The Local TV stattion did a segment on stations selling gas with ethanol blend with out any warnings or signs on the pumps. The Governor signed a Bill yesterday to make this illegal. TV guys tested 8 major stattions and 6 had up to 7% ethanol in the gas. The efficiency(MPG) of ethanol gas is lower so you pay for regular gas and don't get to drive as far. If you change gas stations and you notice an MPG channge to the good, keep buying gas from there.

10% ethanol runs a 3% decrease usually in MPG. These stations in OKlahoma City had 7% and the gas was 5 to 10 cents a gallon cheaper. The stations pay 40-70 cents less for the blend.

So when the MPG jumps up or down, its just the gas, or lack of it.
Premium buyers get screwed worse, because the ethanol decreases the efficiency of the burn and horsepower is lost. The station makes a bigger profit because the higher grades are usually not cheaper.

 

Shell most of the time.............

We used to go to BP since it was closest to us, but when we had our '03 we were having some trouble with it. The service guy at our Mini Dealership told us to stop using it because it has too many additives............ Don't know if this is true or not, but it did make me stop going to BP.

 

Henry - Unfortunately, ethanol is mandated in some regions. Here on L.I. all gasoline is 10% ethanol. This replaced another additive, MTBE, which was dropped after causing widespread pollution to the groundwater supply from leaking gas station tanks. At least ethanol is less toxic, but it does affect MPG.

 

http://www.businessweek.com/autos/co...427_493909.htm
And the EPA mandate is a crock.

 

And all of the "Top Tier" gasoline retailers are required to have between eight and ten percent ethanol in all grades of their gasoline, at all of their retail locations, so ethanol is harder to avoid than you think.

 

Oops, sorry, my comment is directed at Henry's article.

I respectfully disagree. I use 10% blend here in Omaha, and blended gas is almost always cheaper than straight by 10% or more. I did a mileage test on my car between 10% blended 89 and straight premium 91 gas, and the mileage difference was 29 vs 28, hardly anywhere near the 25% claimed loss with E85, even if you extrapolate. So yes, to me at least (and I suspect others too who actually do the same test), E10 gas is a good choice.

Couple of important items conveniently left out of the article were one, ethanol burns completely clean of HC residue, and also ethanol is hygroscopic, which means it serves as a dryer agent, efficient in removing water from gas tanks. It also removes water from storage tanks as well, making them less contaminated than the ones that store straight gasoline.

I'm not an advocate of gasoline as a long term solution, but it is a darn good short term one, subsidized or not. Oh, and one more thing the writer forgot: Hawaii used to be the world's leader in sugarcane production, so we have ample resources for that crop if ethanol becomes more in demand. The only reason why they don't still grow it is because of, you guessed it, Brazillian competition.

Just my $.02

 

I tried a full tank of Chevron and a full tank of Shell and found the car got better milage and ran smoother with Shell.

 

Shell V Power only. @ 4.15 in Boston.

If your car is NA (without a supercharger or turbocharger) you don't really need high octane gas.

 

One thing the story does not tell either is when the stations tanks get cleaned it is pumped into your fuel system, water and the contaminents which cost you money when a fuel pump or filter has to be replaced.

Ethanol is here to stay, no doubt about it. I USE IT, did I say that somewhere? Now when the next thing occurs, That is when the 10% guys start selling 24% ethanol, and more cars start having problems, because they are not designed to run on it. The stations will charge the same for it as regular 10% stuff, gouging the consumer, then maybe the Laws requiring the % Ethanol will be signed into law by other States?

Keep your tank at least 1/4 full and buy gas at busy stations and smile the whole time. I get satisfaction knowing I get 35-40 MPG in the Mini and gas goes higher every day.

 

I started with BP but didn't get great gas mileage then switched to Shell V-Power and my mileage improved a lot.There was a thread not long ago that posted the top tier gasolines and Shell and Chevron were listed among them.

 

Local Sunoco stations...

 

Exxon. There are two stations between me and
my work that are both privately owned and
can easily be gotten to with right hand turn in
but exit at the light to turn left.

I don't make left hand turns not at a light unless
absolutely necessary.

 

We have a few stations here that sell 94 Octane (our usual is 91, due to our high elevation?), but it contains 10% Ethanol. The local dealer said he started seeing a lot of failed fuelpumps on MINIs that were running on 10% Ethanol blends, so they now recommend against using it. Thankfully, only one brand has Ethanol in it around these parts.

 

I also live in one of those areas where ethanol is required by state law. Here, it's 5%. It used to only be required in the winter, but the signs on the pumps at the grocery store station say that it's required year round. I haven't been able to fact check that yet, but if I find out otherwise, I will post such in this thread.

What shocks me is the loss of fuel efficiency for what seems like a relatively small gain in terms. The propaganda says that they're doing it to reduce the emissions of your vehicle, but what I can find factually says nothing about ethanol producing that kind of benefit. What it seems to be, is that ethanol can be made from sugar, producing ethanol is cheaper than refining gas and using ethanol as a blending agent reduces the cost of producing gasoline. So it provides little to no benefit to the consumer, and not much of one to the environment. Is this right?

If so, I wonder if it wouldn't be worth it to drive over the state line to buy gas every now and then. I don't live that far from it and would love any excuse to drive my MINI.

 

I've wondered about the efficiency of producing Ethanol out of grain, and heard stories that it actually costs more if you take out all the federal subsidies etc. I've also heard that grain farmers are loving the whole ethanol thing.

 

I looked up the Wikipedia article on ethanol and there really wasn't any conclusive data that told me how efficient it is to produce ethanol over petroleum based gasoline. What I did find in my search is this article from the AP that talks about the potential harm of using corn based ethanol.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/clim...ol-study_N.htm

Also, definitely check out the wikipedia article on ethanol, interesting reading to be sure.

 

I might of spelled the "refinerees" word wrong so i'm sorry, but yea I go to shell and those company's who refine their own oil and are not in the commercial business buying the cheapest gas they can get and mess you up with something you don't even know your putting in your car.

A year or two ago (here in rockford) i have noticed signs saying "May contain up to 10% Ethanol" Well ethanol burns so much more quicker and you can't go very long with it. So i go to gas stations now that own their own, do their own and yes you get best gas with Shell. I'm still researching other gas stations here in Rockford.

 

I've mostly used BP and Exxon and today put Shell in the tank. All premium of course. I got pre-approved for an Exxon credit card so will probably use that brand more once the card arrives. Never had a problem with any of these.

 

SHELL in my turbo vw, dont have a mini YET, 4 months of 93 oct v-power cleared all my missfires and i DO get 2 more MPG

 

Shell all the way

 

I use TopTier gas (http://www.toptiergas.com/) whenever possible. Hence around here it's usually Shell--come to think I haven't used any other brand except Shell since I got Dora 8 months and 8K miles ago.