e85 mpg drop

[fred walters]

Have a 2011 5.3 V8 flex fuel Sierra. Have ran top tier regular fuel since purchase 12/2010. Filled up (20 gallons) last week. Usually get 14.5 mpg around town on reg. gas. Now getting 12 or less on the first tank of E85. Is this average for switch over, will it improve? With the price difference vs milage not sure I am even saving anything.

[GPSilverado]

A general rule for my truck is to expect 15 to 20 percent less mileage from E85. The E85 produces less energy than 100% gasoline, thus more is burned to produce the same results. In my area, the E85 is rarely more than .20 cheaper per gallon, which just doesn't make up the difference. It would need to be about 70 cents per gallon cheaper to equal out.

[nathan60]

e85 is 70 cents cheaper per gallon in ny fyi.yes fewer miles to gallon is right.

[Morgan1986]

maybe someone could actually show the math and prove there ideas on this subject would be nice.

[j-ten-ner]

maybe someone could actually show the math and prove there ideas on this subject would be nice.

 

 

voila

http://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/e85-vs-gasoline-comparison-test.html

 

so long

j-ten-ner

[MikeNH]

The article is very interesting but a couple tanks isn't enough for me to put full faith behind it.

[RyanbabZ71]

I have run e85 95% of the time out of 22k miles, yes my mpg is lower but honestly I do not care. 50 cents less per gallon is my break even point. E85 is normally 40-60 cents cheaper here and pretty abundant (3 local stations)

 

Yesterday when I filled up 93 octane was 3.69 a gallon and e85 was 2.99

 

 

 

 

Ryan

 

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[bigfurk]

i normally get close to 300 miles on a full tank of regular fuel. e85 this last tank i got 270. i dont think its as bad as some say.

[mike94silverado]

I never had much luck with it in my rig but the lone station selling it only discounts it about 30 cents so its really not cost effective. Plus I ran my test tanks in the winter months so Thats not really optimal either

[01SilveradoLT]

Yesterday when I filled up 93 octane was 3.69 a gallon and e85 was 2.99

 

 

Comparing E85 to 93? Apples and Oranges. Im guessing 87 was 3.49 then. I would fill up with 87 over E85 every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Less horsepower and worse fuel economy. No thanks.

[PhilB]

The EPA website - http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml - says that the fuel economy of E85 is 25%-30% less per gallon than regular gas. Everybody has their personal price point and everyone's vehicle gets different MPGs. What each person should do is calculate the cost per mile for a gallon of each type of fuel.

 

So for simplicity sake - say your vehicle gets 20mpg with regular gas. And assume you get 25% less with E85, your mpg would be 15. Regular 87 octane gas at 3.50 and E85 at 3.00. The math for regular gas is $3.50/20mpg = $.175 per mile. For E85 the math is $3.00/15mpg = $.20 per mile. $.03/mile doesn't sound like much but when you add up the miles - those pennies add up. And they'll add up more if you're getting 30% less mpg with E85.

 

Each person will have to figure out what is more "financially" economical for their vehicle.

 

To each their own. Sometimes it's more a mental thing than actual logical thing. (e.g. I'm spending less so I'm saving money).

[AzDragonLord]

While it's true the average MPG will drop between 15-20%, e85 is 105 octane and I can tell when I use it....definitely more responsive than using gasoline alone. While cost-per-mile is something to watch for, there are several benefits to using e85 over gasoline...mainly it burns cooler, cleaner and is American-made. Sometimes cheaper isn't always better!

 

http://e85prices.com/

[PhilB]

While it's true the average MPG will drop between 15-20%, e85 is 105 octane and I can tell when I use it....definitely more responsive than using gasoline alone. While cost-per-mile is something to watch for, there are several benefits to using e85 over gasoline...mainly it burns cooler, cleaner and is American-made. Sometimes cheaper isn't always better!

 

http://e85prices.com/

 

 

Thanks for the E85 website. Good info there. I didn't know that E85 had a higher octane than regular gas. I "googled" E85 octane and one of the results that came back was for Wikipedia. Lots of info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85 It has a blurb that refutes the 105 octane but does say that the octane is around 94-96. Still better than gas.

[Morgan1986]

one thing you have to consider is how much father you have to go to fill up . For me to fill up my tank its about a 5 min drive. For my parents its about a 15 min drive. If your burning fuel quicker your going to have to drive more and just waste more of your 80 year life or so filling up gas.

[MikeNH]

Comparing E85 to 93? Apples and Oranges. Im guessing 87 was 3.49 then. I would fill up with 87 over E85 every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Less horsepower and worse fuel economy. No thanks.

 

 

Not at all. the 6.2 reccommends premium fuel so the comparison is reasonable. And the engines made for it will make more power on E85, that is a fact.