Just checking to see how many of you know about top tier gasoline. How many use it. As for me I will from now on.
Check out this site to see if you use it and don't know.

http://www.toptiergas.com/index.html

 

Interesting find, I use Shell 93 (or 94 when I can get it). So I guess I have been getting "Top Tier" gas without knowing, will have to ask the station owner.

 

I think the pumps have to say top tier.

 

Top Tier eh? sounds like more BS to charge us more at the pump.
I bet they're just putting in more Anhydrous Alcohol in the fuel, and calling it special additives, what a load!

Why not just go full Ethanol on all cars and stop yankin our chains with BS lingo. I posted in another thread about Ethanol and how it will clean your engine, the stuff is awesome, but it seems the gas companies are buying it all up from the corn mills, which is raising the price of alcohol. Another benefit from 90% ethanol is super high octane ratings. which is what I think they are spiking our gasoline with to bring up the numbers. Meanwhile they make insane profits from less gasoline and charge us more for the cheap alcohol! Sux to be the little guy.

 

At the price of gas today another $.02 cents a gallon only adds about $.30 to a tank if you are empty. I think it is a good investment. If you can't afford it you have the wrong car.

 

gas in columbus ohio went from... $2.76 yesterday to $3.25 today (in westerville) for regular fuel... no premium. yowza.

premium is .20 higher.

 

The octane rating is higher but ethanol does not have as much BTUs as gasoline so it would take more ethanol to equal the performance of gasoline. Gasoline octane is obtained by blending in light ends like butane, butylene and sometimes toluene to raise it (used to be MTBE which was cheaper but EPA won't allow it anymore so there is some price increase there).

 

Yes, which explains why lower compression cars get less MPG on the newer fuels compared to about 10-20 years ago. Too much oxygenation of the gas...

 

The top tier standard was developed by a group of auto manufacturers (BMW, GM, Honda, Toyota) using tests to measure such things as deposits in engines. Top tier fuels should be better for your car. I use Shell on occasion. Other times I use Tier 2 fuels (BP, Citgo, etc.). Occasionally a tier 3. Shell isn't necessarily more expensive then the competition, so you don't necessarily have to pay more.

What I read a while back is that tier one fuels are actually supposed to clean out deposits because they contain the highest level of additives. Tier two gasolines are supposed to have enough additives (more than required) to prevent accumulation of deposits. And, tier three fuels only have the minimum required amount of additives which may not be enough to prevent accumulation of deposits. Who knows for sure?

When it comes to ethanol as fuel, it ain't all that. It is better mixed with punch.

The DOE's plan is to go from producing 5B gallons of ethanol to 60B gallons a year by 2030. Right now the U.S. uses around 146B gallons of gasoline a year! So we will still using vast quantities of gasoline. A lot of people buy into the hype and think that there's this unlimited bio fuel source just waiting to be tapped into and at just a fraction of the cost of gasoline. Keep in mind that even though the masses think gas prices are too high, ethanol won't be any cheaper. It's heavily subsidized by taxpayers (thanks to the agriculture lobby) to make it look cheaper than gasoline. Even if ethanol optimistically can be produced with an amount of energy significantly less than its energy output there are still other issues like pollution (fertilizers, pesticides), taxing of water supplies through irrigation, drought, etc.

I can see the headlines now: Iowa Drought Responsible for Fuel Shortage, President Clinton (Chelsea) Taps Strategic Corn Reserve, Petroleum Leads Maize of Options for Alternative Fuel.

As long as we have petroleum that is easy to extract we should use it. Strategically it makes sense because it forces the rest of the world to also invest in the eventuality of alternative fuels. Why wean ourselves of petroleum now so the Chinese can use it and spew out 2.4 times the pollutants per unit of fuel that the U.S, Germany, or other developed nations do? Doesn't anyone car about Mother Nature any more?

 

I went to the toptiergas website & was surprised not to see Exxon Mobil on the list (see below). Is it possible they are a subsidiary of one of the listed? If not, what tier is Exxon Mobil?

QuikTrip
Chevron
Conoco
Phillips
76
Shell
Entec Stations
MFA Oil Company
Kwik Trip/Kwik Star
The Somerset Refinery, Inc.
Chevron-Canada
Aloha Petroleum
Tri-Par Oil Company
Shell-Canada
Texaco

 

you said gas was $3.20 something. my goodness i could not afford to drive. in georgia it is like $2.20 or so... and yes that's 93.

 

No, they just don't want to do what it takes to meet the standard that has been established. If that is the brand you buy, then you might want to fire off an email to them and ask why. If they get enough why's, then maybe they will step up to the plate. I remember just a couple of years ago, there were only 3 companies that met the standard...look at it now.

 

Does anyone know if there are still gas stations offering 94 and above octane? I used to see them all the time and now it's just 93...

 

remember turbo blue.

 

I use Shell gasoline exclusively and pay using the Shell Citibank mastercard. Using the card provides a 5% rebate on any Shell gasoline purchase. The rebate at $3.00 per gallon amounts to 15 cents which effectively means you are paying $2.85 per gallon. That is a great deal in my book as I don't find any stations around selling gas for 15 cents a gallon less than Shell here locally.

 

Hey The Woodlands. Heard your HS marching band last month in Indianapolis. Great job! They were outstanding.

 

How about just using a fuel additive/cleaner like STP or whatever else is on the market?

 

Thanks. We do have a good band. The competition is pretty fierce as some really great HS bands show up in Indianapolis.

 

ExxonMobil is top tier whether they are advertised as such or not. They are the big daddy of the petroleum companies.

 

Top Tier is simply the recognition that the gasoline has appropriate levels of detergent through all octane levels, not just the highest octane.

ExxonMobil, BP, etc may have sufficient detergent levels in their highest octane but not the lowest (per the manufacturer group).

This may be a marketing gimmick, but they do have standards:
http://www.toptiergas.com/deposit_control.html

I only use Shell or Chevron/Texaco in my area