Hi John,

I've enjoyed your website and insight on matters motoring for some time; we occassionally differ (I love my DSG gearbox for example) but its good to get a fresh perspective.

In all honesty I have always been a touch sceptical of the value of "fancy" fuels (although I have never used supermarket fuels) but this has changed as I moved approximately 2 years ago and now my local garage is a Shell garage. I have deliberately tied to use the local garage as much as possible (use it or lose it) and as an experiment I plumped for the V-Power Nitro+ for 6 months (I'm a lowish mileage user in London) to see if it really did match the hype.

Initially there did not seem much of an impact, I felt that the car was running a little more smoothly, with a touch more power but very marginal. So I stuck with the experiment for another 6 months and I have to say that the results took me by surprise; as whilst fuel economy in my Golf GTI is not what you'd call great its certainly improved significantly (10 to 15% in town, and on a long run 20%). Furthermore my local VW specialist has confirmed that its one of the strongest accelerating Golfs (of its age/type) that they have looked after.

So now I do have to confess that when on a run and in need of fuel I do tend to seek out a Shell garage (or failing that a BP or Esso station). The fuel cost is more expensive, but given the improvement in MPG and the fact that I've not needed any additional maintainece on the engine it does seem worthwhile.


Keep on truckin!