High gas prices..how about regular?

[Buzzcut]

I'm going to throw a hand grenade into this conversation...

I started mixing E85 into my gas. E85 is 105 octane, and costs $3.00 a gallon when 87 is $3.50 and 93 is $3.70.

I started with 4 gallons of E85, to get about 89 octane. Next tank was 5 gallons, getting me to about 90 octane. I'm going to build up to 7 gallons, which will be a little over 91 octane.

Right now, the tank is about 22% ethanol. At 7 gallons, it will be about 29%.

It is hard to say if there is a hit to mileage. We've had a very hard winter here in Chicago, very cold and snowy, and my mileage has been just awful. Unfortunately, I started mixing when the weather warmed up a bit, and it looks like my mileage improved. I'm sure that it has nothing to do with the ethanol, it's the weather.

I've mixed E85 with gas in my previous car (see my blog The Drunken Swede), so I have some experience with this. We shall see about reliability and durability using increased amounts of ethanol (it was not an issue on an '07 Saab for 15,000 miles of driving with 30% ethanol). I'm prepared to replace whatever needs to be replaced if it breaks.