Eric ... you are right ... I regret airing "my least favorite" gas comments. Oh well ... to each their own -- as I commented YPMV. (Your Politics May Vary)

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. What our current government means by "Threat to democracy" is "Gets in the way of US economic progress". For years the US government has been in the business of replacing third world governments (with friendly dictators) over issues as small as pineapple prices. So it would serve to reason that what they mean about venesuela is that, since they won't simply lie down and get run over by the self absorbed run-rampant needs of the american economy, they're enemies of democracy. i.e. didn't bow to US pressure to cooperate unconditionally with advantageous oil policy, therefore they're a threat to democracy.

This kind of "Give me your lunch money or else" mentality being disguised by the Bush administration as "Meeting the needs of the hungry" amounts to nothing more altruistic than "Protecting the bully from not getting two lunches."

 

Hopefully no one was offended, I certainly don't offend that easily, and enjoy hearing the viewpoint of others. I am interested in which gas people buy and why. For some of us, this question has political ramifications, for others it has performance ramifications. I suspect most folk just buy from whatever gas station is most convenient. The good thing is that most of us here are unified in our pursuit of using less gasoline in general.

 

My favorite gas is the cheapest on my daily route
Ususally Quick Trip

 

Do high mpg achievers use ethanol or not? I'm not sure that I notice a difference yet between 87 octane fuel from Mobil with 10% ethanol, and Casey's with no ethanol. I would expect the no ethanol fuel to be better, unless it was of poor quality.

 

You can get very good mileage with ethanol in the fuel, it's just not "ideal." I think that the theoretical loss is ~3% of your fuel economy for every 10% ethanol content by volume of the gasoline (but don't quote me on that). This might mean 48.5mpg on the ethanol blend instead of 50mpg on gasoline, which most people won't even notice. Using fuel with small amounts of ethanol only irritates nuts like me because we know there's a difference even if we can't actually measure it.

 

3% is the empirical average from the EPA. (Also correlated by me in the HAH and Explorer)

Any driver in/around Chicago,Milwaukee, etc has been using E10 gas for years in all grades. Look at their database contributions- perfectly on par with the rest of the nation. But yes, they cheer when they get a chance to fill up with non-ethanol fuel, because they do see a 1-2mpg bump.

WRT premium vs 87, in general the consensus in prior threads is that the best fuel is the lowest recommended by the maker. IF your engine is older or has had some crud in it, THEN a few tanks of E10/premium WILL clean it out, resulting in probably higher MPG afterwards. But then switch back to regular once its cleaned out. "Anti-knock" from higher octane is only applicable in non-fuel injected cars that cannot shift timing.