Which fuel do you use- Momentum 99 or Shell V Power?

[Sham83]

I'm sure there is a thread on here somewhere but can't find it!

There is a lot of debate online on supermarket petrol versus branded products. However, I'm just wondering what Maserati owner's experiences are on this, particularly on Tesco's Momentum 99 versus Shell's V Power.

I used to fill my Lotus with M99 and it worked very well versus regular unleaded (better response and more power but not sure about improved consumption), not to mention it was cheaper than Shell/BP. However now owning a GTS, I want the best for my baby, and V-P is supposed to be developed for Ferrari engines so I am leaning towards that (even though the station is out of my way and less convenient!).

I'm due to fill up soon for the first time since taking delivery (and I'm pretty sure the dealer put regular supermarket unleaded in there...). I may have to experiment with both the first few times.

I'll share my findings here if I do but I'm very interested to hear your thoughts. Cheers

 

[allandwf]

V power, never heard of the other, but tend not to fill at supermarkets.

 

[Ryandoc]

V-power predominantly but I have no issue whatsoever using anything that's available. I use v power for the long term benefits.
V-power is the exact same base fuel as anything you can buy. Fuel leaves a common tank and travels to the loading nozzle, only at that point is the different additIves injected. The loading system will know what's required from the tanker drivers loading card which holds his BOL details.
It's additive is made of up a detergent element and then a gas to liquid (GTL) element for increased energy content. GTL is basically C1H4 methane gas converted to a synthetic liquid petrol. All the others use an ethanol booster.

 

[CatmanV2]

Whatever is around when the light comes on.

C

 

[highlander]

Whatever is around when the light comes on.

C

Agree, so long as it is super......more important for the 32 with the turbos though than the 42 et al lot.

 

[CatmanV2]

I don't even use Super. Tried it on the Modena run and there was no noticeable difference. I can imagine the turbos may be a different case.

C

 

[daverichardson]

I'm a BP Ultimate man
Only because it is the nearest and I collect Nectar
No problems. I avoid Supermarket stuff particularly Asda.
Morrisons do not do an Utimate version in my area.
I have seen residue from using Asda and it is not pretty
There is a Shell garage not far away, I may give it a try

 

[Trev Latter]

Tried both in mine. To be honest, I didn't really notice any difference between the two, or even between those and normal fuel. If the engine management was optimised for the better grade fuels it may be a different story.

 

[StuartW]

Do Maserati not recommended a specific grade for their engines? I'm not convinced that the higher grade fuels make a huge difference but al willing to listen to those better qualified to pass judgement

 

[CraigNicol123]

When I picked up my GTS from greypaul they were adamant that there was no benefit of using super over regular and that using regular was completely fine. I have used both and don't notice a difference.

 

[Trev Latter]

Normal unleaded for the 3200 Stuart, although engine management systems these days can easily cope with different fuel grades. They still have to be set up for the higher grade fuel in the first place though.

Perhaps manufactures set the cars up for "normal" fuel to allow for a lack of availability of SUL? Another possible viewpoint is that if they quote power/performance figures based on running SUL, the performance will (possibly) be compromised if running on standard grade fuel. Let's face it, we mostly know if our cars are having an off day performance wise and would feel cheated if they didn't allow full performance, even if we weren't using it all.

 

[Colossus]

Another advocate of the normal 95 unleaded. In normal use there is simply no difference between the two grades that I can discern and therefore can't see the point of spending what is nearly 10p a litre more for something that gives no tangible benefit. The only caveat to this is on long fast motorway trips where I reckon there is better pick-up and response using Super and the fuel economy is also slightly improved.

 

[Sham83]

as a side note, so far I am only averaging 8mpg, albeit mostly stuck in city traffic averaging 6mph (shocking) - is this normal?!

 

[Fangio63]

Don't drive mine in traffic too much.... and 95Ron unleaded is fine... My last 650 miles were an average of 53mph (some speed restrictions on the M1) and I'm getting about 28mpg according to the computer...

Drops to about 18mpg when I've done a lot of short urban traffic trips or when I've caned it..never seen it at much less than that, regardless of where I've been..

The 4.2 was only a little better than this..

 

[StuartW]

Decent numbers there Fangio, I'll be happy with that

 

[Felonious Crud]

as a side note, so far I am only averaging 8mpg, albeit mostly stuck in city traffic averaging 6mph (shocking) - is this normal?!

Hi Sham. Sounds about right but don't drive it in traffic unless you want to accelerate clutch wear.

In terms of mpg I averaged around 16/17mpg on the 1k mile Le Mans thrash. With less spirited driving (such as when the family is with me) I can expect 22mpg. On a steady motorway run where those pesky speed cameras are in abundance then around 25mpg. Usual average for a tankful is 20-22mpg.

 

[daverichardson]

In my 4.2 I average about 21mpg on 97 octane
Computer says 23, but she lie
Agree about the price difference between 95 and 97 so
What about say having 1/4 tank and topping up with 95 then take it down to 1/4 and top up with 97
and so on...............
Any thoughts?

 

[StuartW]

I previously treated my AC to a super unleaded tank every now and then when she was behaving herself

 

[drewf]

You could fill at my local (Harvest on the A1 northbound near Grantham), where Super costs exactly the same as 95

No brainer then....