Journal of an ESFJ Possum

I received sad news today from Southern Illinois.  It appears my friend was filling up his 50cc scooter in Carbondale and there was a sticker over the Casey's pump stating "87 octane will contain up to 10% ethenol."  What times we have come to, forced to use Ethenol in our fuel.

A little background, if you notice the posted picture you may see something funny.  Unleaded regular is more expensive than the unleaded plus.  This is because the 87 octane contains no corn alcohol, whereas the 89, or plus octane, contains 10%.  So what's the difference?  Alcohol lowers the BTU content of gasoline, puts water in your gas tank, and makes you vehicle perform more sluggish.  The fuel economy with E0 compared with E10 is a big difference too.  As an example, when I used to own a Blazer, Carbondale to Chicago would be a 360 mile trip.  With E10 in the tank, I would average 19-20 MPG hwy.  I began using the Casey's 87%, or as we used to call it, "Jesus Juice," and saw an increase to 24MPG hwy.  In my Cobalt it's even more staggering.  I can make 36-37 highway (the same trip mind you) using E10.  With Casey's gas in the tank, my best was 40.1.  The window sticker on the Cobalt only rated my vehicle at 34MPG Highway, so I exceed it by 6 miles per gallon...  Naturally non-ethenol gasoline will be a little more expensive, however, not by much, usually 10 cents a gallon. 

So, what about E85 rated vehicles?  Well, I love how the great state of Illinois is trying to push this utter bullshit on people.  E85 is more of a joke rather than a solution.  Sure, it burns cleaner but let's look at what's going on.  Instead of 10% alcohol, you're now running Moonshine with 15% gasoline content.  Now, you'd reasonable assume this E85 fuel is cheaper?  Well, you'd assume correctly, but not by much.  It's not even close to half price!  The last numbers I read put E85 maybe $0.25 cheaper than E10.  So, you're burning a crapload more gas and sacrificing performance in your car, only to save 20 cents a gallon. 

I'm sorry, I'm very biased towards new fuel options, unfortunately there's no easy solution or quick fix either.