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Comment by technofiend | Hacker News Reader

I guess I'm one of those weird outliers who has a use case but still won't use the service. My wife works nights and rarely remembers to fuel our vehicle. I commute via Uber or bus so I never have it either. $15/mo is still too much for the service. Sooner or later my wife will run out of gas and then she'll do a better job of remembering to fuel the truck.

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The density of gas stations is high enough that it works just fine to take a little detour to one of the several gas stations on the way between anywhere and anywhere when the dashboard light comes on.

This might be more useful if gas stations begin to fold because of electric cars.

I think gas stations will gradually turn into something else. Already in Australia the serious ones are developing beyond just car refuelling.

I think it's similar in America; AM-PM and 7-11 usually have "food" and also sell gas.

Huh? I remember this being the case in the 1990s. In UK at least

It's developing here to have co-branded outlets under one roof, looking very premium, sometimes sharing staff to minimise costs.

Down the track, they may become distribution/pick-up hubs. Most of them are very well located.

Our price per gallon is competitive with gas stations in your area (actually a bit below the AAA average).

Lower than Costco?

I imagine it's quite a bit more than $15 a month. They probably bake some healthy margins into the price of gas.

They claim their prices for members are designed to be competitive with lower-priced gas stations in the area.

I had never heard of this kind of service until a couple of weeks ago when I saw a Booster fuels truck. The advertised prices on the truck were a good 20 cents/gallon lower than the Chevron across the street from where it was parked.

OTOH, I don't know if they use top tier fuels with whatever detergent packages or if it's Arco-quality gas, or what.

Having seen but never used Arco--is there a significant difference in gasoline quality? I had always been under the impression that it was largely a commodity product with the various additives largely being used to help differentiate from a branding standpoint and not actually doing much.

There is basically no difference in gasoline brands. They all buy from the same area wholesalers. Some may vary on ethanol percentage and other additives but generally it's nothing significant.

Back when I lived in WA, Arco was the "cheap gas" because they used the winter 10% ethanol blend (== less power and less fuel economy) year-round, whereas 'good' gas stations switched to ethanol-free in the summer.

Now that I live in CA, everyone does 10% ethanol anyway. More and more it's hard to find non-ethanol gas anywhere.

Supposedly the top tier brands use 'better' detergents, but I'd say the differences in brands are smaller than ever.

In many major areas there are only one or two refineries anyways - it all comes from the same place and is rebranded. Sometimes with a tiny percentage of some special fuel additive poured in when they fill the gas station's tanks. For example in western WA there is Cherry Point or Anacortes. ARCO gas comes from the same place that refines petrol and diesel for 5 other major brands in the area.

There's no such thing as top tier fuel. Gas is bought off the spot market, just like orange juice. The quality of Arco's product on any given day could be identical to that of Chevron/Shell/more-expensive-name-brand.

There is such a thing as old gas which you don’t want in your car’s engine.

You probably don't want to use fuel that's been sitting in a jerry can for years, but is that concern really applicable to gas stations? Surely even the worst of them would turn over their entire stock in a matter of days, so you'll never be buying particularly old fuel.

Yes you are right - I was just making the point that gas is not all equivalent.

I take advantage of fuel stops to check the oil, coolant levels, etc. and generally eyeball stuff under the hood, like the drive belts for alternator, AC, etc. I glance at the tires too. It's a nice way to do something productive while the pump is running and saves me from having to do that separately at home.

$15/month on top of gas fees? Not interested. Without the monthly fee though, very interested. There's almost always a wait for gas stations when I go, so this service makes sense.

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