10% Ethanol and mileage
 

What is the % of mileage drop from using 10% Ethanol gas over the same octane gas without?

Thanks.


Jay

It depends on your vehicle. Older vehicles seem to take a larger hit. Most of the time I can't even tell a difference even in my 1997 Paseo. I'd say less than 3% in most cases.

Experiences vary.
Some don't see any change (goes up in the day-2-day variations), others see up to (IIRC) about 10% less mileage.

There is less energy in ethanol, so getting somewhat worse mileage should be all too surprising.

In Germany, the introduction of E10 has failed.

Last 3 tanks in the Stratus on E10 34.75 mpg, 3 tanks before that on E0 34.63 mpg. pratically the same. I'll go back to E0 next three tanks to see if I can do better as my driving is still improving slightly.

I've played with other blends in the spring, but other variables with the car caused that data to have limited value.

Some studies show MPG actauly going up with E10

http://www.ethanol.org/pdf/contentmg...yStudy_001.pdf

There's another one I've found before where IIRC 3 of the 4 cars went up by a small amount, only a Nissan Versa went down by 3% or so pulling the average down to basically same E0 or E10. But can't find it now.

Switching to E0 in the Subaru Forester has increased mileage from ~24 to ~26 mpg in city driving. In our Honda Civic it also increased from ~37-38 to ~39-40 mpg. I noticed it allows me to run lower rpm in every gear without lugging the engine.

The fuel consumption at the same rpm may be the same, but the engine on average turns less often for every mile I drive.

Thats physically not possible unless you always drive in a higher gear with E0 vs E10. At 55 mph your engine is at X rpm no matter what fuel you are using.

...it varies from state to state, because here in Arizona, our gasoline "...contains up to 10%..." ethanol, which implies it could also contain less than 10% at (unknown) times.

I should have explained better, mea culpa. Yes, while I had to drive in 4th gear at 35 mph I now can shift into 5th gear without lugging the engine.

I tend to see a 10% drop in mileage, a friend of mine with a chevy half ton truck sees a 15% to 20% drop in mileage, my parents in their Geo Metro see a 10% to 15% drop as well, enough to make it worth spending the extra money on non E10.

Also with E0 you can get more power output while still remaining in lean burn and the transition stumble into and out of lean burn is reduced.