Lone Ranger

My fuel economy is down by about 3 mpg. I used to only drop by about 2mpg.

Extra 1mpg loss is the ethanol they're cutting the gas with instead of the MTBE they used to use as the oxygenator for emissions regs.

I hate ethanol. Nothin' but a scam.

an08HHR

I with you. Ethanol is good for the producers of it. It also drives up the prices of our food products.

pitbull76

Ethanol's not the greates, but MTBE is some NASTY ****. I don't want that back in our gas.

hunter

Ethanol sucks.. here in Portland it is now mandatory year round. 10% mix... it supposed to be better for the environment and reduce our foreign dependance on oil. How does it do that if my mileage goes to crap and I have to buy more oftern. What a joke. At least Washington is a few minutes away where I can get some decent gas... also Ethanol is not the greatest stuff for your engine.

Snoopy

You do know that your HHR has been built and tuned to run on E-10, right??? And GM has been building their cars for about 5 years just for E-10.

So tell me what it is harming in the engine

But don't misunderstand my statement. I don't like ethanol either. It's just a false, and cheap, way of increasing octane. But it does reduce mileage some.

hunter

Corrosion on engine parts, piston damage.... maybe I am wrong but I have been told this by countless people who know a great deal about cars and that are generally correct on what they say.
my hhr may be able to handle it just fine even though my mpg suck-which defeats the whole point of adding ethanol to gas-other cars that are older will suffer.
Ethanol is no good. It only adds to the cost of everything we rely on like food and other products. I was under the impression we are to have cars that get excellent mpg and this ehtanol scam sure does not achieve it.
It is not a little bit of a difference but a huge one. When I used to drive My Roadmaster prior to the 10% ethanol mix I got around 18 mpg in city... it dropped to 14 after that and my mechanic said everything on the car was fine it was the ethanol garbage in the gas.

TY&HHR

I wonder if adding some Marvel Mystery Oil to the gas would help? I know people who are adding it to their diesel powered vehicles to keep the injectors from being eat up from the new formula of diesel being sold now. I know we used to run some in racing karts with the methanol to make it run faster. I have noticed our mileage has dropped about 1 MPG.

Snoopy

Hunter....you are CONFUSING E-10 with E-85. There is a bigger difference than the visual 75%.

Almost every state sells gas with some ethanol in it.,,,,,up to 10%.

Your Owners Manual tells you very plainly, that same information. Again, GM has engineered and developed engines to do this. I would like to see one engine, built for E-10, that had trouble directly related to the ethanol. In 10's of millions of miles GM had NONE......and I witnessed this.

Just reminded...so I need to add.....

What happens many times is the amount of ethanol is not precisely measured when it is mixed into the gas. Sometimes, even though the station pumps may indicate 10%, the values go as high as 22%. This was witnessed by GM in sample and random testings of gas stations in the Phoenix area.

Lone Ranger

Yeah, if you don't like E10 you'll HATE E85... 30 - 40% mpg drop on E85. GM's Flex Fuel trucks and SUV's for instance, being the ideal situation for getting the most efficiency out of ethanol due to be factory tuned for it... they get dismal mpg on the stuff. Below 10 mpg is not unheard of.

TY&HHR, our other car is a Volkswagen TDI diesel. What you're referring to is ULSD or Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel: now mandated. We use Stanadyne in the TDI during the cold months for anti-gel peace of mind, plus it does help lube the unit injectors.

wingfeather

I don't have an issue with ethanol. If fact, I think cane ethanol could be our savior.

But politics aside, the gas stations should charge less if it's not all gasoline & doesn't deliver the same power...