Using ethanol free gas.

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
Happens all the time. People are mistaken or don't know the facts all the time.

Just for the record. I know the facts. And I am quite capable of calculating miles per gallon. I do it on every tankful. I maintain that on ALL of our vehicles which have run both real gas and E10, the average mpg decrease is about 10% on the E10. If we should be travelling in an area and I happen to find real gas, there is a noticeable increase. If the decrease in using E10 was just what the government states, then it wouldn't be so noticeable.

Also for the record, I now have 3 vehicles which I have measured this: a 2001 Honda, a 2003 Suzuki and our 2004 W-22 Workhorse. I also noticed it on my 1988 Honda, but I no longer drive that vehicle. Each of the other three vehicles were driven and fuel mpg calculated before our state made E10 a requirement. So I had numerous opportunities to compare depending upon which station I filled up at. Sometimes it was less than a 10% difference, sometimes a bit more. But in round numbers, for all four vehicles driven in real world conditions, E10 caused about a 10% decrease in calculated mpg. Summer, winter, spring & fall.

Now, perhaps the newer vehicles deal with it better. I don't know. And seeing as I expect to get another 100,000 miles out of each of our current vehicles, we probably won't be buying a new car for another 10-12 years or so.

You can believe what you want. I'll believe what I KNOW. Just don't suggest I'm mistaken on this issue. I am not. And neither are many others who have observed results similar to mine.

~Rick

(NOTE: It bothers me when "scientists" and "engineers" consider their "lab results" or "calculations" as the only correct answer and refuse to believe real world results when they differ. And yes, I am one. :) It's also pretty obvious that the government and the ethanol industry will slant their test results in whatever way possible to put their product or political decision in a favorable light.

Or, look at it this way. If ethanol was so "good" why did it have to be forced upon us? Most people wouldn't even notice a 1% decrease in mpg. It could've been done without being required by law as people would've flocked to it because it was (should have been) cheaper than regular gas. But in reality, it wasn't, and the decrease in mpg is almost 10 times worse then they claimed. So no one flocked to it. And it was forced upon us.)