Is Ecomodder dying/dead??

[freebeard]

Locally, clear premium is back to $4.999 a gallon.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Locally, clear premium is back to $4.999 a gallon.

Premium is $3.69 in Hillsboro. I'm sure the one place that sell ethanol free premium near me is charging $5 a gallon too but there is no reason to pay extra for ethanol free for people driving even semi-modern cars. Everything I own including my 1970's motorcycles run fine on E10.

What kind of ecomodder buys a car that requires premium anyway? It kinda defeats the purpose of trying to ecomod and save money.

[freebeard]

What kind of ecomodder....? Funkhoss for one.

ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/90-day-average-over-90-mpg-37847.html#post626937

There's one additional factor that wasn't on my list of "mods" that I'll mention before I do: we run ethanol-free gas 100% of the time. We live in a very rural area, but it turns out that there's a small convenience store that sells ethanol-free gas only one mile from our house. They have ethanol-free because we're also just a few miles from a lake. The ethanol free gas they sell is 93 octane "premium," though. Their "regular" gas has 10% ethanol. So, because of this I have the ignition timing advanced a bit more than I could if we used regular gas, since premium is less likely to exhibit spark knock. It's not a huge factor, but it does help some.

The Little Car - '00 Chevrolet Metro
90 day: 91.08 mpg (US)

It's a little bit of a hack, like using Imperial gallons.

[MetroMPG]

Lots of good discussion here.

I can add one bit of behind-the-scenese trivia that has me leaning toward "it's dying"...

Assuming that $3/gallon national U.S. gas price is a psychological threshold that gets "average" people thinking about saving fuel/money and looking for info on how to do it (seems to have been the pattern in the past), the recent increase past that point marks the first time traffic here hasn't increased along with it.

Another couple of critical points to consider...


1) In the last decade, Google has changed its search algorhthym a lot: EcoModder doesn't rank nearly as high as it used to in search results for various reasons. Some of that is my fault - we never made a serious effort to offer a good "mobile friendly" version of the forum, and Google penalizes us for it.

2) The ascent of YouTube is likely a big factor too. A significant number of people use it as their default search engine, particularly for DIY projects, which is what this forum is all about.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Lots of good discussion here.

I can add one bit of behind-the-scenese trivia that has me leaning toward "it's dying"...

Assuming that $3/gallon national U.S. gas price is a psychological threshold that gets "average" people thinking about saving fuel/money and looking for info on how to do it (seems to have been the pattern in the past), the recent increase past that point marks the first time traffic here hasn't increased along with it.

Another couple of critical points to consider...


1) In the last decade, Google has changed its search algorhthym a lot: EcoModder doesn't rank nearly as high as it used to in search results for various reasons. Some of that is my fault - we never made a serious effort to offer a good "mobile friendly" version of the forum, and Google penalizes us for it.

2) The ascent of YouTube is likely a big factor too. A significant number of people use it as their default search engine, particularly for DIY projects, which is what this forum is all about.

Maybe if each one of us started his/her own YouTube channel and put Ecomodder linked in the description?...

[California98Civic]

Just like Punk, ecomodder ain't dead.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by JSH

there is no reason to pay extra for ethanol free for people driving even semi-modern cars

Nowadays even the Brazilian E27 blend is quite safe for most cars that may fall under that "semi-modern" classification.

Everything I own including my 1970's motorcycles run fine on E10.

I remember when it was quite usual in Brazil to run carburettor-fed 125cc motorcycles on ethanol, with the only mod being the high-speed giccleur of the carburettor replaced by either one from a 350cc Honda XLX or from a VW Beetle.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Assuming that $3/gallon national U.S. gas price is a psychological threshold that gets "average" people thinking about saving fuel/money...

10x inflation since the 1960s; 30 cents a gallon then would be three dollars now. 乁(◔_⦣◔)ㄏ

People's threshold lags behind the actuallity.

[MetroMPG]

True! But people like round numbers.

And hate increases. It's been well below that for years.

Anecdotally, I've seen a lot more coverage in the US mainstream press about fuel economy and 'how to save at the pump' since it hit $ 3.00.

Not to ignore our international members (of which I'm one!), but the bulk of our traffic has always been from the States.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

10x inflation since the 1960s

Inflation had been even thougher in my country, within less than 30 years.