E-85 Real World Economy

67ChevyRedneck · August 31, 2006

Consumer Reports is comming out with an article putting down E85 saying that it reduces fuel economy by 27%. I saw this on the news (have not read the article yet). They used an '07 tahoe and said that on regular gasoline it got 9 city and 21 highway. On E85 they claimed it got 7 city and only 15 highway. Is this what everyone else is getting for E85? Red flags were raised to me when they said the tahoe got 9 mpg city. Where the hell were the driving it? Downtown LA during rush hour? My Z71 has the same engine the tahoe has (minus the DOD) and I've NEVER gotten below 14.5 mpg city, even when I've been stuck in Atlanta traffic.

I now wish my Z71 was flex fuel, we have two stations near me (one is a mile from work, the other is only 5 miles from where I live.)

Two guys at work have flex fuel tahoes (an 03 and 04). One guy uses nothing but E85. He said (after many tanks of E85 and regular gas) that he got 15 city and 18-19 highway. With E85 he got 14 city and 17-17.5 with E85 highway. That's about a 7% loss city and about 11% loss highway. E85 is 7 cents per gallon cheaper here. I think E85 would be great for our economy and keep BILLIONS of dollars here in the us as opposed to sending it overseas to OPEC. And I think that if it really takes off, the price would drop even more. I hate organizations that try to take something that could be exponentially good for our country and economy and do one fuel mileage test on one vehicle and think thier word is golden. The problem is that many americans take their word as gospel (my future father in law is one of them and it annoys the hell out of me.)

Lets not forget consumer reports is the same organization that gave the nissan titan rave reviews when it first came out and that it would rival GM and ford in sales. We now know that it sells less than 100K trucks per year, they are problematic, and now scores "below average" for reliability.

Did big oil pay for this article?

pshadwick · August 31, 2006

Consumer Reports is comming out with an article putting down E85 saying that it reduces fuel economy by 27%. I saw this on the news (have not read the article yet). They used an '07 tahoe and said that on regular gasoline it got 9 city and 21 highway. On E85 they claimed it got 7 city and only 15 highway. Is this what everyone else is getting for E85? Red flags were raised to me when they said the tahoe got 9 mpg city. Where the hell were the driving it? Downtown LA during rush hour? My Z71 has the same engine the tahoe has (minus the DOD) and I've NEVER gotten below 14.5 mpg city, even when I've been stuck in Atlanta traffic.

I now wish my Z71 was flex fuel, we have two stations near me (one is a mile from work, the other is only 5 miles from where I live.)

Two guys at work have flex fuel tahoes (an 03 and 04). One guy uses nothing but E85. He said (after many tanks of E85 and regular gas) that he got 15 city and 18-19 highway. With E85 he got 14 city and 17-17.5 with E85 highway. That's about a 7% loss city and about 11% loss highway. E85 is 7 cents per gallon cheaper here. I think E85 would be great for our economy and keep BILLIONS of dollars here in the us as opposed to sending it overseas to OPEC. And I think that if it really takes off, the price would drop even more. I hate organizations that try to take something that could be exponentially good for our country and economy and do one fuel mileage test on one vehicle and think thier word is golden. The problem is that many americans take their word as gospel (my future father in law is one of them and it annoys the hell out of me.)

Lets not forget consumer reports is the same organization that gave the nissan titan rave reviews when it first came out and that it would rival GM and ford in sales. We now know that it sells less than 100K trucks per year, they are problematic, and now scores "below average" for reliability.

Did big oil pay for this article?

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E85 is .50c a gallon cheaper than regular here (Central Missouri)

E85-$2.09 a gallon, Regular $2.59 a gallon.

67ChevyRedneck · August 31, 2006

E85 is .50c a gallon cheaper than regular here (Central Missouri)
E85-$2.09 a gallon, Regular $2.59 a gallon.

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You serious??? Dang! So I guess that means your close to a place that makes it.... so does that mean it would be safe to say it would be much cheaper if further mass produced???

Do you have a flex fuel vehicle? Mileage numbers with it?

GMSea97 · August 31, 2006

By E85 do you mean 85% ethanol. (sp) If that is what you are talking about, they only offer 10% here on the eastern shore and it is like 5 to 10 cents more here. I always wondered what the effect of it was on an engine. All the gas stations I have stopped at in Delaware only offer a 10% blend, no regular fuel anymore. Will this harm a non-flex fuel vehicle, because like I said before it is all that is offered in delaware.

GMSea97 · August 31, 2006

Well, after reading this post it, I decided to do a little research on the web...I found a pretty good site with info on ethanol. It has some of the topics you were discussing about lost fuel economy. here is the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85#Risks

Norseman · August 31, 2006

Did big oil pay for this article?

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I doubt big oil had anything to with this garbage comming from CR. It probably has more to do with they hate it because GM is so high on it. Just another way to spread misinformation about a domestic auto maker. Fits CR's MO.

67ChevyRedneck · August 31, 2006

By E85 do you mean 85% ethanol. (sp) If that is what you are talking about, they only offer 10% here on the eastern shore and it is like 5 to 10 cents more here. I always wondered what the effect of it was on an engine. All the gas stations I have stopped at in Delaware only offer a 10% blend, no regular fuel anymore. Will this harm a non-flex fuel vehicle, because like I said before it is all that is offered in delaware.

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No, it will not harm your vehicle, most states are putting a blend of ethanol in fuel to reduce emissions because it burns cleaner. It's almost like adding a bottle of fuel booster to your tank.

E-85 is 85% ETHANOL and only 15% gasoline, meaning that if we used it for all our vehicles here in the US we could drastically reduce our need for imported oil.

67ChevyRedneck · August 31, 2006

Did big oil pay for this article?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I doubt big oil had anything to with this garbage comming from CR. It probably has more to do with they hate it because GM is so high on it. Just another way to spread misinformation about a domestic auto maker. Fits CR's MO.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've also noticed that Toyota is the only manufacturer that does not offer flex fuel vehicles here in the US. They sure love toyota over at CR.

Thelonegray · August 31, 2006

I have a 06 and with E-85 I get 14mpg. On regular I get 18mpg. At that rate E-85 has to be 50 cents cheeper per gallon for me to break even. Around here E-85 is 40 cents cheeper per gallon than regular gas.

67ChevyRedneck · August 31, 2006

Man, that kinda sucks. Are both your estimates straight hwy? What about city? Did you only do one tank of E85 or is that based on several?

Machine · August 31, 2006

My sub is a constant 25% less efficient with e-85 in the city. My usual range on regular gas is 400 miles, city. With e-85 it's 300. Monetarily speaking, at $2.29 a gallon for e-85 compared to $2.59 for regular gas - e-85 is a poor choice. The only reason we buy it is because of the environmental / US homegrown aspects. Still, though, 300 miles until empty sure does creep up on you quickly.

firefighteremt3100 · August 31, 2006

Consumer Reports is comming out with an article putting down E85 saying that it reduces fuel economy by 27%. I saw this on the news (have not read the article yet). They used an '07 tahoe and said that on regular gasoline it got 9 city and 21 highway. On E85 they claimed it got 7 city and only 15 highway. Is this what everyone else is getting for E85? Red flags were raised to me when they said the tahoe got 9 mpg city. Where the hell were the driving it? Downtown LA during rush hour? My Z71 has the same engine the tahoe has (minus the DOD) and I've NEVER gotten below 14.5 mpg city, even when I've been stuck in Atlanta traffic.

I now wish my Z71 was flex fuel, we have two stations near me (one is a mile from work, the other is only 5 miles from where I live.)

Two guys at work have flex fuel tahoes (an 03 and 04). One guy uses nothing but E85. He said (after many tanks of E85 and regular gas) that he got 15 city and 18-19 highway. With E85 he got 14 city and 17-17.5 with E85 highway. That's about a 7% loss city and about 11% loss highway. E85 is 7 cents per gallon cheaper here. I think E85 would be great for our economy and keep BILLIONS of dollars here in the us as opposed to sending it overseas to OPEC. And I think that if it really takes off, the price would drop even more. I hate organizations that try to take something that could be exponentially good for our country and economy and do one fuel mileage test on one vehicle and think thier word is golden. The problem is that many americans take their word as gospel (my future father in law is one of them and it annoys the hell out of me.)

Lets not forget consumer reports is the same organization that gave the nissan titan rave reviews when it first came out and that it would rival GM and ford in sales. We now know that it sells less than 100K trucks per year, they are problematic, and now scores "below average" for reliability.

Did big oil pay for this article?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

E85 is .50c a gallon cheaper than regular here (Central Missouri)

E85-$2.09 a gallon, Regular $2.59 a gallon.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

$2.59? d**n I need to move. It has been $3.45+ here until the last week or so, where its dropped 50-60 cents. I believe its finally down to 2.83 or somewhere around there. We really get screwed with the reformulated crap here. Its been eating up a ton of fuel pumps. Its more expensive. And you end up using more of it. Wheres the cost effectiveness in it?

Elwood 2000 · August 31, 2006

When I used to have my Suburban, I would get about 10% less milage that with gasoline. At my local prices, usually about 25-30 cents per gallon cheaper, I figured that my total anual price for fuel would be about the same either way. I burned ethanol whenever I could. I am a farmer, so I choose to use the crop that I grow. Throw the money totally out of the picture, the emissions are better than gasoline too.

While I wish E-85 would solve our problems, I fear that it won't, but I do think it is a step in the right direction. I read that article and about threw up. Motor Trend I think had an article that was about word for word regarding E-85.

tflessner · August 31, 2006

The hard part about building a flex-fuel vehicle is that you have to build the engine to run on regular gas also, which means lower compression. If they built an engine to run strictly on E-85 they could build it with a higher compression ratio, or with a turbo/supercharger, and get more horsepower and better efficiency/fuel mileage.

I agree, E-85 is a step in the right direction. Progress is being made in finding other sources to make ethanol out of (instead of only corn), switch grass, sugar cane, other agriculture waste, etc. Heck Coors makes ethanol out of the excess/bad beer (stuff that doesn't make the drinking grade) here in Golden, Colorado.

Hey Wingnut, I think I found your Flying Car.