# Costco Gas



## naregmeg (Apr 24, 2008)

I know Costco is a great store and everything... but is their gasoline the same quality as some of the other gas stations like Chevron, Shell, or Mobile?


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## AzNMpower32 (Oct 23, 2005)

Like all independent, non-branded stores, the quality of petrol may vary. That is because unlike the big names, indy stations get their gas from whomever they can do so at the lowest price. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it may not.


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## AndrewZ (Feb 1, 2006)

I would, will, and have not ever used Costco Gas. 

But that's just me...


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## Rich_Jenkins (Jul 12, 2003)

naregmeg said:


> I know Costco is a great store and everything... but is their gasoline the same quality as some of the other gas stations like Chevron, Shell, or Mobile?


I think any fairly busy filling station would be a good source of fuel.

Our Costco here in Winter Park Fl is fairly steady, and, as Azn said, the fuel comes from the same source as other reliable stations in the area.

In 10 years of living here I've never had a problem.

If it was a concern, you could follow up with www.toptiergas.com, but as some have said here, it may just be a marketing ploy.


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## akhbhaat (Apr 29, 2003)

All gasoline comes from the same refineries and pipelines. The primary difference between brands is additive package.


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## Stevej2001 (Jan 26, 2008)

*On the west coast...*

there are only a few different refineries. The Costco gas is Chevron one day, Exxon another, Shell later in the week.


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## ProRail (May 31, 2006)

naregmeg said:


> I know Costco is a great store and everything... but is their gasoline the same quality as some of the other gas stations like Chevron, Shell, or Mobile?


Costco members are generally very savvy consumers. They would quickly rebel if Costco started selling bad gas. Costco's business depends on selling quality products at a reasonable price.


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## vexed (Dec 22, 2001)

The Costco here buys its gas from one of the local Top Tier brands. I have used it, and seen many other BMWs and Pcars etc filling up, without incident. My only gripe is the savings are not what they were when it first opened.


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## M Style III (May 6, 2006)

Stevej2001 said:


> there are only a few different refineries. The Costco gas is Chevron one day, Exxon another, Shell later in the week.


I confirmed this with the delivery guys (truckers) that were there filling up the tanks down below. Two tankers were at the Costco station when I showed up.

Of course, I passed on this opportunity to fill up my tank that day only to plan on coming back in the very near future. The Costco gas station is located on my daily commute so its really not out of my way.

From what I have been told, the brand differences are visible in the color of the gas. However, I don't have the time or means to find this out.


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## BM2W (Aug 9, 2007)

The local Sam's gets their gas from the local Shell, Conoco, Phillips, or whatever distributorship. I've had no problems, but I do run a shot of either TECHRON or BG 44k every 6 mos or so. I'm an opportunistic feeder, prefer Top Tier, but fill up where I am when I need gas. So far, so good.


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## Aubie (Sep 6, 2007)

*I have bought their fuel for 5 years and have no issues with it.*

The nice thing in my area is the BP station next to my local Costco has started matching the price so we have a little price war going on right now. Everybody wins


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## Boile (Jul 5, 2005)

LuvThatSam said:


> I would, will, and have not ever used Costco Gas.
> 
> But that's just me...


Elitist conspicuous consumer. :tsk::rofl:


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## Boile (Jul 5, 2005)

akhbhaat said:


> All gasoline comes from the same refineries and pipelines. The primary difference between brands is additive package.


Ding ding ding.
We have a winner.


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## Boile (Jul 5, 2005)

Stevej2001 said:


> there are only a few different refineries. The Costco gas is Chevron one day, Exxon another, Shell later in the week.


I was told (by a very trusty source in the know) that the best you can do for your car is to vary the brands periodically (as opposed to staying with the same brand exclusively). There's a technical reason behind that (just google it).
I use Costco whenever I can. They do the mixing for me. :thumbup:


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## djfitter (Sep 12, 2007)

Boile said:


> I was told (by a very trusty source in the know) that the best you can do for your car is to vary the brands periodically (as opposed to staying with the same brand exclusively). There's a technical reason behind that (just google it).
> I use Costco whenever I can. They do the mixing for me. :thumbup:


:rofl::thumbup:

dj


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## SFC B (Apr 19, 2008)

> All gasoline comes from the same refineries and pipelines. The primary difference between brands is additive package.


As was said earlier, this is 100% correct. Unless the vendor advertises that there is some special additive in their gasoline (Chevron's Techron for example), then the gasoline is the same as every other brand gas with the same octane rating.


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## rye (Apr 10, 2008)

I've been tempted to try it, but the line is always 5-10 cars deep...forget that. Waiting in that line is not worth saving $0.10/gal.


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## jbarlow (May 6, 2008)

Some of you may be interested....when I bought my used 525i, there was no manual for the computer, so I took my bimmer by the dealership and asked if there was a manual or anyone could tell me how to operate it. The only person who could help me was an older German gentleman who had acutally worked in the factory in Germany when my 525i was assembled. Lucky me! 

After explaining the computer operation, he made a statement that I never forgot: he said "don't ever put any gas in this car except Chevron!" Surprised that a man from Germany would know anything about our gasoline, I asked why? He said "the additive in Chevron gas (Techron) was the best fuel additive in the USA." He said, "if you use anything else, I promise you that you'll be back for us to clean out your engine!" That was 9 years ago. I followed his advise, and I never had any fuel problems (like some of my friends who didn't know what the old gentleman had told me.) Since that time, Chevron and Texaco merged. Now, both Chevron and Texaco have the Techron additive.


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## Boile (Jul 5, 2005)

jbarlow said:


> Some of you may be interested....when I bought my used 525i, there was no manual for the computer, so I took my bimmer by the dealership and asked if there was a manual or anyone could tell me how to operate it. The only person who could help me was an older German gentleman who had acutally worked in the factory in Germany when my 525i was assembled. Lucky me!
> 
> After explaining the computer operation, he made a statement that I never forgot: he said "don't ever put any gas in this car except Chevron!" Surprised that a man from Germany would know anything about our gasoline, I asked why? He said "the additive in Chevron gas (Techron) was the best fuel additive in the USA." He said, "if you use anything else, I promise you that you'll be back for us to clean out your engine!" That was 9 years ago. I followed his advise, and I never had any fuel problems (like some of my friends who didn't know what the old gentleman had told me.) Since that time, Chevron and Texaco merged. Now, both Chevron and Texaco have the Techron additive.


My car is almost 9 years old and I've never used Chevron in it, and I've never had fuel problems. 
Your first instinct was right. How can a man from Germany know anything about our gasoline, especially if he didn't work in that industry? 
If you had gotten the manual, you could have seen for yourself that it doesn't say anything there about using Chevron or any additives. In fact, my manual recommends not using additives at all.


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

SFC B said:


> > All gasoline comes from the same refineries and pipelines. The primary difference between brands is additive package.
> 
> 
> As was said earlier, this is 100% correct. Unless the vendor advertises that there is some special additive in their gasoline (Chevron's Techron for example), then the gasoline is the same as every other brand gas with the same octane rating.


I disagree, every "brand" of gasoline has as specific additive package. Some stations selling spot market gas (unbranded stations) may be selling a mixture of stuff that they get when a station can't take an order or something else happens. But any "brand", including costCo, most likely has a specific additive package that they pay for. So places that are cheaper, tend to have cheaper (less) additive packages than others.

Of course, places like CostCo can sell gas as a lost leader to put local stations out fo business, then raise the gar price to higher than it was locally prior to them. ZAnd they have done that.


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## Boile (Jul 5, 2005)

Pinecone said:


> I disagree, every "brand" of gasoline has as specific additive package. Some stations selling spot market gas (unbranded stations) may be selling a mixture of stuff that they get when a station can't take an order or something else happens. But any "brand", including costCo, most likely has a specific additive package that they pay for. So places that are cheaper, tend to have cheaper (less) additive packages than others.
> 
> *Of course, places like CostCo can sell gas as a lost leader to put local stations out fo business, then raise the gar price to higher than it was locally prior to them.* ZAnd they have done that.


Since Costco doesn't advertise any additives, I hope they have none. My car's manual says not to use any. 
That statement would be more believable if it said that Costco sells at a loss because people can't resist and end up spending tons of money in the warehouse after filling up.
They've been here for over 5 years and no gas station around it closed yet. And gas shopping is not like food shopping at a supermarket, where some people are trapped because they don't have a car and are forced to shop in that neighborhood.
If I don't like the gas price where I work, I just fill up closer to home.


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## 335i Driver (Nov 29, 2006)

jbarlow said:


> Some of you may be interested....when I bought my used 525i, there was no manual for the computer, so I took my bimmer by the dealership and asked if there was a manual or anyone could tell me how to operate it. The only person who could help me was an older German gentleman who had acutally worked in the factory in Germany when my 525i was assembled. Lucky me!
> 
> After explaining the computer operation, he made a statement that I never forgot: he said "don't ever put any gas in this car except Chevron!" Surprised that a man from Germany would know anything about our gasoline, I asked why? He said "the additive in Chevron gas (Techron) was the best fuel additive in the USA." He said, "if you use anything else, I promise you that you'll be back for us to clean out your engine!" That was 9 years ago. I followed his advise, and I never had any fuel problems (like some of my friends who didn't know what the old gentleman had told me.) Since that time, Chevron and Texaco merged. Now, both Chevron and Texaco have the Techron additive.


A little fairy told me never to put any gas in my car except for Delbert's Super High Pro Discount Super-Value gas and I've been following that advice for 500 years and I've never had a fuel related problem.


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## Coconutpete (Feb 7, 2008)

I get gas there all the time, I have never had a problem.

When i was younger I used to always be "loyal" to Mobil, one station in particular. Then one day I took my fuel filter off and the thing stunk like Diesel Fuel..... I haven't been "loyal" to one particular brand/store ever since...


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## Vermaraj (Feb 9, 2008)

All refined fuel gets dumped into a receiving hub, pushed through a pipeline and then distributed. There is no such thing as mobil or exxon gas. It all gets combined and transported. most of the integrated oil companies got out of the refining business years ago when oil was less than $15/ barrel. There are only two grades of gas low (87) octane and high (94) octane. Everything else is created at the distribution hub by mixing. 

At the distribution hub a branded fuel truck is filled with generic gas and gets an additive package mixed in. The additive package is about 50-100gals of additive to 42k gallons of gasoline. So you are paying for what? 20 drops of additive?

That same pipeline moves diesel, home heating oil (same thing), gasoline, mineral oils, jet fuels, kerosene, etc... Its entirely possible that you get 20 drops of any of those distillates mixed in with your gas from time to time.


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## Boile (Jul 5, 2005)

Vermaraj said:


> All refined fuel gets dumped into a receiving hub, pushed through a pipeline and then distributed. There is no such thing as mobil or exxon gas. It all gets combined and transported. most of the integrated oil companies got out of the refining business years ago when oil was less than $15/ barrel. There are only two grades of gas low (87) octane and high (94) octane. Everything else is created at the distribution hub by mixing.
> 
> At the distribution hub a branded fuel truck is filled with generic gas and gets an additive package mixed in. The additive package is about 50-100gals of additive to 42k gallons of gasoline. So you are paying for what? 20 drops of additive?
> 
> That same pipeline moves diesel, home heating oil (same thing), gasoline, mineral oils, jet fuels, kerosene, etc... Its entirely possible that you get 20 drops of any of those distillates mixed in with your gas from time to time.


Do you work in the industry?


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## Vermaraj (Feb 9, 2008)

Boile said:


> Do you work in the industry?


I did for five years. Then I left to work for a startup energy trading firm that speculated on pricing of energy and energy transport. Can you guess the name?


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## Boile (Jul 5, 2005)

Vermaraj said:


> I did for five years. Then I left to work for a startup energy trading firm that speculated on pricing of energy and energy transport. Can you guess the name?


Enron? :dunno:


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## Vermaraj (Feb 9, 2008)

Bingo.

made it too simple?


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## BM2W (Aug 9, 2007)

IIRC, there are federal standards for minimum detergency, etc in varous grades of gas, so if I understand correctly, all gas has some [minimum amount of] additives in it. Top Tier has more additives in proprietary mixes. In all likelihood, you're fine buy gas at Costco or Sam's, but it is a good idea to run some Techron every 3K miles or BG44K every 6 mos., depending on how many miles you drive. I currently have an X3 and a 330CiC and am the only driver in the house, so each car does about 6-8K/yr, so each gets a shot of BG44K annually. JMO, no fuel problems in any of the eight Bimmers I've owed sinced '81. YMMV


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## Boile (Jul 5, 2005)

Don't know about the X3, but read that 330CiC manual. It recommends not using any additives.


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## BM2W (Aug 9, 2007)

Interesting. All the dealers I've dealt with in recent memory sell BMW fuel treatment (which I believe is Techron), and the dealers and indy shops I've dealt with also use BG44K with inspection I & II. Go figure.


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## rambalu80 (Apr 5, 2007)

Vermaraj said:


> All refined fuel gets dumped into a receiving hub, pushed through a pipeline and then distributed. There is no such thing as mobil or exxon gas. It all gets combined and transported. most of the integrated oil companies got out of the refining business years ago when oil was less than $15/ barrel. There are only two grades of gas low (87) octane and high (94) octane. Everything else is created at the distribution hub by mixing.
> 
> At the distribution hub a branded fuel truck is filled with generic gas and gets an additive package mixed in. The additive package is about 50-100gals of additive to 42k gallons of gasoline. So you are paying for what? 20 drops of additive?
> 
> That same pipeline moves diesel, home heating oil (same thing), gasoline, mineral oils, jet fuels, kerosene, etc... Its entirely possible that you get 20 drops of any of those distillates mixed in with your gas from time to time.


I do not know if all of this is true, but I have heard it a few times.


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## Boile (Jul 5, 2005)

BM2W said:


> Interesting. All the dealers I've dealt with in recent memory sell BMW fuel treatment (which I believe is Techron), and the dealers and indy shops I've dealt with also use BG44K with inspection I & II. Go figure.


Dealers will also sell you Lo Jack and upholstery stain guard and other crap. 
Doesn't mean a thing.


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