Do You Buy Gasoline By Brand Name?

I tend to be loyal to certain gas stations

The kroger gas station on the way to work. The raceway near the mall if I am on that side of town. If I am near the office, I hit the loves near the highway. If I am near alabama, i hop over to get their gas as the taxes are lower.

The thing in common, they are all the cheapest places that look like the owners give a crap and have standards.

Grand Mal said:

Yeah, my wife collects Air Miles so we buy gas at Shell.

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That's not really buying by brand though, so much as buying what's cheapest (in this case, due to a brand-specific discount).

No. There are certain stations I avoid for various reasons, and others I favor for a reason, but brand of gas has nothing to do with it.

Mostly it's whatever is cheapest and near at hand.

American said:

Anyone who changes their oil every 3,000 miles is a complete moron, unless it is the most harsh conditions on the planet. There is no reason to be that wasteful.

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It depends on the oil, how those 3k miles are driven, and how much time it takes to drive those 3k miles, I would think.

If it's crappy oil, you're driving roughly, and/or it takes you several years to drive 3k miles, I'd say it might be reasonable to change it that often - I would think oil degrades a bit with time, less so for fully synthetic oil? And of course low-quality oil and rough engine use (heavy towing, fast speeds/high revs) would effect that.

Personally, I put about 3k miles on my car every 2-3 months, and plan to get the oil changed as part of routine maintenance, which is about every 7500 miles.

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As for buying brand-name gas...not really.

I mostly buy from Sheetz because they have a station near where I get on the highway to work, and I can purchase a bit of food if I want to at the same location. Also cheapest in area.

VanceMack said:

Virtually ALL of the gas comes from the same refineries.

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Completely true. The pipelines that feed various oil terminals, regardless of brand, are the same. The only thing that separates refined product delivery both within a terminal and among them is a slug of water. The chief difference between the various vendors is the additives added at the terminal. I got all this information from a terminal manager during the time I installed a flume to burn off collected fumes. That manager (who did not work for Chevron) also added that the only additive proven to be very effective is Techron - in the normally offered octanes. That manager also hastened to add that over thirty years, "I've worked for nearly all of them."

I just pick whatever burns for the longest.