BJ's Gas: The High-Octane Program Ain't So High Octane

Bj's has returned to the old-fashioned way to make money: they steal it! The best example is BJ's gas (the kind you fill up your car with). Purporting to offer gas as low as 2 cents/gallon, BJ's members (customers) are encouraged to buy certain items, each of which will lower the price per gallon by 10 cents. By buying enough items during a month, BJ's members can lower the price per gallon down to as low as 2 cents (according the advertising by the company).

But in reality the program is just a ruse to get members to buy gas that has been severely adulterated (read: bad gas) so that a gallon of 87 octane is really 83 octane, a gallon of 89 is really 84 octane and so on.

I've tested this already and it holds true. I bought several gallons of 87 octane gas at BJ's and ran my car through a standard route around town (after midnight so I wouldn't run into traffic, which can skew results). I got 20 miles per gallon on this purchase. Doing it again, I got about the same, 19.5 miles per gallon. Emptying my tank and filling it with 87 octane from Valero, I took the same route and at the same time and got 28.5 miles per gallon.

Thinking that perhaps BJ's is watering down plain old 87 octane gas, I thought maybe a higher octane gas might be better. So, I bought several gallons of BJ's 93 octane and ran the car through the same route and the same time (I did this twice, btw). Each time, I got even lower mileage than I did with BJ's 87 octane (!), 18.0 miles per gallon the first time, and 17.5 miles per gallon the second. BJ's Premium 93 octane yielded even worse mileage than their standard 87 octane gas. Once again, emptying my tank, I filled my tank with Valero's 93 octane premium and got 31 mpg - not a huge amount better than Valero's 87 octane, but light years ahead of BJ's "Premium 93 Octane."

My advice: BJ's gas is no bargain - in fact, you're losing money on it any way you figure it. Go buy gas at regular retail or at another discounter (who isn't watering down their product, which many are, i.e. Mercury, Citgo, Ravi, City Gas, and a host of others).

#gas #badgas #ripoff