Currently I can buy premium gasoline with ethanol at a lower price point than ethanol free gasoline. If I remember correctly, the Mercedes owner's manual says the engine can safely burn gasoline with ethanol. That said, it does seem like the car likes 100% ethanol free gasoline and runs a bit smoother......

My 420 gets moody with ethanol. Idles a little rougher and loses some MPG.

my 99 hates it,.I buy only at real gasoline stations.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

My gasser runs the same with either. I get a little better mpg with ethanol free, so with the small fuel tank I have I prefer it. Unfortunately, it's gotten impossible to get non-ethanol gas where I live.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

I can only find the E10 gas around here.

2.98 here for real premium gasoline

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

On second thought, I could get VP racing fuel from NAPA or 100LL from the airport, but that's a lot of hassle to go an extra 10 miles on a tank.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

This biggest problem with ethanol comes when your car sits for a period of time. They were never really intended for enthanol in any amount to be used. It's been proven thru testing vehicles get worse fuel mileage with ethanol. And the EPA has suggested going from 10% to a 15% mix. It's bad enough that gas degrades over time ,attracting moisture especially, then you add in a component that inherently contains an amount of moisture. Exxon/Mobil is the first supplier that comes to mind that sells ethanol free premium. You have to think of how you treat the fuel for anything with a small engine (mowers,trimmers,generators). I use Stabil primarily but there are a couple others. It's sad I have and can't think of names at the moment.

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1983 300SD
1988 420SEL

I used ethanol free for a while and the car ran better and got better mileage. At the time I had to drive 20 miles 1 way to get it. It just wasn't worth it. We used it on a 500 mile trip one time and spent more time looking for the next fuel stop than we did site seeing. Wasn't worth it.
Now I use regular fuel with ethanol and Stabil Marine which takes care of the ethanol. Believe it or not, the car seems to run as good on this mixture as it does on the ethanol free gas. It is probably just my imagination but it seems to help.
If you want to know if ethanol is bad, just ask the FAA. Last I heard they wouldn't even allow you to bring in fuel with ethanol and put it in your own plane.

If you don't know, go to Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada . They list all the places that sell ethanol free gas. Sorry no prices.

PaulM

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84 500 SEL (307,xxx miles)

The last 140K on my 300E have been with E10. That's all you can buy here in Colorado.

OrangeGuy, I don't know where you are in Colorado but if you would like to try it, there are 50 places that list ethanol free gas.
Check the site given in the previous post or type 'pure-gas.org' into Google and you will find it.

PaulM

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84 500 SEL (307,xxx miles)

Automotive fuel systems, including materials, have been engineered for up to 10 percent ethanol going back to about the early eighties when gasoline laced with 10 percent ethanol (E10) first became available in some parts of the USA.

E10 has about 3 percent less energy than typical straight gasoline blends, which is about 1 MPG on a 30 MPG car or one-half MPG on a 15 MPG car, which means it's tough to measure given all the other variables that effect fuel consumption

My 190E2.6 is stored typically 6 months out of the year for the last 15 years, but there have been a couple of 12-18 mpnth periods in that time frame. Same with my '91 MR2. I fill each with fresh fuel (E10) before storage, don't use any kind of "stabilizer" and have never had any fuel system problems with either car.

Duke

It carbons my plugs up.I will try that ethonal additive.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran