

[MalcQV]

I use 95 RON for the Spider. I'm on my third Ferrari (bully for me I know) and generally use Super unleaded. I look for Shell (well Ferrari and Shell love each uvver :inlove :lol: however I don't care if it is supermarket fuel or local station. I will if necessary put 95 in a Ferrari. I did with my F355 and Mondial and couldn't tell. Not yet used it in my 360 so I can't comment.

Goes for my diesel tractor too. Obviously I don't put petrol in that

There seems to be a stigma attached to supermarket fuel and IMHO it's all ********.

 

[Mitch916]

There's no stigma. Supermarket petrol is perfectly adequate for the job. Obviously. It meets all the required standards.

However, branded fuels have extra additives that make it even better for your engine and keep it cleaner.

As for performance with the higher RON, I really believe my Alfas feel like they run better. Maybe it's in my head but if it is, it works!

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[MalcQV]

There's no stigma. Supermarket petrol is perfectly adequate for the job. Obviously. It meets all the required standards.

However, branded fuels have extra additives that make it even better for your engine and keep it cleaner.

As for performance with the higher RON, I really believe my Alfas feel like they run better. Maybe it's in my head but if it is, it works!

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I'm with you, but the Stigma is present. So many people saying they won't use it.
I'm sure the 99RON Tesco fuel has a few additives.

 

[ransoman]

In the TS and the V6 I have never noticed a difference no matter what grade I put in or where it comes from with the exception of Morrisons fuel where the car seemed to loose a ton of power.

In the Multiair there was a massive difference. Supermarket basic was a no go. In dynamic it wouldn't generate full boost when going up a hill so the turbo kept dumping pressure. Branded forcourt was a little better but still couldn't get full boost all the time. Supermarket premium and branded forcourt premium was the only fuel where the car performed normally but the MPG was a bit crap on supermarket premium.

 

[Philjay50]

I will not use supermarket fuels in my Alfa, my 156 JTS ran like a dog on the stuff. One of my neighbours was a lab manager at one of the latest refinery's in Europe, I asked him for his opinion, he declined to give me a direct answer BUT then said that he never used Supermarket fuel. You pay your money etc.etc.

 

[bradpit999]

those of you not noticing an immediate difference should not that over 40000 and 80000 thousands of miles if you split the head from the block i am guessing the differences would show up then

branded have additives that make the fuel a cleaner burn