Mileage

There were three local stations that I could patronize that sold real, non-ethanol gas. Two of them switched over to the corn-stuff in the last couple of weeks. Now I must fill the tank every single time I'm near the one remaining Real-Gas gas station, even if I only need a couple of gallons.

Last week, I pulled into one of the three stations, had my credit card in the machine, had the gas cap unscrewed, and already was putting the nozzle into the tank, when I saw the sticker by the button for 87-octane: "May contain up to 10% ethanol." Argh! What to do; what to do? So I went ahead and pumped the gas. "How much difference could it make?" I thought. After all, I only needed 1/4 tank. So I drove for a week with 3/4 of my gas being real, and 1/4 being corn.

Today I filled up. I've been getting 28 miles to the gallon. Today I computed that I got 25 mpg since my ethanol-laced fill-up. That's a 10% decrease in mileage.

Now, lets' think about this. Ten percent (or less) of my fuel purchase last week was ethanol. That means the corn was only 2-3% of what was in my tank. However, I got 10% worse mileage.

Good grief! If the corn were simple FILLER, my mileage would've been 3% worse. But it was 10% worse. It's like that corn-stuff handicapped my Real Gas.

And they're trying to tell us ethanol is good for the environment? We have to use the same amount of Real Gas (or more) to get to where we're driving. But we get to pay more for it because it's been "thinned down" by the ethanol mixed in. Seems to me that anybody who wants to be green would be running away from ethanol as fast as possible. And so would anybody who's not particularly green, but who prefers to keep as much cash as possible available for expenses more interesting than gasoline.