Any of you notice your fuel mileage drop since you started using 10% ethanol gas. Mine dropped 5 to 10%.

 

Welcome to ethanol, it contains less energy than gasoline, and therefore you will get fewer MPG.

If you are looking to save the environment, then ethanol appears to be a good choice. If you are looking to save money, then you must take into account the price per gallon difference between normal gas and E10 and the reduction in your MPG.

Pete

 

And ethanol is MUCH more expensive to produce & transport.
It's not cheaper in any way than gasoline.

 

Thanks to the reps from the farm states who made this a law.

 

Does California count as a farm state too?

It's greenies + farmers. Neither one have a clue about what's really best for the automotive world.

 

and..enthanol isn't that good for the engine, it's corrosive to the engine, so your engine's life might be cut short.

 

In the quantity that's in E10, it's not hurting anything in the engine other than your gas mileage. In fact, there may be a small benefit of keeping any water out of your system since ethanol will pick it up and it will burn off in combustion.

Don't get me wrong, I hate ethanol and think it's horrible for us to be forced to use it in place of MTBE, but some things that are being said about it aren't true.

Ultimately, I hate it most b/c it costs more and is less efficient.

 

I really miss the days where I could put 100-oc-low-lead in my car and it would go noticeably faster.... sigh.

Gasoline smelled better with lead in it. When they changed to MTBE, it STANK. At least it smells good with MTOH in it.

Friggin' treehuggers.

 

Drove back from the Canadian GP and I averaged 34mpg. That's the best I've seen thus far.

Do the Canadians use Ethanol in their petrol?

 

Canada is in transition to Ethanol. The statement from their government is that 35% of petrol would contain 10% ethanol by 2010, so I guess it all depends on where you bought your gas.

35 MPG is a great number, I haven't seen anywhere near this, not have I hear of others getting close to this on the forum. Was it all downhill with a wind behind your back at 50 miles per hour?

Cheers

Pete

 

I assume he isn't speaking of kph.

That said, some rather impressive mpg figures are possible with the RL, and a figure of 34mpg doesn't surprise me.

My usual mileage in mostly rural, flat countryside, with some driving around in small towns, is about 24 to 25 mpg, depending on circumstances...sometimes less...sometimes more. This is with my normal "punch the motor to pass," "waste no time in getting up to speed (and beyond)" driving, and my "all these people are in my way" personality disorder.

However, I drive quite a bit on the Natchez Trace and additionally, my present commute has turned into a recently completed 4-lane. If driven conservatively, the RL will get in the neighborhood of 30mpg on these roads, which are relatively flat with light traffic. By conservatively, I mean driving consistently in the neighborhood of 55 to 65 to 70, and no whipping the horses to pass other vehicles.

When I first purchased my '05RL, I would experiment/play with the mpg screen and purposely drive like I've always imagined long haul truckers used to...like there was an egg between my foot and the gas pedal...using this technique raises the mpg noticeably. I would even let the car slow down slightly on upgrades and not purposely power over these hills, with the object being not to let any driving situation diminish my average mpg figure as displayed on the screen. This is where I found out that even one or two aggressive manuevers take a toll on the trip's overall mpg figure.

 

Not anywhere around here and I'm in southern ontario. About 40 mins from the niagara border