It benefits the oil company that made it as “Premium” is a high-margin product…In high-altitude areas, a large chunk of The West, regular unleaded is posted as being 85 octane. Few owners manuals mention that the ‘use 87 octane regular unleaded" recommendation can be reduced to 85 octane in high altitude areas…So many car owners think they must buy the more expensive mid-grade product which is pasted at 87 octane…The oil companies must love this as they can get .10-.15 cents more for a grade of gasoline (87 octane) that they must sell as “Regular” in areas below 4800’ elevation…
I’m with Caddyman 100% on this one.
And I’m thoroughly puzzled at Tester’s comment that “this is not s business”. Of course it’s a business. And, like any other business, if you go to their website they’ll tell you they’re the best in the world. Websites serve a primary function as a marketing tool. Any website that doesn’t tell you why their product is the best in the world needs a new webmaster. Arguably even a new CEO.
Having said that, let’s assume for the sake of argument that TopTier really is the best gas in the world. One then needs to ask the question “does that matter to a Corolla?”. IMHO it does not. Granted there must be a few crooked stations out there that do nefarious things to screw their customers, but in truth the only “bad gas” I’ve ever seen verified was a period when gas too high in sulpher made its way into the system and began to eat away at electrical contacts in the pump assemblies. This affected primarily the southeastern region and class action lawsuits were filed. Remuneration was the result. There’s lots of info on the internet on this.
In short, I seriously doubt if the Corolla will notice if the OP uses any gas at a reputable station. Regarding the comment about stations that appear to be operated by those who don’t appear to be legit, I avoid those.
To me, an Invicta tells time just as well as a Rolex, and a Corolla will run just as well and just and just as long on Irving gas as on TopTier gas. So will all other mass produced cars. If that were not rue, I would not have been able to run my cars for hundreds of thousands of miles without ever having to open an engine. My current car has 217,000 miles and runs like new. And I got there on various brands of gas, none of them the high-priced brand.
Yeah.
I guess when the Society of Automotive Engineers and the American Petroleum Institute get together and all they talk about is oil specs and octane levels. But nothing about the detergent levels in the gasoline.
Tester
For cars with direct injection, even without turbos, I would use nothing but top tier gas. It has about twice the detergents of the minimum specs, and I think the car companies that helped develop the specs were well-founded in their work.
And a major name brand station that violates their specifications risks losing their contract. I doubt that happens very often.
Sometimes you don’t have to go out of your way to buy the cheapest gas in town and have top tier gas at the same time. If I drive home through a town just north of work, I get the cheapest gas in town at a Shell station. It’s $0.20 less per gallon than near my home.
My dad avoids some brands light the plague after replacing so many fuel pumps in the minivan he had (suspicion, but it works for him) while my mom usually stops at the same Arco station that happens to be on the way home, the last time she filled up at a local grocery store’s gas station her mileage went way down for some unknown reason. Right now I’m seeing a 10 cent difference between filling up at the gas station next door to where i work vs driving a mile or so to the Shell station up the road (It’s a Texaco station next door to work) Talk to enough people and you’ll have lots of opinions about which brand is the best. I just double checked the owners manual of my new Subaru Forester and it only says to use 87 octane or better unleaded fuel. No mention of “top tier”
I had been using whatever gas was available in my area even from ma and pa stations for 25 years now on my 89 Mustang GT. Never had any type of fuel problem with injectors. Just replaced the original fuel pump and filter and I could blow through the filter with ease. We have a lot of stations here in FL that now offer unleaded 89 octane ethanol free gas. Been using that for a year now… My car ran fine on 87 ethanol but adding 2 points to the octane level made no difference in power. Only thing I noticed was slightly better and smoother throttle response…I would rather pay extra for “REAL GAS” than the ethanol laced stuff. Why we can’t get 87 is beyond me. One station actually sells 112 octane racing gas…( in containers only ).
Using the ethanol based fuel I had to have my lawn tractor and weed eater carbs rebuilt even though the notice on the fuel tanks say not to use no more than 10% ethanol. I am glad I took the extended warranties on these. Everything here now gets real Gas and no problems.
Who knows what the percentage is as we had 2 stations here shut down by the FL Weights and Measures for excess ethanol. Pumps say up to 10% ethanol for all grades.
One had 18% and the other 23%…that stuff will sure cause damage unless you have an E-85 vehicle.
In Oregon I get slightly better mileage in the Summer. I used to blame richer mixture on Winter start-up but state mandated E-10 is worse year round.
If Toyota says 87 is ok, that’s what I’d use. Around here the price to upgrade to 89 is 10 cents per gallon, which isn’t much. But why pay another $1.50 each tank if you don’t have to? As far as brands go, I think the best gas is from the station that sells the most gallons per day. They’ll be constantly having fresh gas pumped into their underground tanks, so there’s less chance for something bad to accumulate down there and end up in your gas tank. And since they are selling a lot of gas, they have a lot of customers, and there must not be many customers who have ever had a bad tank of gas from that place. Think about it. If you got a bad tank of gas from a certain station, would you ever go back there?
Here in the San Jose area the stations that sell the most gas tend to be either ARCO, Rotten Robbies, or Costco. I’ve never gotten a bad tank of gas from any of them.
I agree with GeorgeSanJose. We have 2 Toyota vehicles-- a 2003 4Runner and a 2011 Sienna. I’ve never used anything but 87 octane and usually use Marathon because our local grocery chain gives coupons for 5 cents off per gallon (up to 15 gallons). However, when traveling, I’ve used any brand that is convenient.
I used to purchase gasoline from the stations that seemed to have the most business particularly in the winter months. I always figured that a higher turnover helped eliminate condensation in the underground tanks.
Tester, your usual sarcasm is noted.
Re: TopTier gasoline, I’m sorry guys, but all my many years of running engines (including Corolla engines) to hundreds of thousands of miles and having them still clean inside and out and operating perfectly combined with my never having seen a well maintained, regularly operated engine gummed up by gasoline simply leads me to believe that the TopTier thing is pure hype.
To me this debate is analogous to the Fram filter debate.
As far as favoring one station over another, I try, when I can, to reward stations with free air. I don’t like people who feel it their sworn duty to squeeze every possible penny out of you that they can; I also think free air is a pro-safety issue. Thus, I’d pay a reasonable (5-8 cents/gallon) surcharge to favor such businesses.
Locally, that means I’m going to Sheetz or Get-Go stations, where free air is a requirement of franchisees. Also, like as not, I’m using my grocery store fuel rewards at the Get-Go anyways–up to $1.10 right now…makes a big difference in my twin-tank F150!
I neither know, nor care, whether either station is Top Tier.
TSMB - Top tier is not hype. It results in about 2X the amount of detergent, so it’s real. What is up for debate is whether it’s necessary. IMO, it is worthwhile with direct injection and turbo engines. The rest is up to you.
Top Tier stations are spread out a bit around here so I usually run Bottom Tier or Rock Bottom Tier gasoline and have for decades. It’s never been a problem for me and I seldom ever add any additional cleaner to a fuel tank. Never had to buy any fuel injectors either.
What is always a concern to me is not gum and varnish as that is a non-issue IMO; it’s the solid particulates that get through the filter on the gasoline pumps and end up in the tank of the car. That in turn winds up in the fuel filter and the smaller debris that makes it through the filter is going to end up on the injector screens where it will stop or pass on through to the combustion chambers and become vaporized.
No amount of detergent or cleaner will solve that problem.
When Chevron took over Texaco, they sold most of the Texaco stations to Shell. The stations they kept are owned by Chevron. They all sell “top tier” rated gas…
I never see much difference in quality of gasoline.
I have…not sure what the problem is. But some gas - our vehicles don’t run well on. I notice a difference in performance and gas mileage. And one of them is a high-tier gas (Mobil/Exxon). Our vehicles run well on Hess, Sunoco and Gulf. But not very well on Mobil/Exxon. I try to stay away from the independents because of problems I had with a few several years ago.
In California there are a small number of refineries that produce all of the gasoline for the state. We can’t easily import gasoline because of the unique formulations used to reduce smog are not used elsewhere. Stations buy from various refineries depending on what is available and the price. Sure, they add their detergent packages at some point, but I’ve yet to see any evidence that the federally mandated detergent properties aren’t sufficient to keep engines clean.
Top Tier gas may be slightly better if you have an engine that’s prone to deposits, but to my mind that’s a poorly designed engine if it is. Plenty of excellent engines run for hundreds of thousands of miles on cheap gas. Is Top Tier a businessarrangement? Sure it is. It helps the more expensive gasolines justify their higher prices and it lets European automakers pretend their engines are more finely made and require the very best gasoline. There is no reason to think so. Automakers around the world use similar engine technologies and even buy their fuel injection systems from a handful of makes.
“It helps the more expensive gasolines justify their higher prices”
What if the cheaper gasolines in your area were Top Tier brands?
I used to patronize a Shell station in my area because they had the lowest prices, in addition to Top Tier status. However, last year, they began adding several cents per gallon for credit purchases of gas, so I began to avoid that Shell station.
Now, luckily, a Costco gas station has opened across the road from that Shell Station, and in addition to not charging any additional fee for using a credit card, they are the cheapest in the area by far, and their gas is certified as meeting Top Tier standards.
As a result, I now fill up weekly with Top Tier gas for substantially less than what other stations in the area are charging.
What would you say regarding that reality?
what tier is wawa gas?
Murphy Oil USA not listed on toptiergas.com and their website is full of promises, but no standards, so I suspect they buy whatever gas supplier offers the cheapest price, or buy whatever is left in the tankers after their regular deliveries.