A survey conducted by BP Ultimate, revealed that most South Africans don’t really care about the fuel they put into their cars, which are in all likelihood their second biggest investment after a home.
A survey conducted by BP Ultimate, revealed that most South Africans don’t really care about the fuel they put into their cars, which are in all likelihood their second biggest investment after a home.
Over 2 000 motorists across the country from various backgrounds, were polled according to their knowledge of the fuel price, differences between fuel grades and what benefits particular fuels offered.
Government sets the price of fuel in South Africa and all service stations are obliged to charge the same price for petrol, while diesel trades in a band varying between 10c and 50c a litre depending on the service station and different geographical locations.
Yet most unleaded users polled thought they were paying more than the actual price per litre, and at least 20% of diesel users had no idea how much they were paying.
Unlike petrol, diesel isn’t regulated in this country as diesel 50ppm is slightly more expensive than diesel 500ppm, because of the more complex desulphurisation process.
Nearly half of all the drivers questioned could not tell the difference between unleaded 93 and 95 octane fuels or diesel 50ppm and 500ppm.
They also weren’t sure about what lead replacement petrol is. Interestingly only 48% of the taxi drivers polled many of whom fill up a few times a day – know the difference between fuel grades.
And less than 10% of all motorists know some of the specific benefits derived from various fuel grades. The difference between diesel 50ppm and 500ppm is that it is ten times cleaner with only 50 parts per million (ppm) of sulphur compared to the maximum level of 500ppm allowed by the government.
Even though one has to pay slightly more for the cleaner diesel, it saves money in the long run by extending a car’s engine life and service intervals.
This higher octane fuel is targeted at mainly high performance vehicles which are designed to run exclusively on higher octane fuels, such as Volkswagen’s Golf 5 and the BMW Mseries.
Over 83% agreed that fuel quality is an important component in determining the overall performance and efficiency of a vehicle and 55% strongly believe that a particular brand of fuel plays an important part.
When using high quality performance fuels, it enables vehicles to run more efficiently, enabling improved combustion quality thus reducing fuel consumption and lowering emissions.
Convenience and location are still the main drivers when it comes to selecting a service station with 31% of the votes, followed by type of fuel brand at 21% and quality of service coming in at third place.
