Winter cold killing everyone's MPG?

[bluebunny]

My long term average of 45 mpg gets hurt by the 37mpg I get in cold weather. 30 minute commutes. I do not idle to warm, because it won’t warm up unless I load the engine. Dang-blabbin, cold-hearted, cheating diesel golf! (but I loves it)

[bluebunny]

My long term average of 45 mpg gets hurt by the 37mpg I get in cold weather. 30 minute commutes. I do not idle to warm, because it won’t warm up unless I load the engine. Dang-blabbin, cold-hearted, cheating diesel golf! (but I loves it)

[Natalya]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

If I recall correctly, the Insight is capable of running lean-burn until a certain intake temp is reached. Do you plan to remove the WAI in the summer, or do you not anticipate this being an issue?

The 2000 Insight has a fork in the air pipe leading to two intakes. I only re-routed one of the forks to the cat, so the other fork remains taking air in from its stock location. I did this on my first Insight in 2015 and with that vehicle I never had an overheating problem. On this one I went from the other fork to the cat, so maybe there will be a difference? I'll monitor the situation when it gets warmer outside.

[Xist]

Does everyone have a grill block? My tanks since I taped plastic to my bumper are actually better than back when it was warm. How much of a problem would an open thermostat be in the Phoenix summer?

[MetroMPG]

100% grille block here.

The cooling fan doesn't come on at all in my usual driving patterns in temps below -8C / 17F. Warmer than that, though, it comes on periodically. I had to open it up a bit recently.

[Xist]

I was trying to find a work-related tab, but found Jalopnik first. Maybe I should not keep that open on my work computer, just so I get distracted less.

Haha! There is a squirrel in the school!

Anyway, this was exciting: https://jalopnik.com/watch-a-school-...ice-1822371871

It seems like the school bus tried to stop on a hill and slid backwards, but a parked Toyota stopped it, with minor damage to both. Someone commented he or she lived an hour north of Vancouver and their buses had a system to dump sand in front of their tires.

[MetroMPG]

Squirrel!!!

[jcp123]

My Honda hates the cold, badly. More so than my Echo.

The truck I drive isn't as susceptible to the cold, but I've cruised a lot of really cold stuff this winter...since New Years I have had majority below 20*F and as low as -1F, and light load or heavy, it has suffered quite a bit for FE. I managed to recover back to 6.9mpg today...but then again I had middleweight loads, favorable winds, and somewhat flatter terrain.

[jonorok]

Lakes region New Hampshire here. Lots of cold, lots of wind.

I'm getting 16mpg in my 4banger Tacoma. Average is 21 for me.

Winter gas usually costs me 10%, and 4wd / idling costs me about 10%. But I spend a lot of time with it in 4wd and a recovery strap attached to one end. So far I've recovered 4 pickups, 3 sedans, and the school bus that drops off my neighbor's kid. I leave tools and recovery gear in the vehicle constantly as that's its primary use case for me. I get my peace of mind helping people in the winter - and I don't have to drive to get to work.

My solution to the winter mpg problem? Don't drive it till I have to!

[JSH]

Yes, the cold hurts my eMPG but when it is down to "only" 125 eMPG I don't worry about it too much.

My problem is running the 5 kW electric heater takes my range down from 90 miles in the summer with A/C to only 60 miles in the winter. That puts the airport out of reach in the winter time. My solution is to drive my wife's Prius to the airport and leave her with the Spark. It is a win / win as I need to put as many miles as possible on the Spark since I'm prepaying for them and she like to hotrod around with the Spark.