V Power Unleaded. Is it worthy?
 

Coming from a couple of Diesel cars, I have used V Power Diesel whenever possible and noticed the benefits (running smoother and less tractor like). Price difference wasn't that much either.

Having a "thirsty" petrol car now after being spoiled with the economy of a diesel for years and with the price of unleaded V power significantly higher, I was wondering what are the benefits on Super Unleaded on a petrol engine in terms of longevity and tear and wear, specially on "highly stressed" cars like the T6 with 315bhp from a 2L engine.

Try it?

There's no difference between cheap and expensive diesel other than the placebo effect and possibly a tiny bit more detergent which will benefit ancient French engines.

The energy density between the two is the same (in fact, in V-Power diesel it's actually slightly less), so you won't get more power. You may (possibly maybe) get slightly more torque from the higher cetane rating igniting and burning faster but it's academic and at the expense of increased particulate emissions. So if the car has to burn off the DPF more often then this will offset any fuel saving.

Mac has moved to a petrol car now, so I assume is asking about petrol V Power and not diesel.

I would not have thought a factory fit T6, at 315bhp to be a "highly stressed" engine... Well within design parameters. Re-map and take it to daft bhp figures then you could be stressing the engine. Personally I think V Power fuel is a waste of money. Day to day driving, Bog standard petrol/diesel is good enough.

I run my Polestar Engineered V60 on “super” exclusively. TBH it’s a “drop in the ocean” compared to the car, maybe it’s a placebo or not but I’ve found that I get very slightly better fuel economy on previous cars.

I'm sure Volvo recommend running at least 98ron petrol in the T8 engine, as the T6 is the same engine minus the Hydrid stuff, I'd be surprised if they don't recommend using the same in that too.
I only ever run my XC60 Polestar Engineered on either Tesco Momentum or Shell V-Power (less so V-Power at the moment as its price seems to be really high compared to other Premium petrol for no real reason).
Both fuels are 99ron and have decent additives & cleaners over standard 95ron petrol meaning injector and other fuel system components will remain in better condition for longer.
I havent done a standard fuel to Premium fuel back to back comparison in the XC60 so cant really say what difference there would be performance & economy wise but in my previous cars that I have done comparisons, there definitely have been noticeable differences.
With the T6 & T8 being small capacity engine utilising multiple methods of forced induction (both a supercharger and Turbocharger), it should react much better to higher octane fuel than more conventional petrol engines.

Thanks. My last petrol car was a Brabus Smart Car (I have been using smartMAC as a user name since :rolleyes: ) and I did notice a slight improvement in economy but hard to tell.
My issue was the expense of V Power in spain which is 30% more expensive than regular unleaded.

Thankfully round here the price difference (according to petrol prices) is 7p/litre at the local Sainsbury’s.

This is what my manual says

OCTANE
RON 95 can be used for normal driving.
RON 98 is recommended for good power and low fuel consumption.
An octane rating lower than RON 95 must not be used.

It also says E5 and E10 are permitted and the following,
Only use petrol from well-known producers. Never use fuel of dubious quality. The petrol must fulfil the EN 228 standard.

This is what the UK owners manual for the MY2018 XC90 says:

Octane rating
95 RON can be used for normal driving.
98 RON is recommended for optimum
performance and minimum fuel consumption.
When driving in temperatures above +38 °C, fuel
with the highest octane rating is recommended
for optimum performance and fuel economy.

Never thought to read the manual. Douhhhh!!!
Mine says exactly the same as yours. It makes sense I supposed. Just need to find cheaper 98-99 Unleaded I can use. From a reputable place :shocked: