hi all,
as the title indicates, i want to know whether safeway gases are good or not.

i have been here about 2months now, and i have filled up couple times at safeway due to the location that was convenient to me.

recently, i've been getting mixed views of using their gas,

one friend told me that it's as cheap as arco,
whereas other person tells me its an ok gas as long as you stick to 92.

i am debating whether i should stop using safeway or continue to do so.

thanks all in advance for any response



- jason

 

Same as shell gas.

but 2 safeway and 2 shell gas stations recently got a bad mix of water/gas last week.

 

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/19266994.html
just found a link,, prob sunday gas truck had some bad mix causing cars to pretty much hang..

i think i filled her up before sunday <luckily> though, phew.

 

i dont know about where it comes from ... and im somewhat suprised to hear that its the same as shell...

i only recommend tier 2 gas... which is typically found at chevron... and it was also at shell but maybe not anymore?

 

tier one gas is typically found at ampm, 76, arco, places like those...
the gas contains different additives and different percentages of certain additives... they also clog up fuel filteres more freequently...

we commonly see some pretty nasty fuel filters at work now days and i always try to either ask the customer or have someone ask the customer what type of gas they use... and on the nasty ones the most common answer is ampm... "because its cheaper"

 

Chevron/Shell > 76 >>> Arco > Safeway

For 87 octane, not too bad, but for the higher grades, it's actually cheaper to run Chevron/Shell.

Do the math as gallons per 100 miles instead of miles per gallon.

 

not willing to try others... i only run chevron but if someone wants to compare that ^^ ill do the math

 

Here is the controversy that i was referring to.

Chevron/Shell > ... > Safeway,
but Shell and Safeway gets the same gas. at least from the same tank.
(as seen by having shell & safeway getting bad gas mixes from the same tank.)

Till this is resolved, i might just use chevron..
But i still want to know

 

Well I am not sure, but a lot of times "discount" gas vendors buy their gas from whatever supplier happens to be cheaper at the moment. So this might explain why safeway got the same bad gas as the shell stations.

So at times Safeway might have good (IE, top tier) gas, and other times it might have lesser quality stuff.

This is my understanding of it at least.

 

I fill up on Safeway gas all the time, 92 octane. I get 21-22mpg average, power feels good... seems fine to me!

 

I fill up on Shell or Chevron.

I've getting 22-23 in mixed driving. I averaged 29.4 MPG from Issaquah to Packwood via I-90 -> I-405 -> I-5 -> Hwy 12 -- and the only reason that it wasn't over 30 MPG was because of some crawling traffic through Chehelas.

 

i just did a track day with about half the tank being safeway gas, i got 30 mpg on the way there and back, 8.7 at the track according to the gas gauge. i burned throught the whole tank at the track and when i did the math at the pump, came out to 14.8 mpg with about 140 of those miles being track miles and alot of standing around at idle. i started my car about 5-10 minutes before my track session and turned it off about 5 -10 minutes after i parked. for the kind of driving i did, i think 14.8 mpg is pretty good


the tank i have right now is all safeway gas, i'll see what kind of mpg i get on this tank. but it could be a while cause i don't drive my z every day. and i might be going to an autox on sat, so that will thow off that figure a bit to

 

Well I'm sure you would not "feel" any difference between brands of gas... It is the detergent content which would concern me. Running cheaper gas with inferior quality detergent packages will result in increased deposit formation - something of importance over the long run.

 

I wouldn't risk it. Saving a dollar or two when you fill up on cheaper gas does not make any sense to me what so ever.

 

^^ Anyone have actual tests that prove Shell gas is better then Safeway gas? or Chevron gas? Show me some actual numbers and how many gallons of fuel I would have to go through in order for it to somehow damage my car & I'll switch back to the more expensive gas... until then, I'll save my $$ because I frankly don't believe all that BS that I hear about Chevron being much better then Shell or 76 or any of that other crap.

 

good point, especially now that the z is my weekend car... i'll go back to chevron

 

Like stated above, safeway/costco etc all get their gas from leftover shipments from various suppliers which on occasion happen to be from top tier gas suppliers such as chevron/shell. So if you spend the extra, you are guaranteed to get a high level of detergents that top tier gasolines have. With safeway/costco etc, its a crapshoot. Detergent levels are definetly important and can cause injectors to become less efficient over time which can end up costing you more in the long run. A lot of those cheaper gas suppliers also blend their gas with 10% ethanol which will cause a 2-7% decrease in gas mileage and power loss. This is a fact. Based on all this, i stick to chevron almost exclusively.

 

I'm a Shell guy myself, and if I waver from that, it's Chevron.

 

Years ago I ran an informal experiement to see if there was any difference in fuel economy by the type of fuel used. The car was a '99 Isuzu Amigo (V6, manual) and from the day I picked it up I recorded data on every time I put gas in it.
- About 97% of all the gas used were the following; Shell, Chevron, Arco and Safeway since those were the stations closest to where I lived and I tended to look for them whenever I was away.
- Of my visits to the pump, over 1/3rd of the time it was Chevron, the remainder of the times were roughly equally divided between the other 3
- About 90% of the time I would run the tank to roughly 1/4 and then top off the tank.
- I recorded nearly 2 years of continuous data and about 20k miles.

In the end when I calculated the cost per mile, the variation was about 1 cent between the all 4 grades. But the one brand that was at the top (cheapest by 0.4 of a cent over the 2nd place brand, if I recall) was Chevron.

 

Ever since I bought my SpecV in 2002, I've tracked *every* fuel fill in the car (whether partial or total fill). I've continued to do that with the Z.

Shell provided the best mileage, followed *closely* by Chevron.

Arco mileage was worse. Arco gas needed to be at least $0.11 per gallon cheaper (at the time) to match the cost per 100 miles. That didn't even take into account the $0.45/transaction cost that Arco tacks on for ATM transactions (I remember when that was initiated).

Safeway gas mileage was even worse. I didn't even bother to calculate the price difference.

You have to do at least three tanks of the same gas *in a row* to get a good calculation of mileage.