Plenty of people have asked for location updates from United, they never have an answer.

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MY08 WRX 325hp/456nm/18psi E85

Unless they build brand new servo's, there will almost certainly never be any old service stations retrofitted for E85. It's just too costly, and not worth the investment for 1% of the people who actually use it.

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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Should have bought an STI

I got an answer....

Before i converted. I emailed United, and eventually (took a little while) got a reply from the wa regional retail manager. (Tony Poalo)

I was asking about the future availability of e85, and also its consistency.




This was the response. In november 2013.
Since then, i dont think even one additional servo has been upgraded.... but i still make the 60km odd round trip to get that sweet sweet sugary syrup.

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Doing it for all the wagons out there

Not available at United Mindarie, I have been pestering those guys for ages as it's my local..

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Bye bye betty blue. Hello F6.

Ah ok. That email is nearly 2 yrs old.

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Doing it for all the wagons out there

Bram...
Maybe try email Tony again to see if there are any plans now 2years later? I mean they have enough data on the use now and it would be interesting to find out what they say now.

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06 STi: 337hp @23psi on E85...
06 STi: 309hp @22psi on 98ron...

I have pestered United East Vic park too. Osborne park or Armadale are too far away.

I could. But i think the past 2yrs is a pretty clear indicator of where they are heading...

I think its pretty poor form united so far. They could sell the shit out of this fuel with a strong marketing push. If they really hammered the enviromental argument, with a few choice words like renewable energy source, global warming and a decent advertising budget. Then they could shift alot more volume, as youd have all the commodore wagon soccer mum types buying up trying to get a warm fuzzy feeling in thier heart thinking they are doing their bit for the enviroment.

Right now, they arent pushing it as a hippy fuel, but more a bogan/motor head fuel. With marketing like 107 octane race blend - fuel of the v8 super cars and such. I reckon they should dress it as a bio fuel clothing, but keep it a performance fuel underneath.

To me, this means they are currently selling primarily to us boosted e85 performance types. And as far bulk sales, we probably dont really make a shit of difference either way. And they probably currently make more margin per liter on selling the standard ULPs, and low percentage ethanol blends. So its probably not really financially viable for them to push it yet. What we have now is provably more of a sales experiment than a mainstream product.


The other thing that they should be doing. And this is alot harder to do. Is they should be heavily lobbying the government/authorities trying to get some sort of support that way. Perhaps having legislation saying future cars (2020 on for example) sold in Aus should ve flex compatible. Or some sort of madate stating fuel sold in aus must contain X percentage of ethanol etc. Its these kind of large scale initiatives that will make ethanol a viable fuel for them to market. It will also create jobs and boost the sugar farming economy if they ramp up local production etc as a result. Unfortuantly, that means going up against the big oil co's and that cost big bucks. Right now we are stuck in the past because there is to much money to be had in keeping it that way.

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Doing it for all the wagons out there

Yeah that's right, it's marketed as the petrol head bogan fuel.

Over east they seem to have pushed out a fair number of E85 locations, so why be different in WA.

If you could drop him another email now to find out how his story has changed it would be great.

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06 STi: 337hp @23psi on E85...
06 STi: 309hp @22psi on 98ron...

Perth is one of the most remote capital cities on earth. Im sure that the logistics of bringing in large volume e85 is not the same as it is conventional petrol. This is probably one of the reasons we arent seeing it rolled out like we are in the eastern states cities. Its made in Dalby qld and thats kinda like the opposite side of the country from here. The economics probably arent good for it here.

What we all can do is keep on buying it. Convince family and friends with flex vehicles to do so as well. Continue emailing united with e85 questions and even write to your state and federal MPs aswell if you are extra bored.

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Doing it for all the wagons out there