Recently purchased a 2009 5.0 S/C autobiography, previous owner said running Shell V power or equivalent is a must, is this the case with them? He’d lost the handbook for it so was unable to check (I’m on the lookout for one)

My handbook states 95RON and doesn't demand the flashy fuels.

I tend to use V-Power as I believe that carbon deposits can cause issues on direct fuel injection engines. That might be nonsense but it's only a few pence per litre more. Formerly happymadison1978

The car won’t need it but the premium petrols tend to be better at keeping the deposits low. You don’t really gain much bhp.

Its all tiny gains for a bit more cash. V-Power is not a "must" but consistent with the investment decision to buy the car in the first place. Its not an economy car so you're obviously up for spending more to get more - albeit with diminishing returns the further up the ladder you climb.

V-power has better cleaning agents which will help keep many bits of the engine running better for longer - if you only keep the car for a year you probably wont benefit. In my experience V-power gives about 4% better consumption...but costs 8-10% more. Most modern cars have clever enough electronics to slightly adjust the performance to take account of the quality of the fuel used so you could put any old gnats p**s in it and it would go. The higher octane equivalence of V-power allow a cleaner burn and therefore (slightly) more performance to be unleashed. And why wouldn't you want that...??

Enjoy your car... Mike - MPx

2017 5.0 V8 Supercharged SVAutobigraphy Dynamic SVO Palette Grey (2021-...)
2012 5.0 V8 Supercharged Autoboigraphy Orkney Grey (2017-2021)
2007 4.2 V8 Supercharged Vogue SE Tonga Green (2012-2017)
2002 4.4 V8 Vogue Bonnatti Grey (2008-2012)

On my local Shell station I have noticed that 99 Octane stickers have been put on the area where the pump trigger rests. Have they upped the Octane as I always thought it was 98 or just advertising counteracting Tesco’s 99 stuff?

Steve.