kudos to the station for owning up to their problem. I'm curious, was this an independent station? National chain? I'm guessing independent since he has mechanical service.

The Indian guy I work with tells me never to buy gas at any place run by someone that looks like him.

Then there's the "top tier" ratings. I'm not sure I believe their marketing pitch: Over the past several years, the minimum level of detergent additive required by the EPA has declined by an estimated 50%.

They list Shell, Chevron, and QT besides some others as "adhering to their high standards."

For the last 10 years or so I felt it didn't matter much as long as you went to a filling station that looked well maintained; the fuel comes through the same pipeline to the regional distribution center. I'd been buying from Murphy (the wal-mart pumps) but experienced what seemed fuel related performance problems (rough idle) on my old Honda. It was so old though this is not conclusive.

I'm sticking to nice clean looking Shell stations out of the hope I don't pick up the clap fuel wise, and get appropriate amounts of detergents to keep the injectors clean.