34mpg without really trying

[mryaris]

Originally Posted by Altitude

mryaris - whereabouts in Colorado do you live that you can get 40mpg? I ask because I don't think I'll ever hit that mark without some seriously conscious and conservative driving.

I live in the Denver metro area (just north of the city). Most of my driving is on the highway with the cruise on, so if you're stuck in stop & go traffic a lot then you will have a hard time getting your mileage to improve. My mileage may drop as winter approaches and I use my snow tires.....we'll have to wait and see.

Like I said before.....Colorado has been using oxygenated fuels for a long time now and I have still gotten great mileage out of all the cars I have owned. MTBE & ethanol weren't used to wean us off of Saudi oil, but (at least around here) it was to reduce the brown cloud that hung over the front range. It still exists, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. I think anyone who believes using ethanol will reduce our reliance on oil (foreign or domestic) is deluded. It is primarily done to subsidise farmers by creating an artificial price floor. The costs involved in using ethanol are absurd (as Bailout pointed out), but we still do it because we want to keep farmers farming. I personally think it doesn't make any sense outside of urban areas where the air pollution is high or, like in Denver, temperature inversions create some nasty air in the winter. BTW.....my degree is in economics and I have done several cost-benefit analyses on ethanol and bio-diesel, et. al and from a purely monetary viewpoint it is insanely expensive and innecessary, although bio-diesel *is* fun to make. :)


I guess my point was to say that my mileage loss by using E10 is minute. Obviously there is some energy lost due to ethanols lower BTU content.....I think we all agree on that. I'm only suggesting that if I am averaging around 40MPG on E10 that it won't suddenly rise to 45MPG on E0 or "pure" gas. However, to test this out I will fill up on "pure" gas for the next 4 tanks and we'll see what happens. I believe there is a station about 6 miles from where I live that sells E0, but I will have to double check. It won't be 100% scientific, but if my average mileage for these 4 tanks climbs 5% or higher than my most recent 4 tanks then I will concede and agree that E10 substantially lowers fuel mileage. It would be more interesting (and more scientific) if I could measure the tailpipe emissions as well.....then we could really do one heck of an analysis to see which way is the best way overall (let's face it.....sometimes the best overall choice isn't the one that gets the highest marks in one area....think macro, not micro).

I will need to fill up sometime this week and I will start (assuming I can find E0) a new thread that charts it all out.