Dodgemotorsports.com

The past two weeks I have been driving my new 2007 Jeep Commander around the greater part of the midwest in search of E85 Ethanol stations, lost relatives, and large animals who enjoy riding in the back of the new Jeep. My adventures began on December 20th, 2006 just before Christmas when I started my journey in my 2004 Jeep Cherokee across the great midwest on a trip from my house in Champaign, Illinois to Lapeer, Michigan to enjoy the holiday festivities. (Side note: ANY vehicle is not big enough for two adults, a 225lbs english mastiff, and Christmas gifts for 15 people…Thanks are to be had for the Mopar Accessories big black duffle-bag thingie for the roof rack to get us to grandma’s house for Christmas)

After the festivities, we managed to go to my other house in Garden City and also visit all of my friends that still live in Michigan somewhere around the greater Detroit area. After a new years day discussion with a good friend who also happens to be the sales manager at a Jeep dealership, I decided that a Jeep Commander with the 4.7 Liter FlexFuel engine would be in my best interest. I would have gotten the Hemi, but that is only available in the Limited/Overland versions of the Commander and in my opinion, the extra power, while very sweet really wasn’t worth it when you can get a base model plus the “U” luxury package and have most of the bells and whistles of the Limited/Overland.

Part of the beginning to my road trip was to drive to Grosse Ile, Michigan to meet with a friend of mine. This provided a really good background to take some new pictures of my new Jeep.

I was very pleased with the ride, and we even drove past the birthing place of the new Jeep Compass. The engine, while not a Hemi still pulls us out onto the expressway with not much trouble, and for a nearly 5000lbs vehicle I was a little bit surprised by the slight ‘push into the back of the seat’ feeling.

The next couple of days resulted in much discussion between my father and I regarding the use of e85 as fuel and just using regular gas. The auto industry, media, and just about everyone else is looking at e85 as a sucessful alternative to reduce our use of foriegn oil. OK, sure it is. I completely agree with the above everything, but unless the consumer (i.e. yours truly) decides to use said e85 in thier vehicle, it’s not going to get used no matter what creative marketing spin the industry puts on it. Using a dollars per mile calculation, for example, the numbers just don’t add up. If e85 equals $1.99/Gallon, regular gas has to cost more than $2.56 in order for e85 to even begin to help me out. I understand that e85 burns cleaner, etc but it really makes no sense in a vehicle that gets a maximum of about 21 miles per gallon on the highway at 60 miles per hour using regular gas. That translates to about 13 miles per gallon using e85 which means you’re going to fill up more often. Maybe in a hybrid vehicle, or a vehicle that already gets 30+ mpg flexfuel would make sense, but not in SUVs, Trucks, etc even though that is all the industry is putting them in. Another option is to maybe use something other than Corn to produce ethanol? Everything I read points to maybe corn not being the best option. Look at Brazil for example…. They have been using ethanol based vehicles since the 1970’s.
This is what really makes me mad. I like the ‘drinking the e85 punch’ feeling it gives me when e85 is at $1.99 and regular is at $2.24, unfortunatly even with a full tank of e85 currently it has cost me more money to fill up my tank because I know I’ll be refilling again at 210-250 miles driving around town averaging 7-8 miles per gallon. I really want to continue to use e85, unfortunatly I can not afford it. Sorry, but I can’t….even with Illinois $340 dollar rebate I will get at the end of the year by filling out forms on the Illinois Green Fleet website.

What also I didn’t like is that the first tank of e85 I put in the Jeep resulted in my engine light going off. Being a computer geek I decided to ‘reboot the system’ and I gave my Jeep the equivilent of the control-alt-delete by disconnecting the battery for 30 minutes and reconnecting. Everything has been working fine since then.

Overall I enjoy my new Jeep Commander. I wish that FlexFuel/e85 was a more viable option and I will switch back to using regular gas after this tank is burned up in the next 200 short miles. Happy new year and safe driving!

Brian Boyd

dodgemotorsports.com