As the price of fuel goes up and up more drivers are thinking about using generic gas from stations that are not affiliated with the big international gas companies like Exxon or Shell. The question is, can you get the same quality of gas from ABC gas station as you can get from the big guys? Will the XYZ gas run your car with out causing damage to your engine?

The answer plain and simple is, there is not much difference between the generic gas and the branded gas other than some additives which each company has added to it's gas. To really understand why it is so similar a quick look at how the gas refining system works makes the picture clear.

By and large gas produced at refineries is a generic product. An example often used to illustrate this is California because it has a standard different from most other states. In California all gas sold has to meet specific environmental specifications. Because of that all gas in California terminals are produced to the same specifications. Since all the gas is the same, gas refiners often share and exchange gasoline and store it at shared terminals in common tanks.

The gasoline that is produced at one refinery is not really different than another refinery. They all produce what one would call generic gas. It is the chemicals that are added to the generic gas that makes one brand different from another. Each brand has it's own formula of additives.

Such blending or adding of these brand chemicals or additives typically takes place when the gasoline is being loaded into a tanker truck for further distribution. In other words all the brands are starting with essentially the same generic gas as their main component. So generic gas is basically the same as the branded gas.

Just to make sure, studies have been done to see if there is a difference between generic gas and branded gas. A cooperative study was done by ABC News and the Maryland State Comptroller's office.

Scientists at the Fuel Testing Lab performed a myriad of tests on generic and branded gasoline. The gasoline was tested for many things including contaminants like excessive sediments or diesel that might have gotten mixed with the gas. The scientists put the fuel into a special test engine to make sure that the fuel was all 87 octane. The chemists at the lab even made sure that the fuel was properly formulated for the current season as mandated by regulations.

The good news for the consumer is generic and branded gas had nothing but minor differences. They found that by and large the gas was one and the same. The primary difference between competing brands of gasoline is the amount of detergent or additives the distributors add to it. Even then the differences are small.

So basically gas is gas and all the gas sold in stations whether it is from a branded station or a generic station will work just fine in your car. The biggest difference it turns out is only price.

It is reported that the average gas consumer could save between $100 and $200 per year by using generic gas. To save yourself some cash next time you fill up use the generic station.