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With the average household buying more than 700 gallons of gas every year, according to the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing, you may worry about the quality of what you’re putting in your vehicle and how much it costs.
In fact, an overwhelming 71 percent of consumers shop for gas based on price, according to an NACS report. Knowing that, it’s important to understand if paying extra for gas makes a difference to your car.
To start, consider where your gas comes from. Various retailers buy gasoline from refineries, which they then turn around and sell to the consumer at the pump. With approximately 168,000 gas stations in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, buying from about 140 refineries, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there isn’t a lot of variety when it comes to where gas stations get the gas you put in your vehicle.
“... Prices vary because of different wholesale costs or business strategies,” according to nacsonline.com.
The differences in those costs and strategies come down to a few factors, including exactly when retailers buy gas from refineries.
“The wholesale market has complexities that lead to retailers having different cost structures, whether they are branded or unbranded, have long-term contracts or buy on the spot market or, in the case of tight supply periods and rising wholesale prices, even the time of day that wholesale product was purchased can play a role in determining the retail price,” the NACS says.
This means your local gas station likes low gas prices as much as you.
“Many of these small businesses may not have the resources to brand their stores separately from the brand of fuel they sell and promote on their canopies, often leading to consumer misperceptions that they are businesses owned and operated by a major oil company,” the NACS report says.
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Why does this matter, when it comes to gas quality? Well, 80 percent of all fuel people buy in the United States comes from these independent retailers, with half the retailers selling under the brand of the 15 largest suppliers, and the other half selling “unbranded” fuel, fuel that still must be bought from refineries but can then be rebranded.
What that boils down to is the origins of your fuel will be the same, regardless of what gas station you visit, from Chevron to Maverik to Texaco. The prices, however, will not be the same.
Some retailers claim to have higher quality fuel than others because of products they add to their gas. However, the Federal Trade Commission cautions consumers to be wary of such claims, saying the Environmental Protection Agency tests some products to see if they improve gas mileage, but no government agency endorses brands, and the EPA doesn’t test durability, meaning it doesn’t know how a product will affect a vehicle over time.
“Despite evaluating or testing more than 100 alleged gas-saving devices, the Environmental Protection Agency has not found any product that significantly improves gas mileage,” the FTC says. “In fact, some ‘gas-saving’ products may damage a car's engine or substantially increase exhaust emissions.”
As such, not only might additives not be helping your car, they may be hurting it. That means, if your instinct is to buy low-cost gas, you could actually be doing your car a favor.
Keep in mind, you should still buy the right octane, something you can do at most gas stations. Doing so will keep your car running longer and, the FTC says, will ultimately save you money.
Now that you know you can help both your wallet and your car when you save money at the pump, you can focus on the best part of gas stations — the food they sell inside. Use the cash you save at the pump to buy some snacks, so you not only fuel your car, you fuel yourself.
