Hello,
Does anyone use the E85 gasoline in their car? The only place I have seen that carries it is Krogers and it is about $0.30 cheaper than unleaded. I've wanted to try it for a while, but am afraid it will do something to my car. I drive a Ford Explorer (GAS GUZZLER!!!) and the owners manual does say it can take the Ethonal Gas. I'm still scared. Will I notice a difference in anything if I switch, for the worse or better?
Well, I guess regular gasoline it is. After reading the article on edmunds.com it seems pretty clear that E85 not only would cost more money, but really isn't that much better on the environment. Thanks to everyone that responded. This is something that I've been thinking about for almost a year now, but haven't ever found sufficient information on.
I wasn't impressed with it. If I had the money to spare, I would still get it, but given the price of gas right now...
I found that our costco membership is great for saving money on gas - most sam's clubs have gas too and the savings is similar.
Just like Sarah said, it can only be used in the E85 vehicles/flex fuel etc. It is cheaper and better for the environment, but you will not get as good of gas mileage as you would with regular gasoline.
E85 gasoline is only to be used in vehicles that are specifically manufactured to take E85 gasoline (this is differnt than ethonal gas). If your vehicle is manufactured to take E85, be prepared to get slightly lower gas milage.
I would not use anything that the car maker did not recommend.
We learned the hard way with my Mercedes. I know the Mercedes are more sensitive to any change.
My hubby put some gas (less than 3 gal) in my Mercedes and it made my car die. I had to be towed and it cost us $2000 to fix it by towing it to the dealer, having the fuel tank drained and completely cleaned out, and the car was at the dealer for a week. He put the same gas in his Jeep Cherokee and NO problem. He was just topping me off while he was at the station. Expensive lesson learned.
That was no savings to us! This happened in January.
I just got a flex fuel truck for my wife and the E85 is ok in those trucks - the only thing that I read was that you will get less mileage on a tank than putting in regular gas. you can not change from E85 to regular unless the gas gauge is over 1/4 - the E85 has 10% less gas and it needs to be mixed with regular too. It's not going to hurt the truck, but their is some requirements that you have to look for. I have a company that sells extended warranties and the flexfuel vehicle are higher priced than the regular gas. You should be ok either way!
Edmund's did a really interesting article comparing the difference in a flex fuel.
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/alternativefuels/articles/1...
Basically, what you save per gallon in cost is lost in the lower gas mileage; however it is better for the environment.
HTH.
