It is about 3 to 5 quid more per fill up to use V-Power. In my 944 I was never able to tell a significant difference in MPG as I think you have the choice to either exploit the better MPG or better power - but not both, so if you drive economically you should see an improvement in economy. I did notice that the car ran much better on V-Power - it was smoother, more responsive and just nicer. With shell you get the V-Power card which earns you double points when you fill up with V-Power and you can convert your points into money off vouchers for fuel, so in the long run if you exploit deals like these then you are probably no worse off or maybe better off. It still doesn't half sting when you fill up though. I wouldn't mind if they used the extra revenue to upgrade the roads and build new ones - at least you could see the benefit of your extra tax pennies, but they don't.
I think the multi-car strategy is looking more and more sensible these days. The only time I noticed significant increase in MPG in my 944 was when I drove more dual carriage ways or motorways - i'd easily see my mpg rocket from around mid twenties to mid thirties, and on one trip I even nudged 40mpg, so far more sensible to have one of those tax-free sub 100 co2/km 60mpg cars, like the Seat Ibiza 1.4TDi or equivalent Fiesta or something, for the boring daily grind to and from work and the shops clocking up the majority of your miles, and have something more fun and less frugal in the garage for those fun drives or longer distance drives. Even 20 mpg is cheap if you only do about 2k - 3k miles per year.
I've suggested to the wife that we ditch the Focus and SMax for two super frugal smaller cars, as most of our mileage is the 20 mile round work commute and ferrying the kids around, and have a nice RS6 avant in the garage for the weekend family jaunts. She was not particularly keen, but i'm working on her! Was tempted for a while with the Hartech 3.0ltr 944 turbo, but as always, timing is not right.
