I bought a new car (the "I wanna be like Gugs" thread)...

[dorian gray]

We have E85 here. It's less efficient. I can only imagine a 50% blend would be significantly worse

 

[einride]

how's the mileage?
Maybe this was discussed somewhere earlier but I've forgotten, but I've heard pretty much only bad things about this (the lower price is eaten by higher consumption)

this used to be the case for me in 2011, it was marginally or not cheaper to run on e85

NOW, that e85 is around 9,50 and 95 is around 15,00, it is EASILY cheaper. maybe a 10-20% increase in fuel consumption. a 50/50 blend means i pay about 12.25 a liter and even if it drinks 10% more, well, you do the math

We have E85 here. It's less efficient. I can only imagine a 50% blend would be significantly worse

why would a blend be worse?

my car happens to have a particularly flexible injection system (bosch mono-jetronic) which has an automatic fuel pressure adjustment system with a larger range of automatic adjustment than most, which makes it possible for me to run on 50-75% E85 with no modification to the car. if i add a $0.30 washer somewhere in the injection system to raise the baseline injection pressure somewhat (to compensate for the lower energy density of e85) i can run off pure e85. going to do this modification at some point, it's supposedly easy as pie

most other cars require a more involved conversion, except the few cars that have mono-jetronic: old audi/vw with the 66 kw 1,8 engine, certain models of citroën bx, etc

anyway

if you're poor i recommend e85 as of the year of our lord 2012

 

[dorian gray]

I may have misunderstood. E85 means that up to 15% of the blend is ethanol. You said something about 50% so I thought maybe you have access to a blend that has up to 50% ethanol, thus making it even more inefficient than E85.

 

[einride]

no i mean i literally use half unleaded gasoline (which in sweden, in summer, is 10% ethanol) and half e85 (which is 15% gasoline and 85% ethanol)

add em up and it's almost exactly 50/50 pure gasoline/pure ethanol. close enough, anyway.

E85 means that up to 15% of the blend is ethanol

lol nooope

it means 85% of the blend is ethanol

otherwise that would be stupid as hell

 

[dorian gray]

im still asleep

 

[dorian gray]

@ lurch (and whoever): yesterday I was bored and googled "fastest car for under $20k" and an insideline.com article came up. One of the cars they mentioned was the M3 which led me to this place in Cinci. The prices on the E30 models are quite interesting.

 

[MFJ]

just saying, i know a few people with Jetta TDIs and they all love them.

going to Saab this morning, trying to figure out the vibrations I get while braking and sometimes accelerating. Rotors/Calipers/etc were all brand new about 8,000mi ago so it can't be those. hoping its a simple alignment/balance thing and not some heinous suspension issue. everything underneath was checked out around the same time the brakes were done, so it should all be straight and true. but you never know...

 

[dorian gray]

Just drive harder/faster to teach it a lesson

 

[MFJ]

Just drive harder/faster to teach it a lesson

hahaha i've tried that since it started, no success. wish me luck. it doesn't matter either way... if they tell me, "you need to have [x] replaced", I will say, "Okay thanks. I'll call you whenever I have the money..." and then do so in approximately 8 months.

 

[dorian gray]

 

[lurch70]

@ lurch (and whoever): yesterday I was bored and googled "fastest car for under $20k" and an insideline.com article came up. One of the cars they mentioned was the M3 which led me to this place in Cinci. The prices on the E30 models are quite interesting.

you gotta be bananas to drop that kind of loot on an old M3 ... not sure how it is in your area but around here all the backward cap Joeys seem to abuse them to no end.

 

[dorian gray]

Yeah, I don't understand $40k for a 20 year old BMW. I realize the E30 are pretty rare and those are probably the best examples in the country but FORTY GRAND? You can buy two Corvettes for that much, one to run circles around an M3 and the other for spare parts

 

[lurch70]

hahhah ... this man makes total sense

http://jalopnik.com/5915415/crazy-man-smashes-chevy-into-gm-headquarters

 

[MFJ]

Jesus Christ. Saab closed two weeks after I signed the title.. Wish I had waited and heard the news. Sitting at the Saab place now and these guys are a fucking mess! This place used to be top 5 in the USA and some salesmen are basically offering to suck this guy's dick so he will buy a used 5-series wagon. What did I get myself into?

 

[lurch70]

so this dealer is just trying to dump old inventory before he shuts down?

 

[MFJ]

I guess so. Shady as hell... Got 4 new rotors here about 18 months ago and they just told me they are fucked, $500 to get them right. Time to call an indie shop... If this is actually the issue then it should cost way less to have them shaved down. Well, good to know I guess. Just a weird number to give me...

 

[dorian gray]

ugh. I hate cars.

 

[NAD]

So I'm averaging 7000 miles a year driving now, and as such am considering selling the Mazdaspeed and getting a giant 4WD V8 pickup for roadtrips and camping and stuff. Why? Because I'm god damn American.

 

[dorian gray]

Are you being sarcastic or serious?

 

[dorian gray]

cuz I thought about you when I found this. The more I look at sporty/fast cars, the more pointless they seem.