Rotary-RX8

iTrader: (1)

Soo apparently Sunoco is closing down. I went to filll up this morning and the guy told me that sunoco is clsoing down and to convert my pooints to petro canada points. Now Sunoco used to be the only gas station that has 94 octane but Petro Canada has it now to. The guy said Sunoco is technicallly owned by Petro and they use the same gas. So the 94 at petro is the 94 at sunoco.

But i never really liked Petro. The only gas i have ever put in my car is 94 Sunoco or 91 Shell.

So what are you guys going to start filling up with now ?!?!! Go to Petros 94 or Shells 91 ?

climacus

It doesn't really matter. They all came off of the same damn tanker truck. These days your only choice at the pump is between lots of Ethanol and no Ethanol.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

http://www.canadiandriver.com/2010/0...or-rebrand.htm

Also, Husky is buying up 98 of these stations and branding them as Husky. The western Canada oil company is expanding their foothold here

Neo

This has been known for awhile now.

Suncor bought out Petro Canada. Instead of converting a "national icon", they decided to convert all their gas stations to Petros. And the ones that were located too close to an already established Petro, into Huskey's.

So just to clear things up, you're still getting Sunoco gas, only now you're getting it from Petro Canada.

Do convert your points from Sunoco points to Petro points sooner rather than later. If you do it before Nov 15 you'll get an extra 2500 points.

I rack up points easier on Petro than I did with Sunoco.

And no, not all fuel is created equal. I've been using Ultra94 for the longest time now in the 7. The gas tank is absolutely emaculate! And that's without using fuel stablizer during the winter months.

The only other fuel I would consider putting would be Shell. But since I collect points at Petro, I use the Petro stuff now. (tecnically Sunoco)

Maffu313

iTrader: (2)

^ agreed! I found it quite hard to collect Sunoco points and the rewards didn't seem great, so I use shell now. But how's Petro-Canada's 91 compared to Shell's now? since they use sunoco gas right? I'd prefer petro can, since they have the 2 cents off every litre mastercard, which in the long run saves quite a bit of money!!

Also all the sunoco touchless car washes (which were significantly better than Petro-Canada ones) are now part of the unlimited car wash pass that is offered at Petro-Canada =]

Nd4SpdSe

An interesting tidbit of information I got from my local (Port Colborne) Sunoco station when to fill up the 8 this past Thanksgiving weekend. Apparently they'll be leaving some stations as actual Sunoco stations in the cities around the US border, this including the Port Colborne station. The reasoning behind this is that if all Sunoco's closed, the US Sunoco, being a different company (see different logo), can come in and fill the gap left behind.

I think it is somewhat convinient, we have (that I see) have more locations to get 94.

Just to make sure however, Husky-converted sites will be using their own fuel and not that from Petro/Sunoco?

Snrub

It's gas. If there was a difference, car companies would recommend certain gas. There was the "Top Tier Gas" initiative, but I believe Petro Canada gas was one of the only ones that qualified.

The OEM RX-8 ECU is tuned for 91 octane. 94 octane won't do anything extra.

I really like the Pioneer station by my house. Lately it's been 3C/L cheaper than the name brand stations. Their 91 octane is 11C more expensive than 87, as opposed to 12-13C at name brand stations. If I fill up 50L I get $1.20 back in "bonus bucks". Using my options mastercard I get 1% back. That's roughly 6% off. And guess what, the independent stations buy their gas from a major company. Pioneer happens to buy from Sunoco (presumably now petro canada).

Neo

Snrub brings up a good point.

Using the 94 octane on a car never tuned for it won't give you much, if any, improvement over using 91 octane.

According to advertisements, and labels around the fuel pump, the only gas station not using Ethanol within their fuel is Shell. And that's if you only go to the top V power (91 octane).
Now, this is suppose to be "pure" fuel, as opposed to partial fuel due to the "up to 10% Ethanol" quote on Petro/Sunoco gas pumps.
Whether this makes a difference, I haven't seen any.

About the only gas station I don't get fuel from is Esso. I think it was tested as being one of the dirtiest gas stations you can get fuel from. Cars performed much worse whenever they filled up with Esso fuel.

And yes, Pioneer does buy their fuel from Sunoco/Petro. Their "94Ultra" is called "93Magnum".
More than a few times I've seen the Sunoco big rig put fuel down the few Pioneer stations around my area.
Take note, not all Pioneers carry 93Magnum.

I have noticed the majority of Petro gas stations have changed to accommodate the 94 octane. But there are still a few that only offer 91. I think in the next little while you'll see them have their pumps changed to reflect the take over from Sunoco.

Maffu313

iTrader: (2)

well from what i've noticed, using esso gives crappy fuel economy and noticeably rougher reving (though i'll equate that to a strong placebo effect probably, but the fuel economy drop is hard fact). V-Power gives me the best fuel economy, and both 91 and 94 from Sunoco wasn't bad either, so i may switch over since now i get to save 2 cents per litre if i go with petro which uses sunoco gas =]

Footman

iTrader: (2)

Shell has a BMO mastercard where you get a certain percentage back. They have two cards, one with $0 annual fee, and one with a $50 annual fee but with a higher percentage back.

I recommend y'all to whip out the excel spreadsheet and do some annual fuel usage cost calculations to find out which card is right for you. Not surprising for me, I actually get more money back using the annual fee card than the free one.

shaojie1984

I will go to petro 94


and esso is the one i will never use, esso really sucks!

Maffu313

iTrader: (2)

^-- I'm using that one right now

$0 is 1.5% cashback, and $50 annual fee one gives 3% annual cashback. And if you're a student, you can get the SPC BMO Mastercard which also gives the 1.5% cashback ONTOP of all the SPC specials.

I've compared it to the Citi Mastercard that gives 2 cents/litre, and for me the PetroCanada one is cheaper as I can collect petro-points and redeem 5 cents/litre off cards as opposed to airmiles at shell, which i hardly use.

Kafka

I use ESSO only for my areoplan....

I used to do Ultra94 for my 1.8T all the time but its because of the tuned turbo...now rotary engine runs on pretty much anything! :P

Snrub

Does anyone have scientific data backing up the assertion the Esso gas is grossly inferior in terms of fuel economy and performance? I'm sure their rivals might be interested in such data as there are billions of dollars at stake.

Maffu313

iTrader: (2)

^ yeah i remember coming across a few in the past years, but things like this, unless you reserach about, you won't know...and that's the case with the general public. Since there are just so god damn many esso stations around, a lot of people fill up on esso. I'll look around to see if i can dig it up again :D haha it's somewhere out there on the web =]

shaojie1984

My experience:

on a 91 MR2

Shell 87, 400KM when lights up
Esso 89, only 290KM when lights up

both high way/city combined

K.C.C.

Thanks for the info, guys. I'm switching to Petro-Canada today.

Snrub

I'm not trying to start a fight, but I'm genuinely perplexed.
* If there was a difference anyone cared about, Esso's competitors would scream it from the rooftops. Any company that didn't do this would be very foolish. How many companies have discussion regarding whether they'd like to gain revenue at a competitors expense and decide against it?
* If there was a significant difference, car manufacturers would tell you not to use it.
* If there was a significant different the gov't would have their published fuel economy numbers produced on each of the major varieties of gas.
* If there was a significant difference various forms of media would write stories about it. eg. Why is Consumers Reports not testing different brands of fuel. They aren't afraid of anyone.
* If there was a significant difference environmental groups would create a fuss.

To those who believe there are significant differences between brands of gas, why have none of these things happened?

Maffu313

iTrader: (2)

esso's gas had by far the most sulphur content...in the early 2000s, but it's drastically decreased that amount since it became quite a big deal back then. And yes there are environmental groups that have created a fuss and are still creating a fuss about Exxon because they don't agree with going 'green'...as for car manufacturers, I'm actually more inclinced to think that they wouldn't care, since more maintenance work that needs to be done on cars using a slightly lower quality of gas means that they earn more revenues.

and also I'm guessing the difference between the tiers of gas aren't HUGE, it's not going to cause an engine to blow up, but it may decrease your mileage, but that's also attributed with other things; in general, what most people on this forum have noticed (and other forums too) that esso gas in general gives less mileage.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2000/04...gas000419.html

http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/...crude-lawsuit/

http://www.foecanada.org/index2.php?...do_pdf=1&id=15

Mazda_RX804

ye i miss sunoco, but atleast there is 94 at a petro by my house

DarkBrew

Been using Petro 99% of the time
Now there are many more stations
And my fav car wash which was Sunoco is now Petro
And I can grab 94 now

wcs

iTrader: (2)

94 is way over rated for the NA rx8's .....

I honestly believe its saved me on the Nitrous and the turbo'd boys likely find a difference ..

But running only NA ... you're throwing your money away... just my 2c

Snrub

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but the high sulphur issues that has nothing to do with fuel economy or performance. Without rigorous analysis, for all we know it could be better for fuel economy or performance.

The contemporary analysis I'm aware of is "Top Tier Gas". Apparently certified fuels leave fewer deposits on valves and injectors. I double checked and Esso, Petro-Canada, and Shell and qualify.

DarkBrew

True but it's nice to have the option... I only use it on a hot day involving hard charging...

shaojie1984

Agree!

Shell V-Power is good enough for NA. But its just 2cent different between 91&94 ,so $50 more a year if you filll your car 4 times a month.