I think it is pretty much fact that supermarket fuel while meeting good quality fuel requirements do not reach higher quality grades as that of some major fuel suppliers.With the exception of the 'supermarket fuel scare' of several years ago you would be very unlucky to have any problem with any supermarket fuel.What I think and I stand corrected is that some modern diesels run to much exacting standards for performance and this is where the tiniest differences in fuel can come into play.I have an old dispach van that runs on anything,my brother works on recovery and gives me contaminated fuel many times that I throw in a little at a time and sometimes run on my 'allowance' of 'bio' that most modern diesels will require a call to the RAC.!!My advice is when buying a Range rover buy the correct model ,a PETROL!!!

ken wrote:

As someone who has a few LP560's F430's & F458's I can tell you the RON rating's make a huge difference to HPE's our F430's wont even fire up on 95 RON

Hi Ken I agree

We have a Gallardo LP550-2 spyder and it too will not start unless we give it BP fuel which it loves & drinks plenty x

For anyone reading this - try this stuff - it always amazes me how good it is - it really does put a kick in the power on the 4.4 TDV8 FFRR

If anyone else uses it let me know what they think
Note: Its only for Diesel power units
Cheers

Click image to enlarge

Just to add to the varied opinions, I recently went on the Land Rover driving experience in Skipton, We were out in the new Range Rover & the instructor informed me that they were banned from using supermarket fuel! The vehicles are leased from Land Rover.
I am not saying there is anything bad about supermarket fuel, but i think modern Diesels running short journeys & not getting hot can suffer greatly from DPF & EGR problems, alot of this is put down to supermarket fuel, rightly or wrongly. I had a Lexus diesel that was no end of trouble, i even got a free engine rebuild from Lexus, the problems still returned though, gave up in the end & bought a 4.4 V8, straight forward engine, less to go wrong, LPG helps as well!

It's not a concern if you only use Shell V Power Nitro + Super Unleaded...

 Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top
1998 90 TUL FFR Hard Top XD Wolf
1993 90 Tdi

*Gone: L405 4.4 VSE, L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB

viper wrote:

I worked for BP for several years in a senior position. We supplied fuel from the grangemouth refinery to all the BP sites in our region and also we supplied tescos , safeway and morrisons...............................

All the fuel companies get their fuel from a few shared regional depots. so for the South east UK, there is Buncefield in Hertfordshire and Purfleet in Essex.

All fuels sold in the UK meet (quite high) British Standards. 'Normal' Unleaded is actually 'Premium unleaded', then the more expensive fuels are 'Super unleaded' - You can't really buy regular unleaded on UK forecourts. It's much like you used to get 4star and 3star petrol. 'Normal' unleaded is basically 4 star and the more expensive stuff is 5 star.

The only difference is the different companies put a different additive package into their fuel, this is mixed with the stock petrol in the road tanker when it's loaded at the regional depots.

While Shell, Esso, BP etc fuel might be arguably 'better' than supermarket fuel, because of the more developed additive packages they add to their fuel, supermarket fuel is still in excess of British Standards so far from rubbish.

It's just like Shell V-power (or BP ultimate) vs. Regular Shell (or regular BP), it's the same fuel, it just has a different additive package added to it.

Different cars (or rather engines) do perform differently on different brands of fuel though, because of the different additive packages. BP use a different additive package to Shell for example.
My fuel injected mini for example never used to work well on Tesco petrol it has a habit of stalling when slowing for a junction. Works fine on Sainsbury's or BP, Shell what ever though. Shell V-Power makes an obvious difference, but yet BP ultimate is no different to their normal stuff.
My X-Type Diesel got slightly better MPG from BP Ultimate than it did from Shell V-Power.

When i worked for Tesco years ago (back when they actually made money and had credible accounting practices) it was made very clear to both staff and investors that Fuel sales were not a loss leader, in fact profits were always quoted with both fuel sales included and seperately from the food sales. It was very clearly a highly profitable commodity. It is perhaps true though, when filling stations first opened in Supermarkets in the early 80's they were used to draw in customers, but the market very quickly matured.