Non-ox fuel worth the price?

[Schelter]

At my local station E10 is $2.80 and straight gas is $3.16

If the straight gas gets 10% better mpg isn't the E10 the better deal?

Everyone else's price difference about the same?

It also says putting the straight gas in your car is a no-no unless it has classic plates. Not that it would deter me

[SVOboy]

We don't have said options around here (in Japan). And you also won't get 10% better mileage just off straight gas. I would just go with what makes you happy, slightly better mileage or cheaper gas.

[Daox]

With an 2002 you'll likely only see a very small decrease in mileage probably around 3%. With older cars (before the later 90s) you may see a fair decrease. I'd stick withe the E10. I see little to no difference (what is there is taken up in normal tank to tank variation) with my 97 Paseo.

[jamesqf]

Think of it this way: that gas station's owners most likely aren't offering the straight gas out of the goodness of their little hearts. They expect to offset the cost of the extra pump & separate tank by charging a higher price to people who've been persuaded that the straight gas is "better".

[Schelter]

3% sounds like a more reasonable number, I saw someone post a 10% before and it seemed a bit high. Guess I'll save the straight stuff for the bigazz Polara that isn't designed for the Ethanol.

[gone-ot]

...typically, E10 only diminishes FE by about 1-3% unless the engine is way out of tune.

...however, newer cars can actually gain FE if their ECU, sensors and programming are "flexible" and variable enough to cover wide ranges in ignition and timing advance.

[Allch Chcar]

Honestly, the only way to answer this question is to run each fuel 1000 miles, calculate the MPG, $ per mile, and the cost-benefit ratio.

Be glad you have the option to even obtain Ethanol-less Gasoline, albeit illegally. Most people don't even have that option and gripe about it on the internet. Annoys the tar out of me because it makes me feel bad for them, truly.

Nerys is our resident "pure-Gasoline" proponent. Claims that Ethanol reduces his mileage 10-30% of his true "pure Gasoline" mileage AND killed his fuel pumps in all of his cars in very short order.

I will say this though, given the variance between tank to tank mileage, spec blending, and actual frequency of Ethanol consistency, you should not notice any difference between Gasoline with less than 10% Ethanol and Gasoline with MTBE or any other oxygenate. The only possibility is if you never ran Gasoline with Ethanol in recent history in which case it will eventually degunk your fuel tank which could clog your fuel filter or even your injectors if your fuel filter is low grade.

Paying 12% more for even 10% more mileage doesn't make logical sense to me. Now if is was higher octane and you had a sports car I could see going with Premium that just happened to be "pure Gasoline." But in my mind the only difference between Gasoline/Ethanol and pure-Gasoline is the companies you are supporting and 10% Ethanol is not a lot of support.