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As has been noted with a couple of excellent posts, a high volume station with modern pumps and equipment gives you the best odds that you'll fill up with fuel that has not been contaminated or broken down.
Top Tier is a set of quality standards that EVERY refiner in town meets at this point, that exceed EPA requirements for detergent additives in gasoline. In fact, at least in my part of the world, you would be hard pressed to find a gas station that does NOT sell Top Tier.
I'm a terminal operator for one of the larger refiners in the Western US, who own or distribute to the biggest brands in Southern California. And the amount of persistent old wives' tales and "wisdom" about the connection between brands, oil, gasoline and quality is staggering. People will snub one brand in favor of crossing the street and paying $.40/gallon more for gasoline that was delivered from the same tanker truck, or came from the same refinery.
When I was growing up, my own father refused to buy gas from the company I ended up going to work for, telling me that they made crappy gas from the lowest quality crude oil. I came to understand later that they really made great gasoline from crude oil from the Alaskan North Slope, which is to crude oil what filet mignon is to dinner. But because they were on every corner in L.A. and dimes cheaper per gallon that everyone else, it must be crap, right?
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