Suave,
For Nissan to not recommend ethanol blend in their pre 04 cars, one can only assume that, they made changes to production of their vehicles to accept ethanol blend from 04 onwards. That is as straight forward as they come.
Also, a heads up on all other fuels. They contain %0 ethanol.
Shyster,
So, you don't know Nissan's stance to E5.
FYI, someone on PF rang Nissan and this is what he had to say about it : "Just got off the phone to nissan, and they confirmed that NO nissan built prior to Jan 04 to use any blended ethanol fuel whether it be 5% or 10%."
Re the quoted text of R31Nismoid, I don't want to speak on his behalf, but i am certain you misunderstood it.
His analogy with alcohol simply states that you can get just as drunk with beer as you can with spirits. E5 contains half the amount ethanol compared to E10. So, does it mean it is not as harmful, or totally harmless..?
Cheers.