You and frosty do realize people do not go through the trouble to run E85 because it's a little cheaper right? It makes a pretty significant power increase it's not about saving money. There are 100's, probably 1000's of people running E85 in cars that weren't built to run it with no problems.

 

^^^^ e85 for more powa

 

Its a misnomer that unfortunately manufacturers puppet for the oil lobby/industry that want to continue to monopolize the fossil fuel industry. The real fact is that just about every car within the last 15-20 years with the implementation of E10 as the new standard at the pump is manufactured to also accept E85 perfectly with the addition of a re tune, in fact many of the American cars on the road within the last 10 years have an ecu that can simply be re flashed to switch to a pre determined/manufactured e85 tune even though it doesn't have the little flex fuel/leaf emblem. But unless you have a indy shop that is privy to this and has hacked the ecu, you would never know it because the oil industry lobbied against access, but its still manufactured in, which i gather is in case there is a catastrophic fuel shortage etc. So point being, from a materials aspect running e85 is just fine as long as you tune for it.

And as a tip/side note, there are more players involved in the auto industry which determine what we see to mass market, its not always about the manufactures, more times then not its about politics and maximizing profits for someone else with more influence. The fossil fuel technology was obsolete 20 years after it was primarily employed, but 90 some years later its still the default substance for mass fuel consumption. The combustion engine loves corn fuel MUCH better then fossil, it runs cooler, lubricates and is much cheaper to produce, not to mention the ecological benefits. The only reason why not every vehicle on the planet hasn't been using it for the last 50 years is because the guys that produce the competing fossil fuel, are also the guys that write/lobby the rules to access. Some of this grip has been very slowly starting to relax which is why we are starting to see some alternative fuel access to some states at the pump, but its not nearly at the rate it could/should be yet.

One more thing, dont knock everything you read on the internet, its not all BS and sometimes its the only access to free and true information. But use at your discretion.

 

You made many good points but the ecological benefits are debatable when you look at the total cost, that is everything, that goes to produce that gallon of alcohol. Water, pesticides, herbicides, fuel for planting and harvesting, GMO issues, etc. It is similar to the environmental cost of the Prius is actually higher than a fossil car due to the impact the battery manufacturing makes. Another cost is social; an effect unintended consequences. (I hope so). The cost of corn meal, a basic ingredient for many in our hemisphere has gone up tremendously due to ethanal production creating a real hardship for many.