Don't be so quick to condemn. My wife's Odyssey gets no better mileage in town (where99% of her driving is)than my Dodge truck with a Hemi, both right around 14 mpg. She can get 25 mpg on the highway but I can still get nearly 20 mpg (4 cyl. cut-off while cruising).

I think the market will dictate what people drive, similar to what it has done in Europe. Of greater concern to me is the fact that there are now so few oil companies controlling everything, thereby reducing competition. Besides that, you couldn't convince me if you tried that there is not some sort of collusion happening here. [:@]

 

Haha, I was used to my my '06 sebring filling up for about about 25 bucks and lasting me two weeks between home school and work, now that I've upgraded to my '65 mustang it's about 30 bucks to fill her up and it'll last me about 3 or 4 days. It doesn't bother me one bit either.

 

Last year about this time I was filling up my Honda Civic GX (compressed natural gas) for about $9.00 at $1.40 per "equivalent gallon". At zero emissions, I was doing my part to offset the gaseous fumes coming out of the Mustang also.

 

i have tired the e85 in my truck for a couple tanks only thing i found i didnt like is in cold weather its harder to start it is cheaper a gallon but you get less mpg out of it .theres no such thing as zero emissions even a light blub gives them off same way with a battery charging. and speaking of europe 62% of all vehicles sold are diesel and small. i believe we have a better chance to use more diesel engines then run e85 theres people that make there own diesel out of used cooking oil for under a buck a gallon if you get the oil free

 

Just wait untill China starts driving.The oil issimply running out, theres only so much. And yes, the oil companys are taking advantage of this. (RECORD PROFITS). These companys are simply too powerful and controlmany of our "DO NOTHING" Congressmen and Senators. Inever hear of them giving any of their record profits for a good cause. A 40 million bonus for a CEO, what a joke. If E-85 extends our limited supply of oil and buys time to develop other sources of energy, thats good. I just hopethe BIG OILdon't stay in control. And yes, we own one of those 50-60 MPG hybrids and love it.

 

I blame OPEC for the high prices. I believe there's still plenty of oil too. OPEC is just feeding everyone garbage, not saying that alternative fuel types shouldn't be developed and what not, just OPEC is gettin everyone hyped so they can make more money per barrel.

 

If it is entirely OPEC, why do the prices seem to rise immediately with increases in the price of crude, whereas it takes forever for prices to drop at the pump when crude drops?
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Light crude is cheaper at this moment than last year yet gasoline prices are higher.[sm=lame.gif]

 

Ethanol only makes sense if they can produce it using significantly less energy than you get out of it. Also, ethanol does not yield the same level of energy as gasoline, though it does have a higher octane number. What I don't understand is why the price of gasoline shot up in California when we went to summer blend (10% ethanol) versus the "straight" gasoline that we are allowed to use in the winter. Since ethanol is around 120 octane, you could produce 87 octane gas using 10% ethanol and 83 octane gasoline or produce premium, 91 octane gas, using 88 octane gas and 10% ethanol. Is ethanol that much more expensive than gasoline that the cost of the ethanol offsets the reduced refining costs of producing 83 octane gasoline versus 87 octane? Or, is it possible that the refineries, wholesalers, and evenretailers (gas stations)are using this as an excuse to increase their profits as well?

Also, how many acres of land would it require to meet this countries fuel demands through ethanol? I'm betting more than we currently have under cultivation for food and ethanol production put together.

 

Im pretty sure that it is OPEC. All those countries over seas get together and decide what price to charge per barrel and are making more money than they know what to do with. I dont know if anybody noticed but when gas prices were averageing around 3.00 a gallon last summer there was ALOT of talk of alternative fuels and at 3.00 A GALLON e85 can compete with regular gasoline. All the sudden fuel prices dropped down to around 2.00 a gallon. OPEC knows that at 3.00 a gallon e85 can compete with them so they are going to keep thier prices right under that amount just so they can sqeeze the life out of alternatice fuels

 

To get this thread back on topic... has anyone tried to convert their classic Mustang to run on ethanol? Could this be an alternative to the high fuel prices that we are facing?