e85 is crap

some cars (not mine) will run on e85 - 85% ethanol, 15% gas. most all gas is considered e10 - 10% ethanol, 90% gas.

however, while e85 may be cheaper, the word is you get less mileage. how much? from drivingethanol.org:

Q: How does ethanol affect gas mileage?
A:While there are many variables that affect fuel economy (weather, car condition, road grade, tire pressure, air conditioner use, etc.), studies indicate that fuel economy with ethanol-enriched fuels may decrease, but not likely with E10. E85 has approximately 27% less energy then gasoline, but fuel economy loss varies between 10 to 25%.

from what i heard, 25% is common. lets run some numbers:
national avg price of e85: $3.24
covington's e10: $3.88
if your car got 25mpg on e10, e85 would get 25% less, or 19mpg
a tank of gas (13 gal) would cost $42.25 on e85, and $50.44 on e10
you would get 247 miles out of e85, and 325 out of e10
price per mile on e85? 17 cents. e10? 15.5 cents.

it costs 1.5 cents per mile extra to use e85, even if it is $0.65 a gal cheaper. that means, if you, oh drive 95 miles a day, that's $1.50 more a day you pay to drive. $30 a month, or $360 a year. how is this better?

if e10 stays the same $3.88/gal, e85 would have to drop to under $2.94/gal to be equivalent.

if e85 drops to under $1.50/gal (doubtful) then the 95 miles a day driver would save about $150/month. now it's justifiable to buy a flexfuel vehicle.

the 2008 chevy impala gets 18/29 on e10, and 14/21 on e85. that's a 22% city and 28% drop in economy by using e85.

what about the 2008 dodge ram 1500 4wd? 12/16 on e10 and 9/12 on e85. that's a solid 25% drop in mileage.

wtf is the govt trying to pull on us here?

avg e85 cost $3.02/gal and e10 $3.37/gal? what kind of crack are they smoking? maybe a year ago... and if i drive this f-150 30,000 miles a year, i'll be saving 1615.62 gal of gas. but they do admit it costs $1314.78 more per year to drive using e85. 1600 gal of gas saved is irrelative, when it's going to use over 1,000 gallons MORE of e85!

check this out: a F250 from ford using Propane. i know propane vehicles isn't completely uncommon, but performance wasn't significantly decreased, while fuel consumption was slightly up (11/16 on gas, 8/11 on LP). and, an $800 kit will retrofit your existing F250 to do what the above article will do from the manufacturer.

how about some more numbers :) according to the govt, gas was approx $4.05/gal and propane is $2.75/gal this past week. a little high on gas, but i have no clue about propane. lets still base our gas on $3.88/gal. the avg fuel economy of that f250 on gas is 13.5 mpg and the propane is 9.5 mpg. based on 30 gallons, it would cost $116.40 to fill up on gas, and $82.50 on LP. however, you'd get 405 miles out of gas, and 285 out of LP. it's $0.002 per mile cheaper to drive with gas. if gas of $4.05/gal it'd be $0.001 per mile cheaper to drive on LP. it would take almost 81,000 miles to justify the $850 kit to convert to LP at saving $0.001 per mile...