Hello, I am wondering if anyone puts non-ethanol fuel in their cars and if it helps significantly with fuel efficiency. My dealership recommended it. it's $4.40 a gallon!! But yesterday I bought my first tank of gas since purchasing, i was almost on empty, it cost me 35 dollars to fill up. thoughts? also, since i don't feel like digging thru the manual right now, does anyone know what size the prius plug in fuel tank is? I am assuming 9 gallons? thanks!! Tami
In theory, pure gas (E0) has 3% more energy than blended gas (E10) as Ethyl Alcohol only has 70% of the energy of gasoline. In practice, you will hear anecdotes between no effect and 10% worse with E10. For most of us, actually having high MPG is not as interesting as spending less money, so if the cost (or distance to) pure gas exceeds 3%, you are not saving money. "And if you drive a typical car more than a mile out of your way for each penny you save on the per-gallon price, it doesn't matter how worthless your time is to you--the gas to get you there and back costs more than you save." - XKCD rollover text (because I always peek) xkcd: Heatmap
Fuel capacity is 10.6 gals. I have not heard of non-ehtanol fuel being available here in California. Some of the engineering-type guys will weigh in on the efficiency issue, I'm sure. I would be suspicious of anything like that info coming from a car salesman. Edit: Yep, while I was looking up the tank capacity to confirm what I already knew, you got your answer on the ethanol issue.
Non-ethanol gas is not available where I live, at least from automotive gas stations. Some marinas carry it. Jimbo's post pretty much answered the OP's questions. Tom
4.40 a gallon for any kind sounds great to me! Lucky I can plug in at work for free, electric is 26 cents a klw here. The US dollar is worth about 35 cents out here, I want to live in America again...............
...many of us wish we could get ethanol-free for better MPG but Toyota does not call for it in the operating manual and many cannot get it due to EPA regs. If you can get it is worth a little cost more but not too much more.
We can get ethanol-free in 87-89-93, all at the same price as other stations, thats all this one station sells! They are quite busy every time I go to it!
I just did a very unscientific comparison of non-ethanol and ethanol fuel. I checked my mileage after a tank of each. Only a very slight increase in MPG using non-ethanol. Not worth the extra price by a long shot. Now, whether it's better for the engine is another matter that I would like to learn about.
All about Gasoline and its additives. Includes the pros and cons of ethanol. http://www.chevronwithtechron.com/products/documents/69083_MotorGas_Tech_Review.pdf Switching back and forth between ethanol and non ethanol blends is not a good thing to do. See chapter 4 "PERFORMANCE ISSUES-Water Tolerance". You can create a water layer in your tank from and by mixing the two together.
I found the fuel efficiency of E85 at least 5 mpg worse than regular gas, so I figure there is no cost savings with E85.
The Prius is not rated for E85, and Toyota warns you to never use more than E10. In theory, E85 will contain 25% less energy than Gasoline. To be economical, it needs to be 25% cheaper than Gasoline.
