Living in New York City is expensive. Driving in New York City is even more expensive, and as it turns out, folks aren’t even getting what they pay for most of the time. Apparently, gas stations all over the five boroughs have a nasty habit of mislabeling the octane level of the gas they’re selling, and it’s far from an isolated issue. As it turns out, just about every gas station in the city failed at least one inspection in the last two years that was conducted by the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection — mostly for not selling the correct grade of octane they were advertising.
Out of the 729 gas stations that were checked by NYC inspectors between mid-2023 and mid-2025, a whopping 702 failed tests for their octane, mid-grade gas blends or signage, according to The City, a local news outlet. That works out to 96.3% of all gas stations failing. Wowza. Data looked over by The City shows that failed octane samples led the list with 1,135 condemnations. When that happens, the individual pump is shut down until the problem is fixed. There were other violations as well for things like incorrect blends, bad diesel or displaying the wrong price, but those were small potatoes in comparison.
Why is this happening?
It’s hard to know exactly what is leading to this wild phenomenon, because it’s clearly more widespread than a few bad apples. It’s more likely than not caused by station owners, either accidentally or intentionally, filling their unground tanks with the wrong products, but most seem to think it’s more likely the latter, as The City explains:
“My theory is that whoever’s operating this station is cheating and putting a lower-grade gas in the high-priced tank,” said Porcelli, who has 63 Automotive Service Excellence certifications…