I live in California, have a Subaru BRZ, and for a while I had a Flex Fuel "kit" installed onto my fuel line/ECU, along with a specialized tune.
At least for that platform the cost depends on how you want to run E85. For me it was roughly $2000 or a bit more for: the tune itself (on a dyno, there are some canned tunes that are cheaper but not necessarily as reliable), the flex fuel kit, and the license for the tuning platform.
In the end, the mileage was worse. I think on pump 91 I can average 26mpg with a good mix of highway/city driving, less if purely city.
With E85 I was lucky to get 16-18mpg. And I've heard it's worse for cars with more power (BRZ's are relatively underpowered, about 185hp at the wheels).
Price-wise, E85 was cheaper, sometimes a difference of $1 to $1.50 less than pump 91 (required octane for my car).
I guess it depends on what the goal is, because for some cars it'll mean filling up a lot more often; I'd be curious if the delta in emissions between pump 87/91 and E85 is substantial enough for the additional fill-ups to be worthwhile.
I live in California, have a Subaru BRZ, and for a while I had a Flex Fuel "kit" installed onto my fuel line/ECU, along with a specialized tune.
At least for that platform the cost depends on how you want to run E85. For me it was roughly $2000 or a bit more for: the tune itself (on a dyno, there are some canned tunes that are cheaper but not necessarily as reliable), the flex fuel kit, and the license for the tuning platform.
In the end, the mileage was worse. I think on pump 91 I can average 26mpg with a good mix of highway/city driving, less if purely city.
With E85 I was lucky to get 16-18mpg. And I've heard it's worse for cars with more power (BRZ's are relatively underpowered, about 185hp at the wheels).
Price-wise, E85 was cheaper, sometimes a difference of $1 to $1.50 less than pump 91 (required octane for my car).
I guess it depends on what the goal is, because for some cars it'll mean filling up a lot more often; I'd be curious if the delta in emissions between pump 87/91 and E85 is substantial enough for the additional fill-ups to be worthwhile.