Comment: Re:The Great Ethanol Scam (Score 1) 556
I can confirm this. I bought a secondhand 2004 Commodore VZ a few years ago and tested it on both regular petrol and e85. The economy was absolutely horrible on e85 - 15% to 20% worse with only a 1.5% price saving.
The real surprise was when the engine started running rough and fuel economy dropped a further 30%.It turned out that the deposits on the fuel lines (aka varnish) had been partially dissolved and flakes and chunks had started breaking loose, blocking several injectors. That wouldn't have been too bad, but it took some time to track down the actual fault(electrical? manifold? ECU? plugs? coils?) and a couple of the injectors were blocked open, with fuel making it's way through the engine unburnt and destroying the oxygen sensors. In the end it cost over $2k to find and fix it, including labor and parts.
With the tiny price differential between regular unleaded and e85 and my rate of use, it would take roughly 1000 years to make back the cost saving of the fuel for the repair bill, and I'd still have worse economy and no horsepower.