I agree, How do you know what Costco does and doesn't put in their gas? It's a fact they buy it from somewhere else, and there are only so many major gas companies in the States. Perhaps one of them is formulating a special no-frills (no-additive) formula just for Costco but that seems unlikely as well. The almighty dollar sign rules at the end of the day, I've done business school studies on Costco and they live by that motto. I really don't trust the gas companies and until some independent study proves what's really in the gasoline we purchsae I'd go with what the manufacturer recommends. Just gives the most peace of mind and the least hassles.

 

One of my clients is a 68 year retiree who had a bad case of going stir crazy after retireing. Anyway, he now works as one of those guys at Costco who stands out by the pumps while you fill up. We were talking about this the other day after I started this thread, and he said that Georgia and Alabama, along with several other states, have a law that you must run reformulated gasoline in the summer which is why their price goes up in the summer, but after summer they don't buy reformulated. As well, he said that they actually get gas from several sources and they change based on best bid. He also said that the majority of the time the gas has no additives, but sometimes when a company like Shell or whomever has a surplus they do buy it from them at a cheaper price. So, the final breakdown from him was that about 90% of the time it's not gas with an additive. However, he also said this could vary by location. As most of the gas we get comes from the major pipeline from the Gulf of Mexico ports. This isn't gas retrieved from the Gulf but rather the pipeline that ships unload into. As a matter of fact he said FL, GA, AL and MS could really put a squeeze on the gas companies if they decided not to buy gas for three straight days because the tankers are coming in on a regular basis and unloading their gas, but if we weren't unloading it constantly there wouldn't be any room for them to empty it. I trust his opinion only because he was a welder that worked on these tanks for several companies here in the southeast. He owned the company that did this for 23 years before he retired. Now, I am certainly no expert but I have to believe he at least knows quite a bit more than the average person about this business. Just passing on what I have been told, not saying this the sacred word on gasoline.

 

By the way, just for what it's worth, MB is now selling their own brand of fuel additive. Just thought I would pass this along.

 

Sounds reasonable and likely to be all true. I thought the goofy gas was for winter, though? The stuff with that chemical additive (MT something something) that's proving to be worse than gas without it. I dunno. I'm not an expert either.

The major refineries must be adding their additives towards the end of processing, or just before delivery? Maybe they have a short shelf life? It also stands to reason that additives raise the price, due to additional chemicals and processing time. Still, if there's a surplus, they'll unload even this to the highest bidder as if it didn't have the additives.

The pipeline info is certainly true. We found that out after Hurricane Katrina. All the pipelines were shut down and the gas prices in Georgia (GA uses two of the pipelines), where prices had been historically low compared to national price averages, skyrocketed. Not only that, I couldn't find any premium-grade gas for several days in a row in a couple of instances, and stations would even run out of regular.

 

I think it would go without saying gas with additives is more expensive than gas without. Since Costco gas is cheaper, then you do get what you pay for. Never having lived in the South, I'm unaware of what governmental regulations they may have regarding gasoline. I'm sure your buddy is accurate, the distribution-end of gasoline is complicated to say the least.

 

I wasn't trying to state the obvious. Of course gas with additives is more expensive. My point was that Shell and other companies would dump an over supply of gas with additives for the price of gas without additives if push came to shove. That is, if they wanted get rid of it and Costco was the highest bidder at the time it went on sale but their bid wasn't as high as what Shell would normally ask for it.