E-85 Not worth the effort!!

[SvilleKid]

So.....

My wife's vehicle is a 2008 F150 Supercrew 4x4 Kings Ranch. Nice ride. And, with her driving (as opposed to my lead foot), she usually gets 18 to 18.5 mpg on the interstate (with the 5.4 Liter V8!). The truck is a flex-fuel, capable of running E85 fuel. She hasn't run it in the past because it's not available locally. She ran across a station in Knoxville (Pilot) that sells it, at a price that was about $0.50 cheaper per gallon. That was about 12% cheaper than regular gas. So, on the way home last week, we filled it up for noticeably less than usual. Great!!!

Or, so we thought. Never having used it before, I assumed that E-85 was a fairly efficient fuel. I guess I get what I deserve for making an assumption!!!! With a full tank of E-85, we headed back to B'ham. Imagine my surprise when I look down at the mpg read-out, and notice that the normal 18.2 mpg reading NOW reads 14.3 mpg!! That's better than 22% WORSE gas mileage for a savings of less than 12%!!!!

That's NOT what I expected!!!! It's cheaper mile for mile to run regular gasoline than E85. Guess I should have done some homework first! Live and learn!