Best Brand of Gas

[Jerry Cowing]

Question for our learned petroleum engineers.

I've heard two stories for years about the quality of different brands of gas and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this subject.

Story 1) I heard that there is really no difference in the brands of gas you buy. The gas supposedly all comes by barge or truck to a distribution center and then this gas is redistributed to all the local gas stations. The distribution center supposedly adds some Brand name additives to the gas when it is pumped into the gas trucks for distribution to a particular brand of local gas station, but the additives don't do much and therefore all the gas is really the same.

Story 2) I heard that there is a big difference in the gas you buy. Some stations add ethanol to the petroleum gas which I was told is really bad for our high performance engines and any engine using fuel injection, which is most of the modern cars and trucks. Ethanol molecules are supposedly harder/larger than petroleum molecules and will eat the tiny injector holes away ruining the injectors.

Story 3) Something else?

Here's also what I've heard:
-- CHEVRON = good
-- SHELL = good
-- AMOCO = good, but may change because BP bought them out.
-- TEXICO = bad, uses Ethanol or a lower grade of gas
-- BP = bad, uses Ethanol or a lower grade of gas

Anything correct about the above?

Thanks, Jer