Gasoline prices.....

??????

Fred J said:
Paul:
Is it the 10% Ethanol Blend? We're finding some of that here in SA, that's cheaper, but doesn't give as good a mileage. Walmart/Sams & Costco are starting to sell it, but you never know from one day to the next, what you are pumping.
Click to expand...


No idea Fred but I'll check.....almost all the quicky marts have the same price to be competetive & I just pump the ole 87 octane from whichever is easiest to get in and out of. Car seems to run the same regardless??

Hunting season is here so I'll be driving a bit more & test the mileage as well. Not sure my poor ole 99 Tahoe is a good candidate but getting ready to put on new upper and lower ball joints and rubber/alignment tomorrow.

Hate spending $$$$ on her but not quite ready to start making payments again.

pf
<><
 
No Differance

Paul.
I didn't notice any differance in performance, only the milage on long trips. Sometimes as much a 3 MPG lower with the 10% Blends. I'll check the price at Walmart this morning and see if they lowered their prices when the dispense the 10% Blend.
 
$1.86 today for 87 octane at BJ's Wholesale Club in Dale City, VA.
All gas in this area contains a max of 10% ethanol
 
Still the same

Walmart by me, is $1.869, while another one 5 miles away, is $1.919. They just say it could and couldn't be a blend. Go figure.
 
????

I don't know Fred....we filled up on the way out to the ranch this am and there was no mention of any blend??

I'm just assuming it would be our logistics of the refineries and intercoastal waterway that helps keep the RGV a little lower than the rest of the state but I've given up trying to figure out how the prices work.

My BIL used to work for Valeo & he said it was all supply & demand based on crude prices 50% / Taxes 33 % and the rest was split up profit for refineries / transportation and the quicky marts which get squat??

pf
<><
 
Good point

The word Profit comes up alot by the Media, but no mention is ever made about how much these Oil Companies pay in Taxes. Make you stop and wonder, who's side is the Media on.
 
I paid 2.189 today

in Skowhegan, Maine. As I traveled East the price kept going up to $2.27 and then down again . It is 2.229 in the next town to me tonight. Glad I filled up @ 2.189
 
Miles per gallon...

have dropped when using the ethanol blend. As stated on another post, about 3 miles per gallon is right by my checking. As an aside, the 87 grade (and others) would not still seem to me to be accurate since up to 10% is not now gasoline. I would think the numbers would have to be downgraded.

Who knows? I did move to the mid-grade and miles per gallon were a bit better but I couldn't tell that it was worth the difference in price.
 
E85 is 70-85% denatured ethanol mixed with standard gaoline. E85 octane ratings run in the 100-105 range. Because ethanol has a lower number of heat units per mass (called the stoichiometric fuel ratio), the engine has to physically use more fuel to achieve similar power levels as when burning 'normal' gasoline. This usually leads to lower fuel mileage. Your vehicle needs to be E85 ie: Flex Fuel compatible to use it. E85 is an efficient conductor of electricity and the in tank fuel pumps are grounded for example. Fuel lines and fittings also can't have any magnesium in them, etc, etc.

In my vehicle, the in-town fuel mileage is identical when using E85 and regular gas. On the highway, my fuel mileage with E85 is from 2-3 mpg less than with regular fuel. E85 prices locally usually run 70 cents per gallon less that gasoline, so financially it's a better deal for me for in town driving. Living in a major corn producing state and having six ethanol plants within 100 miles of me, the transportation costs are low and the price reflects that as well.

While I use E85 and enjoy it's cost savings...I don't see it as being a long term viable solution or a product that can compete on the open market. Current subsidies amount to a bit over 50 cents per gallon to the producer.

For what it's worth.
 
Bourbon 51% Corn

Al Nyhus said:
...Living in a major corn producing state and having six ethanol plants within 100 miles of me...
Click to expand...
I hope all that corn being consumed by E85 doesn't mess with the price of Bourbon.
 
Al

Car Craft Magazine did a pretty good test with a Flex Fuel Tahoe. (my Wife has one).

They made a run from LA to Chicago, burning Regular Unleaded for the trip there. They kept very accurate mileage records and cost.

In Chicago, they filled up with E85, and made the return trip, keeping the same meticulous records.

Up front, the E-85 cost a little less. But, it also burned a tad more. At the end of the test, they stated that the E-85 gave just a few dollars in savings for the long trip.

I was comming back from Orange Texas today on I-10, and passed one of those big Pilot Truck Stops that had unleaded regular at 1.68 a gallon. It is hard to justify filling up with E-85 when real gas cost that.

But of course, in a few months, it might be up to darned near $4 a gallon again.

I don't know if it is true, but a man I know who works for the Ethyl Corporation told me that the only reason they even put the 15 percent gasoline in the E-85 is so idiots won't drink it.........jackie
 
Last edited:
Al Nyhus said:
E85 is 70-85% denatured ethanol mixed with standard gaoline. E85 octane ratings run in the 100-105 range. Because ethanol has a lower number of heat units per mass (called the stoichiometric fuel ratio), the engine has to physically use more fuel to achieve similar power levels as when burning 'normal' gasoline. This usually leads to lower fuel mileage. Your vehicle needs to be E85 ie: Flex Fuel compatible to use it. E85 is an efficient conductor of electricity and the in tank fuel pumps are grounded for example. Fuel lines and fittings also can't have any magnesium in them, etc, etc.

In my vehicle, the in-town fuel mileage is identical when using E85 and regular gas. On the highway, my fuel mileage with E85 is from 2-3 mpg less than with regular fuel. E85 prices locally usually run 70 cents per gallon less that gasoline, so financially it's a better deal for me for in town driving. Living in a major corn producing state and having six ethanol plants within 100 miles of me, the transportation costs are low and the price reflects that as well.

While I use E85 and enjoy it's cost savings...I don't see it as being a long term viable solution or a product that can compete on the open market. Current subsidies amount to a bit over 50 cents per gallon to the producer.

For what it's worth.
Click to expand...


Traitor!

Backstabber!!

Dude, how can you say stuff like that?? Ethanol not viable? C'MON, when I drove through NoDak a couple times last summer folks was PRAISING the socialist Corn God :rolleyes:

And I was hating the fact that as soon as I hit the ethanol states my tanks just lasted 20% less miles.........my big ol' '03 vintage motor ain't flex-compatible....

ahh well. At least it still runs on the 10% ethanol stuff. Some of my small engines have given up the ghost. Two leaf blowers, a weedeater and my Honda pressure washer, the kid's Briggs and Stratton go-cart hasn't run since this area switched to 10% ethanol.

I hear that your area is gearing up to spiderweb the Bakken, you'se guys'll be ROLLING in fuel eh?? I've got friends and relly's moving there for work.

al
 
jackie schmidt said:
Car Craft Magazine did a pretty good test with a Flex Fuel Tahoe. (my Wife has one).

They made a run from LA to Chicago, burning Regular Unleaded for the trip there. They kept very accurate mileage records and cost.

In Chicago, they filled up with E85, and made the return trip, keeping the same meticulous records.

Up front, the E-85 cost a little less. But, it also burned a tad more. At the end of the test, they stated that the E-85 gave just a few dollars in savings for the long trip.

I was comming back from Orange Texas today on I-10, and passed one of those big Pilot Truck Stops that had unleaded regular at 1.68 a gallon. It is hard to justify filling up with E-85 when real gas cost that.
Click to expand...

I saw that test, Jackie. GM has really closed the m.p.g. gap in their Flex Fuel vehicles the last 2 years. Our per gallon cost here in S.E. South Dakota reflect the high transport costs of getting regular fuel from the refineries to us. We're at 2.09 gal. here for unleaded as of today. Construction of a new refinery at Elk Point, S.D. (45 miles South of me) is in the initial stages. It will be the first new gasoline refinery built in this country in 30 years and will utilize technology only dreamed of three decades ago.


jackie schmidt said:
I don't know if it is true, but a man I know who works for the Ethyl Corporation told me that the only reason they even put the 15 percent gasoline in the E-85 is so idiots won't drink it.........jackie
Click to expand...

Jackie...that's absolutely true. :eek: They might get into a bit of trouble with the benzene, though. ;) But the 'natives' out here have been straining Sterno through bread for years and drinking the 'purified' results. Maybe they've succeeded in genetically altering their bodies to become more tolerant of these pesky chemical additives? :confused:

Errsatz genetic Injuneering? ;) Whoulda thunk it, man......:D Might be a pun, there. ;)

Some years back when I worked in our Hospitals Interventional Radiology dept., we had a patient that had a huge tumor on his rt. kidney. We were asked by the surgeon to do sclerotherapy on the kidney before he had surgery, to decrease the potential blood loss from such a highly vascular lesion. The sclerotherapy was to cateterize his renal artery and inject Medical Grade Absolute Alcohol directly into the kidney. Medical Absolute Alcohol is 200 proof. Since the injection was directly into the arterial circulation, you can imagine it's effects. :eek:

I went up the next morning to resuture and manage one of the drainage tubes we'd placed and asked him how he was feeling. He told me he'd felt great leaving the Interventional suite but when he woke up several hours later he hadn't had a headache like that since he'd spent 10 days in Saigon on leave in 1969. :D
 
Last edited:
alinwa said:
Traitor!

Backstabber!!

Dude, how can you say stuff like that?? Ethanol not viable? C'MON, when I drove through NoDak a couple times last summer folks was PRAISING the socialist Corn God :rolleyes:

And I was hating the fact that as soon as I hit the ethanol states my tanks just lasted 20% less miles.........my big ol' '03 vintage motor ain't flex-compatible....

I hear that your area is gearing up to spiderweb the Bakken, you'se guys'll be ROLLING in fuel eh?? I've got friends and relly's moving there for work.

al
Click to expand...

Bingo! :)

While I'd certainly rather subsidise farmers than oil sheiks, ultimately the product has to be able to stand on it's own two feet in the marketplace. And E85 simply can't do that. John McCain incurred the wrath of the Corn Swami Army (hey...I like that:D) by advocating the end of ethanol subsidies. But he was right.

The effects of the Ethanol subsidies extend well beyond the farmers and the investors in the Ethanol plants making money. The high price of corn (driven by the Ethanol Swami's) has also driven up the price of food. And now that every patch of bad land out there can be profitable by taking whatever meager corn crop it will produce...CRP acres are dropping off the CRP enrollments by the thousands of acres.

Not a popular stance to take here in Corn Country as you can well imagine.
 
Wow!

AVanGorder said:
$1.86 today for 87 octane at BJ's Wholesale Club in Dale City, VA.
All gas in this area contains a max of 10% ethanol
Click to expand...

Hey Adrian,

Send some of that cheap gas up to Loudoun and Fairfax! Closest station to me JUST dropped their price to $2.25!!! :eek:

At least it should be under $2 at the stations near Fairfax on Sunday! Nothing like driving 20 miles and paying more than $0.20 less per gallon!

Last Sunday the 4 stations nearest my house, all the same "brand" and all within 4 miles, each had a different price ranging from $2.27 to $2.47...

Tom
 
N.J. Gas Prices

I live on Staten Island, but a stones throw from New Jersey. The price for gas in Perth Amboy this tues 11-11-08 was $1.97 a gallon. Yes the toll over the bridge is $4.00 but I also visit the grand kids

Joe T.:D
 
saw 1.94 here in southern denver metro area....will it hold thru thanksgiving week ??


mike in co
 
It was under 2.00 in the Northern area of Utah this morning-1.9something....

-MP
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top