Czechman

Are there any FlexFuel HHR owners here actually using E85 on a regular basis? Just curious to know what your thoughts are on the subject.

09 Panel

I would have to drive almost 80 miles to get E85. Somehow doesn't make it worth while.

09_SS

my ss doesn't take it, but I originally was looking at a 2LT. If I had the flex fuel I would not get it. We have the stations around here, but it is not really worth it. I have always heard that it is a wash, as far as what you save per gallon and the less mpg you get. I even had a teacher last semester in a eviromental science class, who didn't like E85, and said it was a wash. She even on the 1st day of class told us that she was a "tree hugging liberal." lol

UncleDannie

I, too, would have to drive about 52 miles to get E85 fuel. However, any ARCO station automatically has E10 fuel, but any car can burn that. I've not heard anything comforting about using E85, higher price, less fuel economy. Doesn't sound good UNLESS there is no gasoline (100 years into the future), then the ethanol sounds pretty good.

nst101

I used it for a while when gas was at almost $4 a gallon and E85 was only $2.75 (I live in Iowa, so Ethanol blends always cost less).

I was only getting about 65% the gas mileage compared to non Ethanol, so once gas came down and E85 cost only about 10 cents less a gallon, I switched back to the normal 10% Ethanol blend (which is about 20 cents cheaper here in Iowa).

If gas goes up over $4 a gallon again, I'd switch back to E85, but until then, the loss in mileage isn't worth it! I will say, though, it's comforting to know that I can use it if gas prices to go back up!

Czechman

Thanks guys, I appreciate the thoughts. The drop in MPG is a problem but it's good to know that if things gets crazy with gasoline availability the option is there.

But if there's another gas shortage I can easily foresee long lines of FlexFuel cars quickly emptying E85 stations tanks. To me the bottom line is nothing less than freeing ourselves from dependency on foreign oil, but what that will entail remains to be decided.

RkyMtnHHR

Let's see, pay more and get less. Sounds like some thing the government would support. OH YEAH they already DO! DOH!

mizzouHHR

I'm not a fan of E85. We are forced to run it in our fleet vans at work at least 30% of the year, and as others have mentioned, you have a 35 to 40% drop in mileage with a small gap in price. It costs us more to run E85 than regular fuel. Also, it takes more energy to produce E85 than gas, so to me it makes no sense. The problem is, even though it does nothing to help, it makes people feel good, and people like to feel like they are being "green".

urbexHHR

People believe whatever they are told. If they are told that E85 is good for the environment, they will love it. E85 does not help anything. It's really just a substitute for gas. It still pollutes the same as gasoline, it costs more, and you get worse economy. How in the world is that any better?!?!? We need a completely new alternative, like electricity. Then we need clean power plants, and problem solved...somewhat.

mizzouHHR

I agree for the most part with you. The problem with electric cars are if a majority of people drove them, it would overload our already stretched thin electric grid (in many places). IMO to make electric cars work we would need to invest in more nuclear power plants. It's clean energy and much safer than it used to be. The drawback is the hazardous waste, but with every solution, there is an underlying problem. Sorry for the slight detour of the topic.