I know a lot of Rangers/Mazda B3000s, tauruses, and explorers are FLEX FUEL vehicle, meaning they can run up to 85% ethanol (also known as E85) - how many of you are actually using it?

I found an ethanol station and have been running my mazda on it for about the last year and absolutely love it... no pinging.. more power... 10-15% drop in fuel economy, but ethanol tends to be 50 to 60 cents cheaper a gallon...
(at least around here)

If you have a flex fuel (look at your fuel door for a sticker) and using regular unleaded, please find an ethanol distributor.. you will not be disappointed.

Also it's USA grown... less foreign dependancy for oil... in my mind the perfect alternative to crude oil for the next couple decades...

Any opinions or experience on this? I would love to see this become more popular!

also check out E85forum.com

 

I'd love to! My 99 ranger is a flex fuel truck.........but there are no E85 stations in southwest Virginia or northeast Tennessee.

 

I am in the same boat. I even spoke to the owner of a local station about getting it. I'm not rich at all, but I offered him .10 a gallon more than regular gas, buy only from him, and help promote it just to get it available in the area. Probably more trouble than it is worth, can you get a license to brew your own as long as it is for fuel? I work at a flour mill and see tons of waste go over the hill or out the door that I would think could be used to make alcohol. It bugs me to know that every time I fill up I am sending my money overseas. Anyone have any suggestions for getting it made more available?

 

Do a search on the internet... lots of government grants to help a service station start up an E85 pump... If I stumble upon some info I'll post it here.

There's only two in the entire st louis metro area... one at very western edge and other at northwestern edge (actually st. charles)

If an area this big only has two I can only imagine how many less populated areas have (NONE)

 

You can search for locations at this site.

http://www.e85fuel.com/database/search.php

 

Before I begin with my long-winded reply, I would like to see more feedback on the whole E85 issue, whether you're using it or not.

I recently switched to E85 for my 3.0l 2000 Ranger automatic FFV. The first full tank cost me $1.99/gal vs. $2.53 for reg unld ($8.64 saved on a 16 gallon tank, great!). Now the other issue. I went from 23 mpg to 19.8 mpg since E85 doesn't match the energy of regular gas (ratio is 1:1.27 per E85 specs, so I actually did a little better than expected). But that made my actual savings only $3 for a full tank, and here's more depressing news. Next time I went to fill up with E85 the price jumped to $2.15 while reg unld only went up 4 cents to $2.57. My actual savings for the next tank dropped to 45 cents a tank! Now, if you're only looking at this from a financial perspective the E85 stations are going to have to keep the spread between reg unld and E85 at 50 to 60 cents/gal if they want to see it take off. Otherwise they're going to have to hope that drivers don't realize the hit they take on mpg or hope that they're really mad at the Saudi's and want to help the farmers so much that they'll drive out of their way to buy it. I can say this much, somebody on the E85 supply end is starting to make a hefty profit. As for myself, I'd like to keep the money in the USA, but convenience often wins out over principles, so I'll wait and see what next week's prices are like and decide then. Like MazdaRangerGuy, I live in St. Louis and there's only 2 stations carrying it. Fortunately, I live close to one of them.

 

There is more information on alternative fuels in the Alternative Fuels forum here.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/f...play.php?f=146

-btw, cravepl, since you still had some regular fuel in your first tank before you filled with E85 it could explain your better than normal mileage result.

 

cravepl I noticed that price hike also.. I think those stations saw a surge in sales and decided to make an extra 10-15 cents per gallon. The problem is that there is no competition right now so if we want E85, we're kind of at their mercy...

but at the same time there isn't going to be more competition unless we either buy more (catch-22), or if people out there go out asking for this stuff. These station owners need to be educated on the potential here, and from what i've read it's not THAT expensive to do so.

We need more support for our farmers, and less support for arabian oil (or oil in general), but at the same time we don't need price gouging either, which is where competition comes in.

 

I have an E85 dealer in my town and it is usually $.60 cheaper than regular unleaded.