My car had been running really crappy (hesitation, pinging, no power) for a while now. I have determined this to be bad gas? The reason I think this is because every once in a while I will get a good tank, and it is the difference between night and day. There is only about 2 stations in town that I will now buy from, because the rest seem to make my car run awful. I've tried the usual injector cleaning, air filter check etc... Do you suppose I am dreaming, or are the oil companies dilluting the gas with more and more synthetic additives to avoid selling you a pure product? I dont want to be burning that crap in my car!

Well i dont think your dreaming because around here i have been burning gass alot faster then normal. I checked everythign under the hood, and even had my brother (certified mechanic) take a look, and we found nothing. This week, however, i got a good tank because i am getting the normal gass mileage. What I hate the most is that gass is up to 1.90 here, and if i pay that much i dont want a tank of shit!

this is common for cars... this was even happening during the 1960's... Cars are like people they like different places... like different food. your gas that goes through like water is like Mcdonalds... while the places that your cars "lives" for is the finer foods!

Ex. my dad's old 1959 coronet only ran good on SHELL gasoline.
See what your car likes and go for it!

my car likes the good old meijer gass, but i had a week off work and didnt really feel like going there, even for gass. lol. I filled up tonight after work so it's all good again. My car is full!

Whats really interesting is that an oil company does NOT have to have it's product tested, verified, or otherwise by an outside source, or even by themselves. You see that 89 octane sticker on the pump, but who can prove it??? What you think they sell you is a petroleum product, engineered and refined perfect every time... What really comes out of that rusty old tank underneath the service station is what the consumer trusts is a quality product at a painsteakingly steep price, but is it?

There are ways to test the octane levels in gasoline... but not convenient to the general public. This would be a great thing to have implemented in the fuel delivery process, since we are already paying them top dollar to deliver it. Imagine that... A product that assured quality, not just high price!

(only reason I know this is because I work very closely to the petroleum industry, with measurement canada...)

My car likes leaded gas.


anyway, always go to the big gas stations with cheaper prices like maverik or flying J......somewhere where it is always crowded. Gas does get stale if it sits for a while.

I saw a commercial on TV a couple days ago, advertising that SHELL is now (wasnt before?) committed to selling you pure, unaltered gasoline. Hopefully, this means that no more garbage and crappy running vehicles. Maybe I'll try buying shell gas for a bit here, see if theres a difference.

I know shell was notorious for crappy gas, maybe they finally decided to shape up?

I use Wawa gas alot and my car likes it, I put Texaco everyonce in a while and it last longer but my car bogs sometimes when I use it. Maybe I should start mixing half of Wawa and half of Texaco

shell is smart... they probably made a small insignificant change in their gas and they are going to sell a LOT more... at least for a little while, till people figure out it was all a marketing scheme.

Shell has ALWAYS been one of the better... especially for the older cars... my Dad's 1959 Dodge Coronet (the one with the 426 Hemi ect.) only ran good on shell

Do you suppose that shell in the US sells a different product than shell canada? Becuase it seems that every person I talk to around here, bashes shell gas. I did aswell, from first hand crappy gas experience. But if they are actually going to refine better, I would buy from them! I have nothing against the companies, all I want is my car to run good!

my car runs really bad sometimes on cheap gas from like Raceway or Pit Stop, but with that you never know what brand it really is because they buy it on the open market. i never get Exxon because my car runs bad on that too.

I had never heard of this before, but when my uncle got his Chrysler PT Cruiser back in June 2003, the dealer told him to never use Premium gas because it would make the car run crappy. Is it true that $$$$ gas is worse then cheep stuff?

usually the more expensive gas is supposed to have increased octane... and more octane is never a bad thing - to a certain point I'm sure.

But, I have no doubt that the expensive stuff also contains things like methanol and other alcohols that are supposed to keep your injectors and fuel system clean. Some cars I've heard dont like the alcohol in parts of the engine, it dries out seals or something.

I just always put 89 in the Olds (same with my dad's Civic).