Ecobalt's Reason #14--Winter wheels weigh more
I have winter tires mounted on steel rims. The wheels each weigh five pounds more than my aluminum alloy wheels. Backpackers have an expression: "an ounce on your boots is like another pound on your back". There is an analogy to the rotating wheels. The rotational momentum of the car's wheels has to be achieved by burning gasoline and it is lost when you brake.
In any case, it is always advantageous to take twenty pounds off yof our automobile.
I am not so sure that winter tires have a higher rolling resistance by nature. The evaluation at
Green Seal puts several snow tires at the top of the list.
I have a theory that the very supple Bridgestone Blizzak tires have a low rolling resistance because they flex when going over an obstruction or a pebble. Blizzak tires are gas-blown (Bridgestone calls it microcell) as part of the ice traction features. Cyclists select tires with a "supple carcass" that flexes for low rolling resistance. To achieve that, I shop for a high thread count in bicycle tires.
See table 1
http://www.greenseal.org/resources/r...Resistance.pdf
Last November, I bought ExtremeWinterContact™ snow tires. Evaluations told me that those tires had higher rolling resistance than the competitors. I bought them for the price and longevity. The snow and ice traction was superb and the dry road handling was better than the Blizzaks. When I removed those tires and steel wheels and put on the OEM Continental tires and Konig wheels, my fuel economy improved by 3 mpg.