Is there a difference between diesel fuels in CA

plyyyy

New member
Joined
May 12, 2011
Location
Redlands, CA
TDI
2002 Golf 5 speed
I just bought a 2000 Jetta TDI 5 spped. The car is awesome and I have driven over 300 miles on less than a half a tank of gas. I was looking at the Gas Buddy app on my phone and was noticing that the 2 gas stations that are closest to my house differ in price about 35 cents a gallon for diesel. One station is an Arco and the more expensive is a 76. Is the Arco diesel ok to use in our TDI's? I would never run Arco in my other vehicles because it has always been known as "cheap gas". I appreciate your feedback. Hopefully this info. is not right in front of me and I am just not seeing it.
PLYYYY
 

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
Is there a penalty for double-posting? I suppose not, but try to remove one of your threads, or ask a moderator to do so...:D
 

ruking

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 27, 2003
Location
San Jose area, CA
TDI
2003 VW Jetta, 5 M, Reflex Silver: 09 Jetta, 6 Sp DSG, Candy White: 12 VW Touareg, 8 Sp A/T, Flint Gray
I think you might want to make the measurement a tad bit finer, as in mpg 49.75, and over one two three tank fulls. Then you can see if there are gradation differences (.25,.5 .75, 1 mpg). What you are trying to do here is to even out or compensate just for measurement error over several tank fulls. So for example, if you had filled with Arco and got 50 mpg (on your half a tank) and re TOPPED with 76, you just mucked the variable/s.

If you do notice a difference, then the next question: is it worth the premium????? I have normally bought on price (cheapest) and secondarily on convenience. I have done this over 184,000 miles.

Here is an illustration:

a. 50 mpg /$4.33 per gal ULSD = .0866 per mile driven.

b. 55 mpg / $4.33+.35 (premium)=$4.86 per gal ULSD = .085 per mile driven. In this example, 5 mpg better is SLIGHTLY better (1.9%) @ .35 per gal more (premium).

c. now @ the same prices, the one that gets better mpg is better.
 
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1854sailor

Resident Curmudgeon
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Location
Westerly, RI
TDI
2015 Golf SE SportWagen, 2015 Golf SE Hatch Back.
California isn't any different than anywhere else. (At least in this regard.:D) Buy your fuel from the place that has the most turnover. That way you know that it hasn't been sitting in the tank forever. Fresher is better.
 
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