Mario James, Gleaner Writer
Honda Fit motor cars sit at a dealership. A Saturday Life survey revealed that drivers of Honda vehicles hogged the lion's share of complaints. – File
Besieged with calls and emails from disgruntled users voicing their opinion about E10 gasolene after the recent islandwide roll-out, Saturday Life decided to publish a 12-response questionnaire which tabulates the problems - or lack of them - encountered while using Petrojam's 'new' blended fuel.
Our survey included two comments and 10 yes or no answers ranging from 'Do you have a problem with E10?' to 'Can you state whether or not you have incurred significant maintenance costs due to E10 use?'
One question asked for car make, model and age - and the other to document damage, if any. Out of the 245 participants, 63 per cent said they had a problem. Their problems ranged from hesitation during acceleration and detonation to fuel-pump problems and conditions requiring extensive engine teardown.
Out of the 154 submissions noting problems, 12 were dropped because the survey wasn't filled out correctly; 142 submissions were eventually processed. Only 25 per cent of those polled contacted their dealer about the problem/s.
From a brand perspective, Honda owners had the most issues with E10, as 40 participants - representing 28 per cent of 142 problem vehicles - said they had blended-fuel issues. Civic owners were in the majority (within the Honda brand), with 12 of the 40 owning that model. The Honda Fit was runner-up, with seven cars having difficulties.
Driveability issues were the main concern - mileage, poor acceleration, surging or 'bucking' problems being among those reported. Average age of the Hondas surveyed was eight years (model year 2001). Two owners commented that they had significant maintenance costs.
Twenty-seven Toyota drivers - 19 per cent - had E10 issues. Corollas were reported to be the most reactive to E10 within the brand: six Corollas had 'sweet power' issues, with the average reported Corolla age being 11 years (model year 1998). While Toyota issues pretty much mapped those of Hondas' in terms of driveability, at least one Toyota driver said he lost his engine. The car was reported to be a 1995 Corolla.
maintenance costs
Nissan owners represented 12 per cent - 17 cars - with the Sunny accounting for 41 per cent of that figure. Reported problems included significant maintenance costs. Suzuki owners had problems as well - 11 per cent, or 15 cars - said no to E10. Thirty-three per cent of those were older Swifts, with a carburetted fuel system.
Mitsubishis filled out the ranks to the tune of eight per cent. The lone GDI poster only had decreased efficiency (mileage) issues - no maintenance costs as yet. Mitsubishis, in general, only had driveability issues.
Subaru, BMW, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Daihatsu, Jaguar, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Peugeot, Rover and other marques faced operating issues as well. All these marques weighed into our poll, with five or fewer cars for each brand, representing 22 per cent of the poll.
Cumulatively, they have fleshed out the numbers in the survey; however, taken on an individual basis, their statistics are relatively insignificant and can be discounted. Only 25 per cent of participants actually contacted their dealers, which does bring some of the figures posted here into disrepute as the relevance to E10 can be questioned.
It is interesting to note that the average age of the cars included in this process is actually seven years old. While there were older cars involved in this survey - the oldest vehicle was reported to be of 1989 vintage - most were newer than 2000.
mario.james@gleanerjm.com