Regular Unleaded phased out in Iowa, Nebraska

Nicholas,

You are lucky to have had the choice where you live. Ethanol has been in the gas here for quite some time now. Like Paradox said, the Prius will do Ok with 10% Ethanol, but the mileage will not be the same. You should expect to see some decrease in MPG.

YMMV

 

Join the club, 10% Ethanol is pretty much the only type of gasoline available in the Northeast. Surprised it took this long to get to "corn country."

 

Totally agree with everyone above. Maryland and Pennsylvania fuels are all 10% ethanol. Sometimes I get lucky when I travel down to Georgia, some stations that I stop at in southern Virginia / Tennessee are 100% gasoline.

The ethanol mixture will slightly affect your gas mileage but won't hurt the Prius.

 

Luckily, we still have NO Ethanol gas, here. It's worth the extra 25 cents extra a gallon, especially in the winter, when condensation occurs due to sweating of metal parts. There is LESS of a potential corrosion problem.

By the way, you're from Winterset, IA. That means you know about Marion Robert Morrison, on of your town's "favorite sons."

 

What I have found that worked best for me was to purchase fuel from "top tier" retailers. When I put the cheap stuff in at the cut rate places, I found the Prius did not perform as well as when I bought the good stuff.

Here is a list of the "top tier retailers".

Top Tier Gasoline

I am running strictly Shell brand 87 Octane with 10% Ethanol. My fuelly in my signature file shows the mileage I am getting. Hopefully this information will help you so you make the upcoming change comfortably.

FWIW, I note quite a few here on PC also like Chevron brand.

Best of luck to you!

 

Just a note about what I've experienced buying my gas from Sam's Club. Its the cheapest gas in my area. Almost all of my tanks have been with gas from them, and I'm averaging 60MPG. YMMV, just saying that I've had good luck with cheap gas.

 

I thought gasoline comes from the same refineries just like vitamins coming from the same factory got different brand/price at packaging, no?

 

All the gas is the same, it is the additives that are added to the various brands that makes the difference.

 

Correct when it arrives at the distributor. From then on, the additives go in. Mid-grade and premium gets 10% ethanol to achieve their octane levels. E85 is required to get 85% ethanol. Any left over ethanol, if available, goes into regular.

Regular can have up to 10% ethanol or down to zero. That's why I buy regular.


If there is a shortage of regular, mid-grade or even premium can be sold as regular, but NOT the reverse.


In times of shortage, you might pay for regular and get mid-grade or premium. E85 is the only gas that can't be sold as regular.


Regular also has the advantage of first in; first out. That means it is the FRESHEST gas. It has very little time in the ground to gather water.

That's why I and others should always buy regular.

 

I CAN get E0 here, I just don't. It is expensive, out of the way, and at real dodgy gas stations. I prefer bright, well lit stations with lots of users, and fast turn around of the fuel supply.

 

Fortunately, for me, that is NOT the case for my local no-ethanol station. It is clean, well lit and has a lot of traffic.

There are those who really appreciate no-ethanol gas. The smart contractors use it in their small engine lawn care equipment, as well as boat owners and ATV sportsmen. A lot of people with high end sports cars us it, too.

 

It would be nice if it was available everywhere (E0), but the powers to be have to mess it up for the little guys.

 

As I stated in my previous post, you are more likely to get less ethanol by buying regular, unless E10 is mandated as the standard for regular.

If it is "illegal" to sell anything less than E10, you're out of luck. In a gasoline availability crisis, you're likely to see a shortage in your area, because the distributor drawing gasoline in your area will take as much gasoline for sale as he or she has ethanol to mix with it. The price at the pump in your area goes up. The gasoline not drawn just goes further downstream in the pipeline.

 

E10 was mandated here in Albuquerque for years during the winter months as a pollution control measure. At least a couple of years ago things changed and the pumps are marked for it year round on nearly all stations.

My understanding is that the pipeline delivers stock gasoline to which all brands add their specific additive packages, and ALSO an ethanol. I think the story is that ethanol would damage the pipelines, so is shipped by truck and added to the blend before station delivery. I doubt that most people who think they are dodging ethanol really are.

 

Ethanol is a solvent. It actually "cleans" the pipeline and "picks up" a lot of residues on the walls of the pipeline, as well as water. That's why it is not sent with gasoline over the pipeline. Also, some purchasers wasn't gasoline with no ethanol in it.

Further, gasoline is a "lubricant" that promotes less friction in the flow of the pipeline.