Questions and Answers

Ford Taurus Flex Fuel Lousy MPG Q. Hello, I have the 2005 Ford Taurus. It currently has about 6,500 miles. I have a question about the E85 flex fuel system it has. I get really bad gas mileage from this car, it only gets 16 city and just recently we went on a long road trip and only got 17 mpg highway and I used cruise control. My question to you is, are all E85 flex fuel cars this bad on gas mileage?

Is there any way to disable this flex fuel system? Had I known in advance how bad the gas mileage was on a car with this fuel system I would have never bought the car. Why all the hype on a car with flex fuel that gets rotten gas mileage???

I don't get it. My 1994 Ford F-150 pickup with a 5.0 liter V-8 gets better mileage than the Ford Taurus. I hope you can enlighten me on this. I am truly stumped and I am really considering trading it in next year and taking the loss, which I have never done before on a car that I bought new. I hope you can ease the frustration I am feeling right now.

Thanks in advance,
Hector

A. Fuels with enriched blends Ethanol will get a bit less MPG compared to pure gasoline. Gasoline has 104,000 BTU/gal, E10 has 100,700 BTU/gal, and pure ethanol has 70,300 BTU/gal. Various estimates say vehicles with using the E85 blend will get 10 to 20% lower MPG.

The decrease in liquid volume is the greatest factor directly involving the replacement of MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) with ethanol. MTBE has half as much oxygen content by weight as ethanol, so twice as much volume of MTBE is needed to meet the 2% by-weight requirement. Generally, this translates to about 11.2% by volume of MTBE and 5.8% by volume ethanol. The result is a reduction in miles-per-gallon.

I would suggest bringing your concerns to the attention of your dealers Service Department to check the flex fuel system to be sure everything is within specifications. If that doesn't help matters, a call to Ford Customer Service and filing a complaint will bring Ford directly into the loop and may provide you with a solution.

Keep in mind, also, that as the engine breaks in, the MPG will rise a bit. You may want to read the article Understanding Fuel Economy Ratings to understand how they come up with the MPG estimates.