Mech,
It's definitely high on my list for a number of reasons. Since I live at 7400', winters can be pretty harsh and waking up to sub-zero (F) temps is not all that uncommon. Even if I didn't elect to hypermile, the engine on the Acura going downhill in cold air takes at least five minutes to reach sufficient temperature to put out enough heat to start defogging/defrosting the windshield. I can't safely drive without a 5-10 minute warm up unless I can park in a garage and have a block heater that can kick on an hour or two before I get up. The mileage benefits are definitely a bonus.
Unfortunately, winter also means the Hakkapallita snow tires have to come out or it'll be a one way trip down some day in November and I won't be able to get back up the hill until sometime in March.
My snows and winter fuel usually cost me 2-3 mpg, but hopefully my new techniques and mods that I'm learning here will still mean I get respectable mileage (34+, I hope). It's a 62 mile a day round trip (10% city streets, 60% highway (about a quarter of which is subject to stop and go traffic, especially in the winter), 30% mountain roads), but the gravity drop is kind of the ultimate pulse and glide. I do 15 minutes of continuous glide on the way to work and 15 minutes of continuous pulse on the way home.
This will be our first winter up at the new place, but I've lived in Colorado for 30+ years. The GF (from Texas) is convinced we'll be fighting over our one lone 4x4 truck on the snow days, but even after a four year stint living and working in Summit County, Colorado (ski country), I remain unconvinced that four wheel drive is necessary 360+/- days a year. I have a job where I can choose to work from home four out of five weeks a month, so unless there's a cosmic convergence of a mega-snowstorm on the one week a month I have to be at work and the GF just happens to need to go to work that same day (she only works 3 days a week), I think we'll be just fine.
