I'm sure that this junk gas that we have today could have an effect on the plugs, however just like many things today the quality of product is in question too. Last year I replaced plugs on my Ford due to a miss. Fired it up and still had a miss (yes I changed the points as well before hand) To make a long story short a brand new plug out of the box wasn't work at all. Switched it out and was fine. I too have noticed that plugs just arn't as good as they used to be 