COSTCO gas

[TexasSpartan]

Originally Posted by Z K

Costco is actually a major wholesaler and refiner of gas here in Northern California. Shell, Chevron and a lot of smaller gas companies purchase gas from the Costco refinery and add their own additives to it. You see their tankers pull up to fill up at their refinery.

So whether you want to use Costco or not, you are probably pumping Costco gas into your car.

I use Chevron or 76 but I have no problem with Costco gas. I just don't have Costco membership and the lines are super long for Costco gas. I try to avoid Shell if I can.

Not true, Costco does not refine their own fuels as they have no refinery assets, they contract with all major producers. You could get any one of the top brands at any given time. I have always preferred to stay with one brand and actually the same marketer of that brand. One of the big factors among most fuels is the ethanol content.

http://t.costco.com/gasoline-q-and-a.html

[Arben72]

Originally Posted by BMWFB02

How come BP is not on that list and its the only one recommended by the manual. I use it most of the time, BP invigorate 93% octane

My m3 started choking on 93 from BP. I guess it's station dependent.
I only use 93 shell ethanol free, except for the few times I'm almost out of gas in Chicago.

[anacondatp]

i have always been using costco. cheap, convinient, and 3% cash back. i personally don't think mileage or performance will vary dramatically between different brand of the same type of gas

[///M///]

Originally Posted by anacondatp

i have always been using costco. cheap, convinient, and 3% cash back. i personally don't think mileage or performance will vary dramatically between different brand of the same type of gas

+1. No issues. Just filled from Costco today at $3.99/Gallon for 93 Octane. Compare that to $4.17 at other local stations

[Dkhan23]

Originally Posted by 1MtoM3

hahahahahahaha !
You might want to ask yourself what they do with the extra 87 octane from the tanker truck once the underground tank is filled up and there is fuel leftover in the truck.........In goes the 87 with the 91 ......

Why would their be left over gas? They have a reading machine that automatically tells them how many Gallons/liters their is in the underground tank and they order accordingly to that... They don't just randomly call and say "we need gas" they check the Veeder-Root (machine that tells them how many liters or gallons they have in the underground tank) and call their supplier and tell them how many gallons they need.... I would know I own a gas station

[1MtoM3]

Originally Posted by Dkhan23

Why would their be left over gas? They have a reading machine that automatically tells them how many Gallons/liters their is in the underground tank and they order accordingly to that... They don't just randomly call and say "we need gas" they check the Veeder-Root (machine that tells them how many liters or gallons they have in the underground tank) and call their supplier and tell them how many gallons they need.... I would know I own a gas station

I was told this by a gas station owner 6 or 7 years back in montreal .
Don't know the details on how he ran his business though .

[llis]

Depends on the region, doesn't it? For example, driving to an event in Hastings, Nebraska, I was surprised that gas over 89 octane was very hard to come by. Turns out that a chain called [correction: Pump & Pantry] had the best gas around.

Nice to see Rebel is on that list, btw. 100 octane in Las Vegas at select stations.

[Dkhan23]

Originally Posted by 1MtoM3

I was told this by a gas station owner 6 or 7 years back in montreal .
Don't know the details on how he ran his business though .

Yeah, not sure how he was running his business, you gotta know how many liters or gallons you're selling and how much you're ordering so you know how much money your bringing in and how much you owe your supplier. And if some gas station is putting in 87 octane in the 93 octane underground tank you could sue their ass.

[e1000]

Gasoline is a fungible commodity. Large oil companies buy and trade gas all the time. Base gasoline may come from any of the large manufacturers, often times from a central distribution center. The different brands then add their additive packages, and that's the difference from one brand gas to the next. I suppose there could be different standards on tank/pump quality, etc as well.

[BBM9515]

I only use BP 93 and have on all my cars.
But on topic, I've heard costco gas is good. They have a high refill rate, meaning their gas is "fresh". I mean everytime I go there the lines are full at the pumps.

[sensi09]

Anyone have info on the costco additives used and how they compare?

Use costco from time to time without any problems. Not going to wait in line though. Early in the morning or late weekday evenings there's typically no wait...with the crowd just like any gas station for the most part.

I'll use what's convenient or nearby though, unless I know another station typically has lower prices.

[earth777]

So i am a true Costco fan with 10+ yrs of loyalty and have been filling up gas in my current M3 DCT for 2 yrs, and in my previous 335 and other 3-series from Costco (91 octane). late last year, i noticed a new pinging noise in my car (have 16K miles on it) so was a little worried given the mileage and the way i take care of the car. kept getting worse with time and even one event where after i filled up gas, went shopping at Costco, turned the car back on and it went into limp mode at idle. it would not rev above ~2K. then after turned it off and on twice and all back to normal though did notice a few weeks for full recovery. so i attributed to a one time event (bad gas). back to normal except with the same pinging noise as before the limp mode which got worse in 2015 (basically happens when cruising in auto on 6 gear and press the gas, before the downshift, i hear the pinging)

so went to the dealer and car still under warranty. was told that they will not want to pull the codes and diagnose until i refill 2 to 3 tanks of gas from chevron. i was pissed off to say the least as i expected better service and did not think the costco gas was the issue. but then a miracle happened... the noise is 95% gone. it only took two gas tanks from Chevron. so now i am still going back to the dealer just for safe measures and get to check the code for that limp mode event before my warranty expires...

this is my experience ...

[redpriest]

Chevron 99% of the time. Top Tier gas otherwise if no Chevron is available.

[earth777]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Chevron 99% of the time. Top Tier gas otherwise if no Chevron is available.

by the way, Costco is on the Top Tier list... i am sure you knew this but just in case

[luckyse7en]

ZOMBIE THREAD!!!

Anyways I fill up with Costco all the time. I don't see any issues with the gas. Apparently Costco is considered top tier gas. Then again toptiergas.com also lists ARCO as top tier. So I don't know how much I really trust all this top tier branding they put on the websites and at the pump.

[BzsBimmer]

I also use Costco gas and never had issues however I also use Techron cleaner once in a while. Never had any sputtering issues like Earth777. Crossing fingers...

[takrdown]

Can confirm that Costco is now a Top Tier Fuel...I think they recently got certified or whatever it takes to get on that list. I don't use it myself, but in CT, I use Shell or Phillips 66 mostly. No Chevron out here.

[Craigy]

Nice old thread.

Funny, seems like we put all of the BP's out of business around here.

All of the gasoline comes from the same handful of refineries. It's the additive packs that are different. Inventory turnover is a bigger deal these days given the ethanol in the gas. Sams and costco have deliveries multiple times a day, as do a few low price exxons/shell stations that get high volume. The stations that get few deliveries actually have a substantial amount of water in their tanks.

I would go to Costco if it was closer, since it is top tier. Most of the Chevrons and Exxons are dumps, and half of the shells are too. I frequent Sams, one exxon and a few Shells, mostly based on convenience and cleanliness, and occasionally throw a bottle of techron cleaner in the tank just for warm and fuzzies, but the car has never run less than great.

[TexasSpartan]

Originally Posted by Craigy

Nice old thread.

Funny, seems like we put all of the BP's out of business around here.

All of the gasoline comes from the same handful of refineries. It's the additive packs that are different. Inventory turnover is a bigger deal these days given the ethanol in the gas. Sams and costco have deliveries multiple times a day, as do a few low price exxons/shell stations that get high volume. The stations that get few deliveries actually have a substantial amount of water in their tanks.

I would go to Costco if it was closer, since it is top tier. Most of the Chevrons and Exxons are dumps, and half of the shells are too. I frequent Sams, one exxon and a few Shells, mostly based on convenience and cleanliness, and occasionally throw a bottle of techron cleaner in the tank just for warm and fuzzies, but the car has never run less than great.

Yeah these gasoline threads always resurface. Just a fyi ... Costco treats their fuel at their individual store locations as it's being delivered with their own proprietary additive package.

https://www.costcoauto.com/automotiv...as_nozip.aspx?