MIHHR

E85 needs to cost at least 30% less than normal gas in order to even break even and around here E85 usually costs within a few pennies if not more than normal gas.

ts5p

91octane 2.65
e85 1.86
i cannot use it as i have an 08 hhr ss but it is pretty cheap around here.

MIHHR

Up here, southwest MI, E85 runs right about 2.30 or more. Regular is 2.58 at one of the stations that has E85. Gasbuddy.com doesn't list prices for the E85 however, so I don't know what they are selling it for right now.

My 08 can't run on it either.

sethwas

There is an e85 thread separately, but to answer the questions:

E85 needs to be 'around' 25-30% less than E10 in order for your annual fuel expense to be the same assuming it goes up at the same rate as regular gas (it shouldn't).
Even if you spend more money on E85 then regular gas, you still spent less money than if you had paid a premium for a hybrid, and you use less gas than a hybrid anyway.

So whether your concerns are air quality, or drilling/industry, or using less of a non-renewable commodity, or using less imported goods, or improving farming yields/investment, or just increased market competition (since otherwise gas is a monopoly product) whichever, you can select E85.

IMO, E85 should be marketed as 109 octane and then people will feel less 'bad' about it costing more per year than 'regular' since it's super high test. It's perception.

Seth

P.S. Your '08' can run on it, the fuel controller doesn't know what to do with the E85 and your engine will burn lean as it is injecting what it thinks is regular gas and it needs to inject more for proper combustion. You can get the piggyback controller to adjust the fuel flow for E85 (or any blend from E0-E100 [that's why they call it 'flex' fuel]) and its a plug and play conversion. I did it to my 98 caravan. It costs less than $400 for the kit and takes about 5 minutes to install. No gimmick.