"Politics of petrol

JESSADA TANDHASETTI

Raise your hands to a most welcome development that unfolded at a recent press conference when top officials of the Ministry of Energy declared that petrol octane 95 will continue to be on sale.

Cars that can't run on gasohol constitute a large population to say the least. And this is the third time that such an announcement was made. The first said petrol (benzine or gasoline) 95 would be for sale.

The second announcement did an about-turn and said that petrol 95 would be phased out on a national scale and be replaced by gasohol 95.

Let's hope there won't be a fourth announcement. "

Source: Bangkok Post

There have been a lot of people complain about 95 octane gasohol versus 95 octane gasoline. I suppose there are some cars that may be damaged using gasohol but surely all the new cars are designed to use either. I have a 2007 Ford Focus. I look for a pump that says 95 and no longer pay any attention whether it is gasohol or not because I just can't see any difference in performance or economy. I no longer carefully check kilometers per liter at fill ups. The car's computer seems accurate enough. It tells me I am using between 7.4 and 7.6 liters per hundred kilometers. I DON'T drive for maximum fuel economy.

There have been a lot of people complain about 95 octane gasohol versus 95 octane gasoline. I suppose there are some cars that may be damaged using gasohol but surely all the new cars are designed to use either. I have a 2007 Ford Focus. I look for a pump that says 95 and no longer pay any attention whether it is gasohol or not because I just can't see any difference in performance or economy. I no longer carefully check kilometers per liter at fill ups. The car's computer seems accurate enough. It tells me I am using between 7.4 and 7.6 liters per hundred kilometers. I DON'T drive for maximum fuel economy.

I think the ford focus is designed to run equally well on E10. Once, the attendant accidentally put gasohol 95 in my honda civic 2.0, designed to run on 91. Performance suffered, and fuel consumption suffered even more. I'd say i got a least 50km less to the tank, and probably more. So basically there would be no economic reason for me to use it, and the long term effects of using it are unknown.