Now V-power is gone...

[kevinod]

... I'm looking to see what petrol is available now that Shell & V-power are gone. Topaz only offer the standard unleaded, which I'm sure is fine but if there was something else that offered a little extra I'd be interested in checking it out.

Maxol's E5 hasn't made it to Cork yet (only Mitchelstown listed so far) so thats not an option yet unfortunately. There's E85, that worth looking at?

Texaco have started advertising Texron or something like that in their petrol. Any tried it out?

Any other options I don't know about?

Kev.

[Myfeckin FTO]

From the above options Kev - I guess you could try mixing 10% E85 to 90% standard 95 RON in Maxol e.g. - 40 litres of 95 to 4 litres of E85 - That should raise the RON levels to something similar to E5.

[Dragonheart]

Is E85 in all Maxols? Are thay going to bring E5 to cork at all or are they leaving us out of the equation altogether or what??!!

[kevinod]

I heard E85 was in Maxol in Wilton, presumably Ballincollig would have it too but I haven't looked. The person I heard who uses it says its cheaper but the mileage isn't as good.

[steelroe]

Octane booster

[CJ]

Octane booster

By and large a waste of money IMO, you get 'point increases (i.e. 1 point is 0.1 RON).

According to Maxols site, theres a place in Mitchelstown that supplies E5...

CJ

[kevinod]

According to Maxols site, theres a place in Mitchelstown that supplies E5...

Yup, mentioned that! Mitchelstown is a bit far to be trekking up and down for petrol though. 30 mins at least each way.

[CJ]

Sorry, missed that. Its just a matter of time until E5 is widely available, I reckon its out there in some stations but not being advertised as such (take Topaz as an example).

CJ

[Bernard]

I've been using E5 exclusively for a while now, my MPG is steadily getting better.
I'm averaging around 27MPG now, that's without motorway time.
It went to 35 the last trip I had to Naas...

[gabico]

I was out of the country for 6 weeks and I was so surprised to comeback and not find vpower at all in Galway, no E5 either so Im stuck with normal unleaded for now, hopefully not for long, the mpg was much better with the vpower.

[Bernard]

I've been using E5 exclusively for a while now, my MPG is steadily getting better.
I'm averaging around 27MPG now, that's without motorway time.
It went to 35 the last trip I had to Naas...

Sad I know...but it's going in the right direction.

[kevinod]

I filled up with Topaz unleaded last time, and ended up with 500km out of the tank, no long journeys. With V-power I was getting 440-450ish fairly steady. Trying a second tankful at the moment.

[mcgon1979]

guys, I think everyone keeps missing this. V-power was 98octane right? Well all Topaz sites in Leinster now use a 5% blend of Ethanol. This fact is widely known and can be confirmed with a phone call to their head office. It's 99.2octane and I have noticed better fuel economy while using it.
They will have an advertising campaign promoting it in the coming months. In fact it is an EU directive that all fuel sites sell 5 - 10% ethanol mix by 2012 so it is inevitable all places will be selling high ocatne fuel shortly, not just Topaz and Maxol.

[kevinod]

guys, I think everyone keeps missing this. V-power was 98octane right? Well all Topaz sites in Leinster now use a 5% blend of Ethanol. This fact is widely known and can be confirmed with a phone call to their head office. It's 99.2octane and I have noticed better fuel economy while using it.
They will have an advertising campaign promoting it in the coming months. In fact it is an EU directive that all fuel sites sell 5 - 10% ethanol mix by 2012 so it is inevitable all places will be selling high ocatne fuel shortly, not just Topaz and Maxol.

I don't think V-Power was higher octane, at least not over here, just 95 the same as the ordinary unleaded. It had additives to keep your engine a bit cleaner but no higher octane from what I'm told.

This Topaz selling 5% ethanol thing - have you actually rang their head office to confirm yourself? I saw some email somewhere supposedly from the head guy in Topaz in Ireland about that but didn't believe the head Topaz guy would respond to an email from Joe Public, especially with the content it had. Hopefully it does have the 5% & higher octane, but the guys in the Topaz station I usually go to tell me it doesn't.

[mcgon1979]

This Topaz selling 5% ethanol thing - have you actually rang their head office to confirm yourself? I saw some email somewhere supposedly from the head guy in Topaz in Ireland about that but didn't believe the head Topaz guy would respond to an email from Joe Public, especially with the content it had. Hopefully it does have the 5% & higher octane, but the guys in the Topaz station I usually go to tell me it doesn't.

I worked in Statoil for 2 years before Topaz bought them, plus my Girlfriend is currently an executive there. I know the management very very well (including the guy (denis taylor) who sent out that email confirming the Ethanol 5% blend) You can also see that only two companies in Ireland were granted huge government tax breaks on the purchase of 25 million litres of bio-ethanol. those companies were Topaz and Maxol. the only two companies using it in their fuel products.
I posted all this in a post a few months back, but I guess until they put the signs on the forecourt that say "5% Ethanol blended fuel for a cleaner environment" some people just won't believe it. The staff in the shop are sales assistants. they know nothing about the fuel blend. They simply accept money for the price on the pump, and maybe some smokes, thats all they do. Telling them that the unleaded contains ethanol would confuse them and in turn they would confuse customers. Apparently the promotional campaign was not started yet because management feel that the customer would be confused and just wants "normal unleaded petrol, not some bio crap". So alot of thoguht must go into the marketing and promotion. Unknown to them Topaz fuel users are all using a 5% ethanol blend for the past 9 months.
anyway, I know some of you won't believe it till the signs go up, but Im 100% certain all leinster Topaz sites are serving up 5% blended Ethanol.

[Bernard]

Im 100% certain all leinster Topaz sites are serving up 5% blended Ethanol.

Is there any indication on when the rest of the country will be getting it?
I'd be nice to have a choice of more than one filling station...

[mcgon1979]

Im 100% certain all leinster Topaz sites are serving up 5% blended Ethanol.

Is there any indication on when the rest of the country will be getting it?
I'd be nice to have a choice of more than one filling station...

As said Maxol and Topaz both sell it in Leinster, thats two places. Plus Shell (which is owned by Topaz) also sell it (if the station is in leinster and therefore fuelled from the dublin port Topaz depot). Didn't wanna mention this as it seems people are confused as it is.

and yes, its inevitable Texaco and others will have it in their fuel in the next 12 - 18 months. Its an EU requirement.

[colm_mcm]

Do you think maybe the EU will do a U-turn on the biofuel directive, given how first generation biofuels aren't all they were cracked up to be.
Even the dept of energy aren't publishing their biofuel policy until they've figured it out!

[mcgon1979]

Do you think maybe the EU will do a U-turn on the biofuel directive, given how first generation biofuels aren't all they were cracked up to be.
Even the dept of energy aren't publishing their biofuel policy until they've figured it out!

Thats a good point colm. I think its more likley they'll do a U-turn on it because of the massive food shortages we are facing now globally. It's hard to justify having fields and fields of crops put aside for fuel when people starve and food prices rise.... It's hard to know what will happen....

[Muad_dib77]

Apparently there's some new apparatus in development so they can "brew" biofuel from pretty much anything organic..

like sludge, manuer (sp?), bits of crop that have no use..

so in theory at least the possibilities are endless..

[Dragonheart]

Is the price of petrol after coming down a good bit or am I imagining things? I only paid E1.25 a litre today in a Topaz in Cork. I'm sure it was higher last week but not too certain!

[kevinod]

Ya, I'm sure it was 1.29 in Topaz in Ballincollig last week. Heard the Topaz by Bishopstown court was 1.25 since, maybe they're all going down

[Dragonheart]

The one I got it in is out by Blackrock road. Must check the one down the road in ballincollig there in a minute.

[mcgon1979]

Its come down a couple of pence... 1.31.9 to 129.9 I think in my local place... Not really much considering the huge HUGE drop in oil recently. biggest fall in almost 6 months. It went from 145 us dollars to 118 us dollars. And not a mention of this in the media? strange. yet if it goes from 118 to 125 its the number one story in the news. ah well... lets hope it drops further.