My '04 Explorer is a flexible fuel vehicle, meaning it can run on E85.
I've been waiting for years for a gas station to stock E85 so I can
try it.  Well, I finally found a station near where I work
(Schaumburg, Il) that has E85, so I tried a couple of tank fulls.

Pro's:
Car ran absolutely great! Its 105 octane. The idle was so smooth you
couldnt tell the engine was running. It also seemed to have a bit more
pep, but that may have been my imagination. Upon first starting up in
the morning, the car exhaust smells like alchohol

Con's
It's still horribly inconvienent to use. The gas station is still out
of the way for me to fill up and they did everything they could to
discourage people from buying it. Only a single pump, with a teeny
weeny little sign on it about 3 inches square proclaiming its E85.  I
had to go in and ask where the pump was. It  was also pre-pay instead
of accepting a charge card.

More Con's
Regular gas was going for $3.19 at the time, E85 was $2.99, so I saved
20 cents a gallon, 6%.  But my gas mileage went from about 18 mpg to
13 mpg on the first E85 fill up and 15 mpg on the second E85 fill up.
So I saved 6% on fuel costs but had a 17 - 28% decrease in fuel
efficiency.  BTW, everything I read said to expect a 5 to 15% decrease
in mpg so I obviously greatly exceeded that.  Not exactly cost
efficient.  Mileage went back up to 18 mpg on the next regular gas
fillup.

I did two tank fulls then went back to regular gas. I couldn't afford
E85.

Illinois does have an E85 rebate program,
http://www.illinoisgreenfleets.org/fuels/index.html,  which will send
you a check for up to $450 if you use E85 for more than half your
fuel, but it seems to me that proving you used it for half your fuel
would be a bit problematic.  So this would help with the cost but with
a corresponding big increase in paperwork hassle.

Summary
Car ran great
Costs too much
Transition between fuels was invisible
Not ready for primetime until the price comes down.

dickm

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