Actually I'm also a college student, just one motivated to save gas because of a limited budget and living on campus. My engine just runs better when I fill it with ethanol than it does with just ordinary gas and gets better fuel mileage and my friends have found the same to be true.
Ethanol helps the engine with the fact that the fuel burns cleaner. It leaves less deposits. The different mechanics that I have talked to claim that it helps to clean the fuel injectors as well. I don't have the link anymore, but there was a study done on cars that could run on E85 (85% ethanol), such as certain versions of the 3.3 V6 equiped Intrepid, where they ran some on 100% gasoline and others on E85, and the cars that ran on E85 had much less wear on the engine.
Your right about the discipline part though. The tools of the overdrive, tachometer, and the cruise control will help you get that kind of fuel economy with the discipline. Edmunds did a fuel economy test where they tried different rumors on ways to save gas and the most effective way to get better fuel economy was driving it the car while being easy on the gas pedal.
When I have the money to waste. I intend to get myself a nice Hemi powered Ram (screw the gas mileage) and make up for lost fun
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