Is cheap gas bad for your car?

With gas prices nearing record highs, the phrase "cheap gas" may sound like an oxymoron. But as people look for ways to save at the pump, is choosing the cheapest gas station always your best bet? 

Here’s what we found out as the national average rose to $4.55 a gallon going into Memorial Day weekend: 

Are brand names better for gas? 

Big picture view:

The short answer is no, says Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis. Although many companies advertise their own additives to gasoline, like Marathon’s "STP," Shell’s "V-Power" and BP’s "Invigorate," all gasoline meets the same federal requirements.

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What they're saying:

"There's a lot of marketing around certain aspects of fuel," De Haan explained. "There may be slight differences in additives from station to station, but at the end of the day, all of that gasoline is going to run just fine in your car."

The exception, De Haan says, is vehicles with engines designed for premium gas, "in which case you should comply with what your engine was designed to do."

"If your car requires premium, you should put premium in it," he said. "If it doesn't, you probably shouldn’t to avoid overspending on fuel. In many areas across the country, premium gasoline is now about $1 a gallon more than regular. So if you're putting premium in your car and it only needs regular, you're flushing money down the toilet."

Not all gas stations are created equal

Dig deeper:

Although all gasoline has to meet federal standards, the same can’t be said for individual gas stations, De Haan explained. 

"Where it does make a difference is the cleanliness, the overall maintenance of a gas station," he said. "There's a lot of filters on gas stations, whether or not they maintain their tanks … a lot of issues can come up at the station level. So not every station is quite the same. If you see a station that's not very well-kept, you might be filling up with fuel that might not be very well-kept either, and that is something to consider for motorists. 

"You know if there's a gas station that is 10 cents lower, but they only have one working pump, the other pumps have bags, and the station is not in good working order, I probably would skip that gas station too," he continued. "So, you know, it doesn't necessarily always come down to the quality of the gasoline itself, but the facilities and how well they're maintained."

How to save on gas

What you can do:

When it comes to getting the best price, De Haan recommends being "brand agnostic" and shopping around. 

"Generally speaking, if a station looks very well maintained and offers a lower price, I'm personally probably going to go to that station nine out of 10 times, because ultimately the gasoline is coming from a very similar place," he said. "It may not have a higher amount of additives, but gasoline meets federal standards. So I've never had any fuel-related issues. To me, it's more about the price.

"Humans make it an emotional decision," De Haan continued. "I want something that's better, that's cleaner. And it's great marketing by many of the gas stations that they say your car runs cleaner, right? It sounds terrific. But at the end of the day, all gasoline has to meet federal standards for quality and also federal standards of detergents … Rarely do you see fuel-related issues in cars these days. So I think it's more about the station you're going to. If it doesn't look good, you might just want to move on to the next station."