[Wintermute]

I'm an Iowa Native, E85 is offered all over the state.

I started using E85 from my first fuel fill up, and it's been my preferred choice ever since. When I go on road trips, and E-85 is not available, I don't have any problem filling up with E10 or even regular, but I always switch back to E-85 when I get back to Iowa.

My '10 has 64,000 miles on it now. I would say 95% of those miles have been on E-85 Gas. The only time I might switch back to E-10 is if the "price spread" between E-10 and E-85 drops down under 15%. Typically, that doesn't happen much here in Iowa, and I have found that 15% is pretty much the break even point for value.

What I like about E-85:

#1 - It's home grown, and helps Iowa's farmers instead of the helping foreign countries fund their own agenda's. I like to think I am helping save some American lives in the process too.

#2 - I find it improves throttle responsiveness when starting from stop. I think acceleration is smoother.

#3 - I like the value - Right now E-85 in Iowa is 25% cheaper than E-10, and that spread is increasing as we roll into spring. Sure, I am filling up more often, but it's the difference between a $20 fill up and a $30 fill up at the station.

What I don't like:

In winter, if the truck has been outside in sub-zero temperatures for several hours, start-up may occasionally take a second rev to start. Once the engine does start, it never sputters. It might do the same thing with regular gas, but I've never had a problem with the truck not starting, even at -20F, -30/windchills. This may not hold true for other vehicles (I'm looking at you, Dodge/Pentastar).

 

[Wintermute]

E85 is available at a few stations here in Springfield, MO.
It's between 50-75 cents cheaper than 87 octane.

E85 was mostly brought out to be the "greener" fuel type, since it's better for the environment, and believe it or not, there are a ton of people that buy it just for that reason.
As stated above, it is also favored by the forced induction crowd.

In a study that was done a few years ago with gas vs E85 in a Flex-Fuel Chevrolet Tahoe, the same trip for both fuels, E85 ended up being around 25% less efficient mpg wise.

You will definitely lose MPG when using E85, especially in with Engines with compression ratio's under 10.5. Buick actually had a Turbo I4 back in 2012 that was E85 approved. They only made it for one year though, but from I have heard that those who tried E85 in it were shocked to find they had little to no degradation in Fuel Economy.

If an engine was designed with 13.0+ Engine compression, E85 would really shine. But gas is still king, and unless they make dedicated E85 Engines, we will never see it's full potential.