Winter cold killing everyone's MPG?

[Natalya]

I'm throwing up like good numbers, but I'm driving an ecomodded G1 Insight. And I know I'd be doing better if it wasn't freezing.

Anyone else experiencing MPG drops because of this cold?

Anyone else considering installing a warm air intake? I did it on my old car, might have to do it to this one. I've already got a partial rad block and 100% lower grill block.

[oil pan 4]

Yeah it's been 10°F as the low. Each startup seems like the car sucks down up to a quart of gas as soon as I start driving.

[jakobnev]

I drove mostly short trips making the cold even worse:



I sold the car a few months back leaving the last tank a summer one.

[cowmeat]

The last few days I've been charging at home and at work to keep my commute all EV. Winter is almost over here, but it looks like we have at least another couple of days of it.

The heater and heated seat both eat up a lot of EV range, but I apparently don't have the natural immunity to the cold like some of you northerners seem to possess!

[Ecky]

Bahaha, I'm mostly driving sub-3mile trips (screw biking in this weather) and today is unusually warm at 16F - most days the last month have had a high of zero and lows in the negative teens or twenties fahrenheit. I'm feeling really lucky when I break 55mpg.

I have a few gas logs I've been kicking my feet about entering, because it's going to look bad.

[Fat Charlie]

Well... I don't think I've gotten in the car when the temp has been above zero lately. No EOC, obviously, and very little gliding. Sometimes I've even had to have the AC on because my coffee steaming up condenses and freezes on the window.

On the plus side, the grill block helps a lot and I cleaned out the garage a couple months ago so I'm parked inside at night, which helps a lot. But I haven't had my UG in for a while and lost all track of fuel logs for other reasons. The factory display says I tend to get 37ish, which I think is optimistic.

[Frank Lee]

I haven't driven for about a month but the last time I, yes I, had to let it idle a bit while I scraped the windows. Someday when I fill it we'll see how bad the hit was.

[MetroMPG]

Record cold here!

As mentioned in "Cold enough for ya!?", I actually idled the car for a few minutes for the first time in a few years. (Coolant heater not installed yet.)

My fuel economy is sucking -- I'll be lucky to eke ~55 out of the Metro this tank. But like Frank, I've been driving it so little, I think there's still some summer fuel in the mix.

[elhigh]

Oh, yeah. Numbers have taken a dive, big time.

My northern neighbors and even my Minnesota origins will pooh-pooh it but around here 3 degrees is pretty cold and folks around me are all wondering if Fimbulwinter is upon us. The Prius fires right up but where it will normally cruise around 50mpg, now getting the readout past 45mpg is downright difficult. The HCH is similarly down, and where it normally hits full operating temperature just before I get onto the highway, now I'm a couple miles down that road before the last bit of temperature gauge movement is finished.

[basjoos]

In this below freezing weather the aerocivic is getting around 60 mpg in a local driving and the 2005 Prius is getting mid to high 40's mpg. The Prius was my dad's and had a bad traction battery, so he gave it to me and I just had to replace the battery to get it back on the road. So far it has averaged about 12 mpg less than the aerocivic in local driving.