^ and leading to the well known sludge issue?

 

If you have seen .12 or .20 cent price-differences between regular and premium in your area until recently, fine....I won't doubt your word on that (I know you're a credible poster). In my area, though, I haven't seen that for a long time....it's usually around 30 cents or more. We have a lot of expensive cars in this area with high-performance engines, and some people may be using premium whether they actually need it or not. This time of year, a lot of stations are also switching to winter-grade fuels which, because of EPA regulations, have different oxygenation levels. More turbos today, though, can (and do) use regular....that's not simply my opinion, but a fact.

Now, you do have a case, though, on one factor. Oil-companies, in their slick ads, like to emphasize their premium brands, and how many good things like detergents, Techroline, fuel-system cleaners, V-Power, "Tiger", etc..... are in those premium-grades. To an uninformed person, that sometimes can influence whether they actually buy regular or premium at the pump. But, most companies, at least with major-name-brands, also put those same packages in the regular 87-octane, though not always in the same amounts. But by gas at cut-rate stations, and you probably won't get as many (or any) of those detergent packages.

 

Where do you think those places buy their gas from?

 

from an off brand refinery? lol

 

It's not the gas,it's the additive pkgs that are different and more robust from brand names in most cases..