I have heard that reg. gas gets better milage that ethanol blend gas. Has anyone checked it out and how much better milage did you get? I am in Iowa so I think ours is a 10% blend. thanks mike t

!0% less mileage with ethanol.

Phil Berkowitz

I get about 4 mpg better with reg gas. My local station sells the ethanol free gas and I make sure to nuse it, especially in my mowers.

Oscar

With my last truck, '05 Chevy, it would get 2-3 less mpg than with regular gas. I haven't used ethanol blended gas in my '11 Dodge so I can't compare.

About the same in my 5.4l Ford p/U. Boss lady drives a Lincold with the 4.6l and it gets about 2-3 MPG better on the good stuff.

I get 18-19 MpG with straight gasoline Vs 15-16 MpG with 10% ethanol blend gas in my my 1/2 ton GMC. Something like a 15% difference. You can feel the power difference too. The straight gas sells for about $0.25 per gallon more than the blend or about 7% more. So in this case the smart money is on paying more for the straight grade gas.

It takes about 1.5 gallons of ethanol to equal one gallon of gas . So you are losing about 3.3%. Jeff

4 mpg and better response with Real Gas over water creating Ethanol!!

Ethanol has cause the US to use more gas, who do you think benefits from that???

Thanks green idiots!!

Food is to eat not burn in engines!! If you check the internet you will find also Ethanol laced gas is more "Polluting" of the environment!!

Thanks again green idiots!

I have a 2003 Chev. Blazer. It used to get 15.5 miles (in the city)to the gallon. In the past couple of years the mileage dropped to 12 miles to the gallon. This is in the summer months. I thought I was having problems with the engine performance and had it tuned up. No difference in the mileage still at 12. Then it dawned on me the gas stations all went to 10% Ethanol. 10% Ethanol = a 20% decrease in mileage, at least in my blazer.

Recently the EPA approved an increase in the ethanol to 15%. I guess i'll have another drop in MPG.

This makes me wonder with the drop in mpg is the ethanol really saving in carbon emissions or does the decreased mileage offset any carbon emission savings?

As usual the Government knows what is best for us. (sarcasm). Mike.

Consumers Reports did a study on this a few years ago and concluded that compared to "regular" gas, gasoline with 10% ethanol got something like 10 - 15% lower fuel mileage, which means obviously that you have to burn more of the 90% fuel to go the same number of miles. Conclusion was that it no meaningful reduction on our dependence on oil. Makes a lot of money for corn farmers tho.

Pete

The more gas you burn the more money gets into the gov'ts hands. This is why you'll never see the high mileage cars that are prevalent in Europoe.

Phil Berkowitz

My car did get 27 MPG and now with that crap gets 23 MPG.

Some older cars HAVE to have NON ETHANOL. If they don't the ethanol gas will distroy the gaskets and lines of the car.

To me its just not worth the trouble to make. I did hear at one time that they were going to stop but now they are thinking of going to 15% ethnaol. More problems to come.

My wife had been complaining of poor gas milage after every trip to Missoula,Mt. then it dawned on me they are an ethanol city. Now she doesn't fuel up there and has returned to her "good" milage. Percentage of fuel economy drop I couldn't tell you, 100% increase in complaining.

It's easy to calculate the effect of ethanol on gas mileage. Gasoline has 114,100 BTUs per gallon while ethanol has 76,100. That means that ethanol has 33% fewer BTUs. Since there is 10% ethanol in the gas with ethanol it follows that ethanol gas will decrease mileage by 3.3%. While this is nothing to sneeze at, it's far less than many people claim using anecdotal evidence. Of course if you generally get 100 mpg then you will really lose 3 mpg.

I have seen the drop in gas mileage with my car too!

If you are able to get non-blended gas, how do you find it?

Charlie

Charlie, try the url above. Pure gas is getting harder to find every day and will likely be extinct soon.

You get 25persent less in a gallon of etnaol.But the major problem is it will totaly kill a carberator.The four wheeler shops and scooter shops are having to rebuild carbs all the time.I just had a fourwheeler drain the gas tank down into the oil pan and had to rebuild the carb.I also had to rebuild a 250 scooter.When I went to get parts the repair shop told me he gets a least one a week like them.That is why you should get an etnoal additive and add it to your fuel.There are some large storage tanks that they will not even put it in.Search the net and read up on and it will make you sickto think our gov would do this ti us.

I was told by our local bulk plant that sells REAL GAS the other day, that because Ethanol creates it own water while in storage, its only added to the gas while it is being put in the tanker trucks as they leave the refinerys.

Can't back it up with proof, but sounds logical.

Non Ethanol gas here is generally $.10 per gallon higher, BUT boy is it worth it!!

Greenies, the scum of the earth!!

I have a '97 Ranger, 4cyl, 5spd. I used to get 27-29 MPG on reg gas, now with the 10% ethanol mix I get 22 at best. Now with the drought hitting the corn crops corn will be going up and so will ethanol and so will our gas. Now the word is the govt wants to raise it to 15%.

ctreay

The best ethanol can be distilled to is 95% so there is still 5% water in it they add benzene to it to absorb or mix with the water to help keep it in solution

You notice I said help keep it in solution, guess it doesn't always work

My wife drives a 2007 Toyota Rav4. Before we got forced into the 10% ethanol mix, she got 30mpg. Now, with the corn fuel she gets 26mpg. With the drought this year, and the corn crops shriveling to sh!# here in the Midwest, you can bet the price of corn aint going down. Higher fuel prices, anyone?

Also, don't even think about running this stuff in a boat.

"That means that ethanol has 33% fewer BTUs. Since there is 10% ethanol in the gas with ethanol it follows that ethanol gas will decrease mileage by 3.3%."

Theory may indicate that "it follows that ethanol gas will decrease mileage by 3.3%" but there are factors involved other than btu content of the fuel. It is obvious that the theory doesn't work out in the real world of engine performance. Give the market real gas and see which one wins out in the long run.

2008 Prius 10% Ethanol 44 mpg average highway driving 0% Ethanol 54 mpg average highway driving

Corn should be food .... not fuel!!!

With the current drought in the US .... we should let all the corn go to feed.

My GMC pick-up loses 4 MPG using ethanol gas instead of ethanol free gas. What a scam on the American ethanol gas has turned out to be...Bill

It ain't theory, it's fact. It's the exact same reason that diesel engines get better mileage than gas engines- diesel has about 20% more BTUs per gallon than gasoline.

My Wrangler,straight 6, 5 speed with regular gas got 22-25 highway depending on wind, now at 60mph with 10% dont get 20. No place to buy REAL gas.

Diesel engines are designed for diesel fuel. Try running a gasoline engine on diesel fuel! The responses here dispel application of the theory that mileage loss will be proportional to the btu content of the fuel in the real driving world.

I've checked it while owning several different cars. Regular gas always gave better mileage from 2-3 mpg. My auto mechanic said that he sees a lot of plugged catalytic converters plugged now that everyone is using ethanol compared to years ago before it was available and says he attributes it to the corn based ethanol that everyone is burning now.

I burn nothing but regular gas.

In Minnesota, you don't have a choice as they do not sell regular gas at there stations. By law, they can only sell ethanol.

Hauxfan!

"Diesel engines are designed for diesel fuel." Brilliant deduction my dear Watson. Actually the responses here don't prove or disprove anything since not a single person has actually done a verifiable test to prove their claims. Anecdotal stories don't prove jack shite.

All the silly babble in the world won't change the fact is that diesel engines get better fuel mileage than gasoline engines because diesel has far more BTUs than gasoline. LNG engines get lower mileage than engines running on gas because...... get ready...... LNG has fewer BTUs per gallon than gasoline (75,000). Propane also gets less mileage than gasoline because .... get ready... it also has fewer BTUs per gallon (84,300). It's not that complicated.

Pure ethanol (E100) has about the same BTUs as LNG (76,100) so it would get about the same crappy mileage.

Hauxfan, Most every town in Minnesota has at least one station that sells 91 or 92 octane non-ethanol fuel. Here in the SE part of the state it is usually a Sinclair station or Fleet Farm.

Unfortunately,the price is usually high enough that the additional gas mileage gets cancelled out, making it senseless to use it in a car! Clever how they got that figured out, huh?

I use it mainly for my mowers, chainsaws, trimmers, etc. They run better, with more power. My big Gravely zero-turn mower will mow my 3 acres of lawn for about a 1/4 gallon less fuel compared to 10% ethanol blend.

Kiv