I haven’t. I’m not entirely sure that I’ve even seen it offered anywhere. I’ve seen E10 (which seems to be becoming the default) and E15 (rarely) but not E85. Out of curiosity, does it smell like regular gasoline?
Disclaimer: I’m in Oklahoma and oil is our thing, not corn.
There is a good reason for that. As of August 2014, there were only 3,354E85 fueling stations in the US - and not all of those are publicly accessible (many are government fueling stations or only accept fleet cards for payment). Consider that there are over 140,000 publicly accessible filling stations in the US and you are looking for a veritable needle in a haystack.
What is supposed to be the advantage of E85?
It gives presidential hopefuls looking to get off to a good start something to promise the voters in Iowa.
No, it smells like some sort of cross between cheap whiskey and hand sanitizer. Which, in effect, it sort of is. The smell also permeates the exhaust, or at least it does in mine.
Other than its intensely debated effect on greehouse gases and other emissions (you want studies that support E-85? Studies that discredit it? Studies that show it doesn’t make much difference one way or another? Take your pick!) E-85 was supposed to come in handy in case there was another massive price hike or interruption in crude oil supplies. Since things are going in the other direction right now, there really isn’t much benefit at all.
I didn’t know until I googled now 
but from reading a few racing web-boards it seems E85 is high-octane (105ish) but significantly cheaper than “race gas” and cools the engine better.
The only station selling it near here is at Logan airport (Boston). If you buy it, reflect that you are getting a huge cash subsidy from the taxpayers. Ethanol made from corn loses more energy than it delivers. But the big corn farmers like it.:smack:
These guys say the octane isn’t quite that high (see page 29):
Even pure ethanol only has an (R+M)/2 octane of about 99.
Owners of some turbocharged cars (I have a WRX, and it’s relatively common in that world) who want to crank up the boost love E85 due to its high octane and cooling effects (cooler/denser charge=more power)…but since the WRX isn’t flex-fuel friendly from the factory, it requires injectors, fuel pumps, and sometimes more fuel system upgrades to run safely.
It’s cheap per gallon, at least here in the midwest, especially compared to race gas, although your MPG will drop, so there’s a tradeoff there.
One issue is that “E85” is not always 85% ethanol, especially in winter blends, where it’s more like 70% ethanol. If your car is tuned to run on E85 and you suddenly get some 70% ethanol, you’ll want to be aware of that to avoid problems. Not an issue on a flex-fuel vehicle, of course, as it can automatically adjust for that.
Side note, IndyCars run twin-turbo V6 engines on E85. The previous engines were naturally aspirated and ran “100% fuel-grade ethanol,” which was about 98% ethanol (it contained a required ~2% of gasoline to denature it).
Here’s an informative series of posts on E85 use in tuned WRXs.
Gas stations around me don’t carry it. I got my van in November. Since I’ve had it I’ll pay attention to E85 prices. They have it at the mass pIke stations but it’s always more expensive than regular, so no good reason to use it.
I occasionally rent cars that take it. I think it’s bad and don’t use it.
Although the whole “does the lower mileage cancel out the per gallon savings” question becomes moot when you’re filling the tank to turn the car in…
E85 is over 60 cents a gallon higher than regular gas in my city. No, I haven’t used it. Not at those prices.
A question for those who have used e85, does it increase the power of the vehicle over gasoline (or e10,e15)?
I’ve seen prices sightly power for e85 in the NE, nothing to offset the drop in mpg. However in the south the price for e85 was significantly cheaper, perhaps $1/gal cheaper when gas was $3.50 which I would believe offset the mpg loss.
That is devilishly brilliant. I’ll have to remember that if I’m ever in a situation where I can do that.
On a forced-induction car tuned for E85, substantially so. It allows the tuner to turn up the boost more without getting “knock” – but that’s not just the fuel making more power, it’s the higher octane allowing a higher boost level to be run safety, which is really “making” the power.
I’m not sure if a standard flex-fuel vehicle will make more power…I guess it depends on exactly how the computer changes things based on sensing E85.