Ok.... a lot has been said recently in the press and on telly about the effectivenes of premium fuels, fuel additives and both their claims to increase power, reduce smoke and improve MPG. Well, with all the time I have to kill on my silly huge commute each day I have been testing the claims of Millers, and Shell V-Power over a tank of std diesel and how it feels on the road. There is no measures other than mileage covered and how I perceive the car to feel. I cover a lot of miles each week and spend far more hours than is healthy in my car so I know my car and the way it runs pretty well! Its not science, more just about what the ordinary bloke in the street would notice day to day if he were to run it through his 40k mile Leon FR TDi with Revo switched on!
At the moment the Leon is on tank 2 of Shell V-Power and Millers (double dose in this tank) as I'm experimenting with what does and doesn't seem to work in my car. I do 160 miles a day, about 120 of which is motorway/dual carriageway between (near enough) Clacton and Canary Wharf and the rest being on A-roads (from Braintree to Colchester and on the A13/A406 in London). Its a very consistent journey in both directions with only about a 5 min variation in journey times between days so I reckon a fairly good test.
Standard Diesel - Car runs fine but feels like a diesel at low revs, less so when cruising at motorway speeds. A tank of fuel stretches to about 620 miles with the computer shouting that I have about 20 miles left to run. A tank costs about £45 prior to Gordon Brown fleecing the motorist further via more tax rises this past week. Pretty smokey under acceleration.
Shell V-Power on its own - definitely smoother, quieter, a little more go, a little less smoke and about 10miles a tank further.
Shell V-Power with single dose Millers - marginally smoother. That's about it. No noticeable difference in smoke, MPG or power
Shell V-Power with double dose Millers - a little smoother and quiter once again. More refined running and a little more responsive. Still as smokey as without the Millers and MPG about the same as V-Power on its own!
Conclusion with Shell V-Power - Millers isn't worth the extra cash in my view and its claims of 17.5% more bhp must be in some very exceptional circumstances which I'd love to know more about. The majority of the extra MPG, Power and smoke reduction is a result of the Shell V-Power more than the Millers. Its a shame as I really wanted the Millers to be the wonderstuff that people seem to be reporting. Maybe its not so noticeable in V-Power type fuels.
For completeness I need to try Millers in with std diesel which I'll do next once its had a tank of std passed through without Millers. I'll be filling up again on Tuesday evening so I reckon I'm about 2 weeks away from finishing that little test!
On costs - V-Power is about £5 more over 620 miles than std diesel. Millers would be about £1.20 more if single dosing over the same mileage.
My wife is not sure which is saddest - doing the tests at all or writing them up on here! They just don't understand
At the moment the Leon is on tank 2 of Shell V-Power and Millers (double dose in this tank) as I'm experimenting with what does and doesn't seem to work in my car. I do 160 miles a day, about 120 of which is motorway/dual carriageway between (near enough) Clacton and Canary Wharf and the rest being on A-roads (from Braintree to Colchester and on the A13/A406 in London). Its a very consistent journey in both directions with only about a 5 min variation in journey times between days so I reckon a fairly good test.
Standard Diesel - Car runs fine but feels like a diesel at low revs, less so when cruising at motorway speeds. A tank of fuel stretches to about 620 miles with the computer shouting that I have about 20 miles left to run. A tank costs about £45 prior to Gordon Brown fleecing the motorist further via more tax rises this past week. Pretty smokey under acceleration.
Shell V-Power on its own - definitely smoother, quieter, a little more go, a little less smoke and about 10miles a tank further.
Shell V-Power with single dose Millers - marginally smoother. That's about it. No noticeable difference in smoke, MPG or power
Shell V-Power with double dose Millers - a little smoother and quiter once again. More refined running and a little more responsive. Still as smokey as without the Millers and MPG about the same as V-Power on its own!
Conclusion with Shell V-Power - Millers isn't worth the extra cash in my view and its claims of 17.5% more bhp must be in some very exceptional circumstances which I'd love to know more about. The majority of the extra MPG, Power and smoke reduction is a result of the Shell V-Power more than the Millers. Its a shame as I really wanted the Millers to be the wonderstuff that people seem to be reporting. Maybe its not so noticeable in V-Power type fuels.
For completeness I need to try Millers in with std diesel which I'll do next once its had a tank of std passed through without Millers. I'll be filling up again on Tuesday evening so I reckon I'm about 2 weeks away from finishing that little test!
On costs - V-Power is about £5 more over 620 miles than std diesel. Millers would be about £1.20 more if single dosing over the same mileage.
My wife is not sure which is saddest - doing the tests at all or writing them up on here! They just don't understand
