Which petrol...

[f1fan]

How do you guys find 97 RON super unleaded rather than 98 or 99?

There are no Tesco petrol stations near me and the nearest Shell is 7 miles away in the opposite direction to my work.

Currently Sainsburys 95 RON is £1.379 per litre, their Super Unleaded 97 RON is £1.429 per litre.  My maths says that if MPG goes up by 2mpg or more the super unleaded ends up being cheaper to run.

Does the GTi engine/ecu treat 97 RON differently to 95 or do you have to use 98+?

[RedRobin]

How do you guys find 97 RON super unleaded rather than 98 or 99?

There are no Tesco petrol stations near me and the nearest Shell is 7 miles away in the opposite direction to my work.

Currently Sainsburys 95 RON is £1.379 per litre, their Super Unleaded 97 RON is £1.429 per litre.  My maths says that if MPG goes up by 2mpg or more the super unleaded ends up being cheaper to run.

Does the GTi engine/ecu treat 97 RON differently to 95 or do you have to use 98+?

....Surely you aren't running a 2.0T FSI engine on petrol based on its price per litre!? 

Your nearest Shell is only a 14-mile round trip? - Fill up with enough to last you a few work journeys. My nearest Shell is a 30-mile round trip. It's simply a matter of planning.

[f1fan]

....Surely you aren't running a 2.0T FSI engine on petrol based on its price per litre!? 

Your nearest Shell is only a 14-mile round trip? - Fill up with enough to last you a few work journeys. My nearest Shell is a 30-mile round trip. It's simply a matter of planning.

Seeing as I live in Surrey where SCC have set nearly every road with a 40 mile speed limit or left the national speed limit roads with craters everywhere and there are few chances for my GTi to stretch it's legs then on day to day driving I do care about the price per litre and mpg. 

Not everyone buys a GTi to drive like a lunatic all the time.  I enjoy putting my foot down when I get the chance, but my daily commute of 9 miles each way has a grand total of half a mile with a speed limit over 40!

Also I'm not going to do a 14 mile trip in the opposite direction just to buy fuel!

So, for the 'boring' people like me, I'd like to know if the FSI engine will adjust to 97RON super which is really easy to buy or if it makes no difference and you have to use 98+?

[MC71]

How do you guys find 97 RON super unleaded rather than 98 or 99?

There are no Tesco petrol stations near me and the nearest Shell is 7 miles away in the opposite direction to my work.

Currently Sainsburys 95 RON is £1.379 per litre, their Super Unleaded 97 RON is £1.429 per litre.  My maths says that if MPG goes up by 2mpg or more the super unleaded ends up being cheaper to run.

Does the GTi engine/ecu treat 97 RON differently to 95 or do you have to use 98+?

The price difference is so minimal is should not even be a consideration. Have never let my car get as low to see the petrol light come on but if it did appear and I filled up I imagine it would only be an extra £3-£4 for a whole tank V Power.

As Robin has mentioned, fill up when your in that direction. Might sound anal but when I'm travelling somewhere I've never been before I always have a look on Shell's website to see where the nearest stations are. Sad but true.

 

[f1fan]

The price difference is so minimal is should not even be a consideration. Have never let my car get as low to see the petrol light come on but if it did appear and I filled up I imagine it would only be an extra £3-£4 for a whole tank V Power.

As Robin has mentioned, fill up when your in that direction. Might sound anal but when I'm travelling somewhere I've never been before I always have a look on Shell's website to see where the nearest stations are. Sad but true.

 

I'm not in that direction, I don't go near a Shell station and I don't have time to trek into the town centre of a town I don't go to just to get fuel, hence why I ask the question how does the FSI engine run on 97 RON instead of 98 RON!

[RedRobin]

....Surely you aren't running a 2.0T FSI engine on petrol based on its price per litre!?  

Your nearest Shell is only a 14-mile round trip? - Fill up with enough to last you a few work journeys. My nearest Shell is a 30-mile round trip. It's simply a matter of planning.

Seeing as I live in Surrey where SCC have set nearly every road with a 40 mile speed limit or left the national speed limit roads with craters everywhere and there are few chances for my GTi to stretch it's legs then on day to day driving I do care about the price per litre and mpg.  

Not everyone buys a GTi to drive like a lunatic all the time.  I enjoy putting my foot down when I get the chance, but my daily commute of 9 miles each way has a grand total of half a mile with a speed limit over 40!

Also I'm not going to do a 14 mile trip in the opposite direction just to buy fuel!

So, for the 'boring' people like me, I'd like to know if the FSI engine will adjust to 97RON super which is really easy to buy or if it makes no difference and you have to use 98+?

....Yes, the FSI engine will adjust but the advice from Volkswagen and from just about every experienced user here is to use 98+ and only less RON in fuel shortage emergencies.

No-one, and myself in particular, said anything about driving "like a lunatic all the time" and I don't warm to your implication that I do. Perhaps you didn't mean it that way and are just feeling frustrated with your Surrey roads.

If you can't understand why it's worthwhile to occasionally drive an extra 14 miles so your FSI engine can run on better fuel, then there's no point anyone advising you on this subject. Why not buy a Golf GT diesel? - Great performance and good fuel economy but everything that a Golf body offers.

Tesco Momentum is a good option if there is a station nearer you.

[RedRobin]

As Robin has mentioned, fill up when your in that direction. Might sound anal but when I'm travelling somewhere I've never been before I always have a look on Shell's website to see where the nearest stations are. Sad but true.

 

....Not sad but sensible!

Shell now have an App for station locating and route planning. I don't have an iPhone and its image quality on my iPad is poor but it is functional and useful.

[Tortaruga]

Am I right in thinking that putting in 98+RON petrol will...

• Give it better power/torque compared to 95

VW recommend 98RON fuel, they do not require it. This means the knock sensor will tell the ECU to retard the ignition timing so the car runs smoothly on 95/96/97RON. Therefore using 98RON will give the greatest power output. Interestingly, if the engine has been designed to run optimally on 98RON, there will be no increase in power or efficiency by using 99 or more RON.

• Increase the MPG by a greater % than the additional price % increase i.e will work out cheaper

Possibly. It depends how much more expensive the 98RON fuel is. Higher octane fuel will give greater mpg as the timing will not be retarded.

• That I can still put 95 in her if needs be (i.e a petrol station doesn't have others or they are abnormally more expensive

Absolutely. The ECU will retard the ignition accordingly.[/list]

[andrewparker]

I'm probably one of the only people round here who puts a variety of different fuels in. I'm not thoroughly convinced V-Power (or other 99 RON fuel) improves the performance of my car, and the tests I've conducted have concluded that it is no more economical. Therefore I tend to use the regular Shell FuelSave petrol, though I'm not adverse to other "supermarket" fuels.

My car has done over 50,000 miles and runs perfectly. I asked for the throttle body to be cleaned recently and there was barely any carbon build up. I expect it will do another 50,000 miles without any problems too.

The one caveat is that I run my GTI as an everyday car (that can go quickly when I'm in the mood), not a performance car.

I'm always amazed when people seem shocked when people run their car on 95 RON - it doesn't harm the engine.

[RENNTAG]

Where abouts in surrey do you live I live insurrey and there seems to be shell stations opening up everywhere  

I think there is now 4 garages withing 7 miles of me  

[RedRobin]

^^^^
I realise that it's recommended rather than required by VW. I also know that my car's performance loses its edge whenever I have been obliged to use 95 RON.

Correct me if anyone thinks I'm wrong but running on 98 RON as a minimum on any remapped 2.0T FSI is very strongly recommended by tuners.

[f1fan]

....Yes, the FSI engine will adjust but the advice from Volkswagen and from just about every experienced user here is to use 98+ and only less RON in fuel shortage emergencies.

No-one, and myself in particular, said anything about driving "like a lunatic all the time" and I don't warm to your implication that I do. Perhaps you didn't mean it that way and are just feeling frustrated with your Surrey roads.

If you can't understand why it's worthwhile to occasionally drive an extra 14 miles so your FSI engine can run on better fuel, then there's no point anyone advising you on this subject. Why not buy a Golf GT diesel? - Great performance and good fuel economy but everything that a Golf body offers.

Tesco Momentum is a good option if there is a station nearer you.

Hi RedRobin, I'm sure you don't drive like a lunatic and I'm sorry if you were offended, I was a little frustrated that everyone is obsessed by 'power' rather than answering a technical question about how the engine/ecu will actually work.  Oh dear I'm turning into James May!

My point is more that everyone keeps say use 98+ rather than answering my question :(  I know 98 RON will give more power, personally I'm not that bothered, the car is fast enough for me already especially given the roads I drive on.  Driving an extra 14 miles into heavy town centre traffic for each tank of petrol is not worth while when my daily commute is driven everywhere at 40mph.  97RON unleaded is available locally and if the increase in mpg of 97 outweighs the cost then its worth it, if it doesn't then its not, I'm happy running on 95.

I used to have a diesel, horrible noisy, smelly, things that don't rev, never again! 

[f1fan]

Where abouts in surrey do you live I live insurrey and there seems to be shell stations opening up everywhere  

I think there is now 4 garages withing 7 miles of me  

Down near the Sussex border.  I'd have to go into Guildford town centre or all the way down to the Liphook services on the A3 south of the Hindhead tunnel.

[RedRobin]

^^^^
@ f1fan:

No problem, mate 

I understand your predicament better now.

[f1fan]

I've done 500 miles on 95 RON, averaged 33mpg, I guess I'll just have to try 97 RON for the same period of time and see if it makes a difference or not.