You came down here and rented a Chevy Asstra? Good choice. The engine is a 1960s GM engine with minor modifications. Drinks like there’s no tomorrow, can’t rev for s***, is noisy and shakes all over, low hp for the displacement. Torquey down low though and relatively reliable.

So you fly 1000s of miles to another country and rent a Chevy. Probably ate at McDonald’s too.

What a way to see the world.

FWIW, I live down here and don’t have as superficial a vision as he does. I mean, I have to deal with this s*** everyday. There are available at Brazilian gas stations:
Premium Gasoine : Higher octane stuff that only a Ferrari can fully appreciate

Additivated (??) or maybe Special Gasoline: Comes with some cleansing chemicals that reportedly keep your engine cleaner.

Common or Regular Gasoline : is just gasoline with no cleaning chemicals.

E100 : 100% sugar cane juice, and as a rule of thumb, you have to multiply gas prices by 70% if the price of ethanol is lower, go for it, you lose in mileage, but the car gets some extra hp, burns cleaner (no sludge issues when using ethanol).

BTW All gasoline in BRazil comes with, by law, 21 to 27% ethanol. This range is used to “control” price fluctuations.

All said, I’d much rather burn dino juice all day long.

I don’t know about Alberta, but in Ontario, at Shell, 87 Octane “may contain up to 10% ethanol” while 89 “may contain up to 5%”. 91 (which I feed my Saab) is explicitly labelled as ethanol-free

Oddly enough I just got a nice “Thanks for buying an Audi Package” from Audi. Free subscription to their magazine. Nice. They do include a pamphlet that says…”Currently, many retailers provide fuel with lower-quality additive packages..(continues)..these lower level additives can have a negative impact on engine performance and vehicle responsivness.” Pretty sure they are mostly talking about cleaning additives and how they have been reduced, leading to more engine buildup of engine deposits. You have to reduce the cleaning additives to make room for ethanol.

Anyways, they recommend some retailers that meet TOP TIER standards for gasoline quality and additives. For us Canucks, only Shell and Petro-Canada are on the list. No E10 providers on here, for ones in Calgary anyways

Morons, the lot of ‘em.

I’d love this to see how the STi behaves. It has never seen 100% gasoline.

It is possible that forced-induction cars would benefit from ethanol; Saab has done some interesting work, wringing impressive performance gains from E100 vis a vis normal gasoline.

Again, though, this is a special state of tune, and a select set of circumstances. And using a net-negative source of energy is still a bad idea. And this engine, like everything GM has done with Saab in the past decade or so, will never see the light of day.

I noted this morning when I filled up that Diesel was the same price as regular unleaded. Diesel’s price has been flat as a pancake all winter long but gas prices around here have been down and up.

–chuck

OK I’ll put it this way; when you have a big screen sitting right in your field of vision giving you constant efficiency reports and you suddenly see a 33-34% drop-off, it kind of slaps one right up the head from both directions.

Not to mention the fact that I had just gotten spoiled with gas prices coming back down from $4.19 a gallon, only to see my efficiency evaporate as ethanol apparently does when going through an Atkinson cycle engine…. or Otto cycle, to a lesser extent…

My solution is this; HEY GOVERNMENT? DON’T DEMAND THE MIS-FUELLING OF VEHICLES! Wow, that’s simple, isn’t it?

GASOLINE cars and GASOLINE-electric hybrids are called that for a reason, eh?

FLEX FUEL vehicles capable of using E85, are – just that.

Hey B.O. and gang? If you have such a hard-on for your ADM friends getting wealthy at our expense, why not simply demand that cars are EITHER produced new as Flex-Fuel OR Diesel OR Gasoline-electric hybrids OR electrics?

You should look into it if you live anywhere near a rural area.

Really? That sucks. I’m in Alberta and we only have Husky and Mohawk selling E10 I’m pretty sure. Esso, Shell and Petro-Canada are all E10 free.

Thanks for your persistence.

I wonder if there is a list of stations selling pure gasoline by locale?

A commenter on a non-auto blog alluded to gasoline terroirs like it was French wine. With seasonal and regional blends and now maybe overlaid with corn juice at various levels, there will be more variations of ersatz gas than there are of French wine and cheese combined.

Some provinces in Canada are pushing more E10. Here in Saskatchewan, most (maybe all?) stations have gone to E10 for regular fuel… but the premium fuel that my car likes is still Ethanol-free, especially if I stick to places like Petro-Canada or Shell.

So you’re saying (all) Petro Canada stations have regular non-spiked gasoline? All stations? What about other brands?

Thanks!

100% ethanol = more trips to gas stations = more female gas attendants dressed in mechanic’s uniforms w/ shorts = better fuel choice.

Worst performance, but not by far, is with “Gasolina Comum” around Belo Horizonte for some reason. This is their regular gas, formulation unknown… guaranteed to contain at least 25% water if you are not careful with the “posto” you choose. GM’s 2.0L seems happier with this stuff.

Best road performance, but not by much, is after 2 tanks of 100% alcohol.

‘Gasolina Especial’… yeah, the price you pay for that stuff tinted green… Only worth the smiles the attendants gives you when you ask “faz ficar especial,é?” to their shy answer “não, faz não…”. That one remains a mystery. Probably used mostly by the masses of BMW/Porsche/Audi in Sao Paulo when their helicopters are out of commission.

For city driving, 100% regular gasoline, whatever that is, is clearly the way to go. For the 600km between Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte or Rio, 100% Ethanol on the tank on the road is way better for passing on the “Serra”, GM’s ECU does seem to advance timing curve all the way to the next general elections when fed pure rum.

I would never, ever, ever even think to put that garbage in my Audi Bi-Turbo. I cry at even the thought. I won’t even gas up at “Fast-Gas” or any of those lower-quality gas stations. Thank god Petro-Canada is immune to the American corn-lobby.

I don’t remember it being dumped on too badly at the time but since then the anti ethanol stream has widened.

I’m not saying that anti ethanol tirades aren’t warranted but I’d like to know that we are getting a technically accurate stream of information not just every little bit of data that floats by no matter how inaccurate.

You may recall my prior commentaries on TTAC – using E10 over the past few months (because I did not know about the last station standing with real gasoline) netted me 33 mpg on average in the Prius, rather than my 44 mpg “typical” winter average.

That means I was using 33.3% more fuel.

If you think I’m dense, don’t know what I’m talking about, think it’s “impossible” etc., please know these salient facts.

I’ve had two 2nd gen Prius cars; 71,000 miles combined between them over 4 1/2 years; I measure and compare the MPG on the computer; I have been measuring MPG since 1973 and have tested E10 in virtually everything I’ve driven since 1979 (back when it was called “gasohol”) and have found a 6% to 34% reduction in virtually every car I’ve driven/tested it in.

Ethanol is the biggest boondogle we’ve ever seen for automobiles, bar none. Yes, I AM saying that the use of ethanol is actually increasing oil imports rather than decreasing them (especially when you consider that ethanol cannot be put into oil pipelines and must be trucked – using diesel fuel).

Needless to say, both B.O. and G.M. are pro-ethanol.

E20 and E30, if forced into use, will void all new car warrantees except for E85 capable flex-fuel vehicles.

Think on THAT for a moment.

As soon as the last station no longer sells pure gasoline where I live, the Prius is going up for sale.

Now, as to the benefits listed in the last paragraph, I’m not going to TRY to touch that garbage. Like I said, I’m no fan of ethanol, but if we are going to use it, let’s at least do it properly.

Ethanol is a scam to continue propping up the failed US agricultural industry that today grows more lobbyists than it does useful crops.

“Wehicles will be involved in the test program which will last for a period of 15 months.”

Chekov?!?!