Weekend Trip 1st E85 Use Results

[RyanbabZ71]

Well this weekend we took about a 400 miles trip (I am at 600 total miles on my 08 Tahoe 2wd). Filled up 2 times with E85 (3 total tanks of fuel so far). Going up north we got 17.5 mpg (much better than 14-15 in my Silverado) and around 16 coming home (Wife driving). Still have 3/4 of a tank. 2 weeks we will be taking the same trip and we will again see how it works out.

 

Gas cost was over $3.70 we paid 3.19 and 3.29 for E85

[onac255]

How much difference in MPG is there between E-85 and Dino Gas?

 

I also have a 5.3L Flex engine but there isn't any E-85 around here.

[RyanbabZ71]

supposed to be 15-20% less

 

A buddy is getting 12-15% less milage

[TearsOfMcCown]

I am not great at math. So this figure should actually be done by someone who is. But if you pay $3.70 for gas and 3.29 for E85 (while these prices do change and the differences will as well) That about a 12% better price for E85 (i think)

 

So if you MPG is down 12% wont the cost be the same?

 

If any of what I said is true, its interesting to see if it really is cheaper in the long run.

[Nick The Great]

I am not great at math. So this figure should actually be done by someone who is. But if you pay $3.70 for gas and 3.29 for E85 (while these prices do change and the differences will as well) That about a 12% better price for E85 (i think)

 

So if you MPG is down 12% wont the cost be the same?

 

If any of what I said is true, its interesting to see if it really is cheaper in the long run.

 

 

Your statement is true, but there are two bigs if's: Price Difference and mpg difference.

 

Here in Des Moines my local E85 is ~40 or 50 cents cheaper, but in West Des Moines it is as much as 70 cents different.

 

Also, the mpg difference varies depending on who you talk to. A pro E85 guy like myself, I only see <1 mpg difference in town. But an anti E85 guy (sometimes his 'buddy' ) will see a 6 mpg difference.

 

The truth is probably somewhere in between.

[slimjim2525]

In Albany NY, E85 is about 80 cents cheaper.

[CalixEros]

I've seen it around Albany as cheap as $3.09 a gallon, which was $1.20 cheaper than 87 at the same station and over a dollar cheaper than 87 anywhere else around town. It was on Wolf Rd in Colonie on the corner of either Albany-Shaker (by the airport) or down a block at Sand Creek. I'm not sure if that's anywhere near you though...

[18702GMT900]

I am not great at math. So this figure should actually be done by someone who is. But if you pay $3.70 for gas and 3.29 for E85 (while these prices do change and the differences will as well) That about a 12% better price for E85 (i think)

 

So if you MPG is down 12% wont the cost be the same?

 

If any of what I said is true, its interesting to see if it really is cheaper in the long run.

 

 

Your statement is true, but there are two bigs if's: Price Difference and mpg difference.

 

Here in Des Moines my local E85 is ~40 or 50 cents cheaper, but in West Des Moines it is as much as 70 cents different.

 

Also, the mpg difference varies depending on who you talk to. A pro E85 guy like myself, I only see <1 mpg difference in town. But an anti E85 guy (sometimes his 'buddy' ) will see a 6 mpg difference.

 

The truth is probably somewhere in between.

 

 

I've been running E-85 since I bought my truck and I'm seeing the difference around 2-3 MPG; and you are correct it's all depend on who you talk to and the individual driving style. And the real answer is somewhat in between becuase of those factors, but at least for me even though I have to refuel more often I'm paying less and in the long run I actually save around $1

[rvsahs]

I am not great at math. So this figure should actually be done by someone who is. But if you pay $3.70 for gas and 3.29 for E85 (while these prices do change and the differences will as well) That about a 12% better price for E85 (i think)

 

So if you MPG is down 12% wont the cost be the same?

 

If any of what I said is true, its interesting to see if it really is cheaper in the long run.

Refer to the "Questions about ethanol blended gas" thread about more on this topic. Aero Grumpy Guy examined the savings over the short and long haul. But as any economist will say (and I'm one by trade), it all depends.

[TedH]

I am not great at math. So this figure should actually be done by someone who is. But if you pay $3.70 for gas and 3.29 for E85 (while these prices do change and the differences will as well) That about a 12% better price for E85 (i think)

 

So if you MPG is down 12% wont the cost be the same?

 

If any of what I said is true, its interesting to see if it really is cheaper in the long run.

 

 

Your statement is true, but there are two bigs if's: Price Difference and mpg difference.

 

Here in Des Moines my local E85 is ~40 or 50 cents cheaper, but in West Des Moines it is as much as 70 cents different.

 

Also, the mpg difference varies depending on who you talk to. A pro E85 guy like myself, I only see <1 mpg difference in town. But an anti E85 guy (sometimes his 'buddy' ) will see a 6 mpg difference.

 

The truth is probably somewhere in between.

 

 

My brother and his wife have an '08 E85 Impala. They see no significant difference in mileage between the E10 vs E85. That said, they are very PLEASED with the mileage they get in their Impala. I think it is partly due to the fact they get better than the EPA highway mileage posted on the window sticker. (NOTE: That is true for my gasoline-only 2003 Silverado... I get 21mpg highway which is considerably more than the EPA highway mileage). So, even if the E85 mpg is lower by 12%, it is still higher than the EPA average highway mileage.

 

Is it cost-prohibitive (more than $1,000-2,000) to convert a non-E85 Silverado to Flexfuel? How about to E85-only? I'm just asking as I'd rather keep my Silverado than trade it in just for the privilege of running E85 once it is more available. Thanks for any info. If there is another thread about this conversion, I'll go looking also.... not meaning to hi-jack this thread at all... just eager to learn!

[MI 99XPL]

Well this weekend we took about a 400 miles trip (I am at 600 total miles on my 08 Tahoe 2wd). Filled up 2 times with E85 (3 total tanks of fuel so far). Going up north we got 17.5 mpg (much better than 14-15 in my Silverado) and around 16 coming home (Wife driving). Still have 3/4 of a tank. 2 weeks we will be taking the same trip and we will again see how it works out.

 

Gas cost was over $3.70 we paid 3.19 and 3.29 for E85

 

Here's the math.....

cost of fuel / MPG = cost per mile.

figure out both gas and E85, then compare the cost per mile.

 

Since I don't know RyanbabZ71's gas MPG, I'll figure out his break even point for gas MPG

$3.29 / 17.5 mpg = $.188 cost per mile on E85

$3.70 / $.188 = he needs at least 19.6 gas MPG to break even at those prices with his truck and his driving.

 

$3.29 / 16 mpg = $.205 cost per mile on E85 for wife

$3.70 / $.205 = she needs at least 18.0 gas MPG to break even at those prices with his truck and her driving.

 

The morale of this example? Let the wife drive and you can relax in the passenger seat. (Maybe even take a nap!)

[huskrbill]

everyone forgets the corn subsidies and the 50cent per gallon subsidy already paid with tax dollars taken from your check not to the local farmer but to the oil refiner that blended ethanol with dino.

[PhilB]

Here is a good article from Consumer Reports. They did 2 test drives with an E85 Tahoe, one with gas and one with E85. http://www.edmunds.com/advice/alternativef...63/article.html Not surprising to me was that they had to use more E85 to go the same distance as regular gas.

 

I had read an article in my local paper that compared E85 to gas and the overall cost to the consumer, but I can't seem to locate it online. But the basic gist of the article was that, depending on the price differential, it could cost the consumer more for E85 than with regular gas when looking at the overall amount used for a trip.

 

On the US Dept of Energy site (http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/ethanol/e85.html), it states that E85 has 27% less energy than gas. In the lastest gov't Alternative Fuel Pricing Report, July 2008 (http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/pdfs/afpr_july_08.pdf), they list a conversion factor of 1.41 for converthing the price of a gallon of E85 to the energy equivalent price of a gallon of gasoline (see page 15 in the report).

 

So using Ryanbab's costs from his post, at $3.29/gal E85, and the gov'ts 1.41 conversion factor, it would cost him $4.63/gal E85 to achieve the same energy of a gallon of gas. In the CR report, they spent more money for using E85 and they did for using regular gas to go the same distance but it didn't come out to 141% more.

 

Of course there are the mitigating factors that will impact everyone's experience such as driving habits, weather, road conditions, traffic, etc. I am curious to know if Ryanbab has travelled this same road trip using regular gas and what his mpg was and how many gallons he used.

 

Phil

[RyanbabZ71]

I have only run E-85 since I bought the Tahoe new so i dont have any comparisons with it.

 

A co-worker has done some studies with his 05 Silverado and found that there is a 12% difference between milage between gas and E-85 in his truck

 

One other thing to note if you look at the E-85 pump it says Minimum 70% ethanol. I guess it is kind of like the 10% in reg gas you dont know the exact percentage. One time it may be E75 and the next E85 so there would be a milage difference and you would not be able to actually figure out (unless you analyzed the fuel) exactly why.