Gas prices here in pa are $3.85 and zero ethanol is $4.13. Is it worth it? I just started running it in both prius
In theory, E10 has 3% less energy than E0. In practice, a given car owner finds between 0 and 10% less MPG.* Once you know the difference for your car, you can do the math, but at your prices, You will need a 7.3% increase in MPG to make E0 cheaper *If you value your labor, you will be spending time filling up 0% to 10% more often as well.
I've driven over 250,000 miles with 4 generations of Prius over the past 12 years using nothing but E10. Never has there been any desire to use pure gas instead. Of course, our ethanol is local and lots of research is local too. So, it's not as much of political issue in Minnesota as it has been with other locations. Heck, E85 was big here back in the mid-90's. In fact, 100% of all the Ford Rangers (built just down the road from me) were FFV. There's also an upcoming mandate here increasing regular "gas" to E15.
It's hard to realize any real positive difference in the cars ability to run better, i would say I'm on my way to hypermiller status always trying to reach peak mpg but I will say it helps to maintain MPG over 50 mpg combined. Overall I think it's a good idea to run a tank every so often cause you never know at random if your running closer to 15% than 10 with regular gasoline. I've only had this prius for 2 months. It has 56k miles. I've done a grill block, clean throttle body, Mobil 1 5/20 oil, air filter, transaxle fluid and mich energy saver tires.. 51 mpg over 550 miles with an average tempature of 28 degrees. So it's rather early.
In Florida, non-ethanol is running about .55 to .60 more per gallon. A small test this week revealed not that much difference in mpg. The same as E10 to slightly worst over 150 miles. If you are concerned about emissions stay with E10 and test different brands. Somewhere in this forum a member mentioned getting better results with BP regular. I am currently testing BP and over the past 50 miles noticed an increase to 53 mpg from 52.2. More accurate results after a week of driving.
I think you'll be amazed at how much better your mileage gets when the warm weather's back. I certainly wouldn't pay that much extra for zero ethanol.
I recently tried ethanol free, and didn't see much difference in MPG either, at least not enough to warrant the price increase. I also tried the ethanol free fuel in the lawn gear. I never had problems with water condensation in the tanks using E10, but now I do. So I still have to completely drain the tanks after use, which I was doing with the E10.
