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Originally Posted by pennor
I don't put a lot of stock in the "top tier" designation that you see on anyone's pump. Actually I take the whole argument that one brand of gasoline is all that different from any other with a huge grain of salt. I've watched the local wholesale distributors tanker trucks in my town as they stop at the Chevron station, then go on down to the 76 station, and then over to Costco. I doubt that they carry all those different "brands" of gas in separate little compartments in the tank. To further prop up my argument I know for a fact that there are only two refineries in the Pacific Northwest, both of them up on the north Washington coast. One is a BP/Arco refinery, the other was labeled Texaco the last time I was up there a few years ago. They both pump gasoline into a pipeline that runs down the Puget sound to Oregon and on to Eugene. The jobers pull thier gas from that pipline and fill their storage tanks. These wholesalers are not labeled Chevron or Shell or Arco. They are Harris Oil, Carson Oil, Mark Nelson Oil, etc. They in turn sell gas to the dealers and deliver it by truck. I don't see that there can be any significant difference other than the grade and octane level.
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The difference in Top Tier gas occurs after the gas leaves the pipeline and as it is put in the truck for delivery. Top Tier brands guarantee a certain level of detergents, others may or may not have it. As you said, in small markets I suspect all stations have it as the same trucks are delivering to all stations. The gas coming from the pipeline is all the same and in fact it is impossible to know what company refined it since it all mixes in the pipe. The detergents and ethenol in mixed in when it is loaded into the trucks.
Personally I don't care about top tier since I use a separate detergent that I mix in and use a fuel system cleaner in addition periodically.