[brucepick]

I could look up from previous winters how much mpg I lost after changing over to 4 snow tires. Basically from about 24-26 mpg to about 21-22 mpg. That was very consistent driving, pretty much the same route every day, about 80 miles each way to work and back.

BUT you have to give some of that decrease to the winter fuel mix they push on us here in the winter. That probably accounts for half of the loss.

Anyway, you do lose mpg with winter tires. If you want to get your best possible mpg, run tires with a nice highway tread in the summer. I can't seem to find true "summer" tires, so I end up with all seasons. I put on the snows as late as possible for my local climate. This past winter I only put snows on the rears and it was OK as we had hardly any snow. Some winters we get lots and in that case I'd put on the 2nd pair when needed.

Also you likely can't pump up snow tires as hard as other tires. All the snows I've seen are "max" 35 psi, whereas nearly all the regular tires are marked for 44 psi or even higher. Higher psi is good for mpg but we don't need to have that debate in this thread.