Winter mpg's vs summer mpg's

[Miller88]

Originally Posted by jedi_sol

In the states, we have a winter and summer blend of gas. Everything else being equal, I lose about 10% mpg during the winter months.

Winter blend gas, snow tires, cold temps (this winter was brutal in NY).

Prior to this winter, I have only had one tank below 30MPG. That includes when I got the car and did 100% city driving. This winter? I could barely break 30MPG.

I have some plans for next winter. I didn't get to run 0w-20 this winter (had free 5w-20), I am going to switch to a different lower rolling resistance snow tire and I am going to run a 0w-40 in the manual transaxle.

I always have the grille completely blocked and use the OBDII scanner to make sure I don't overheat.

[digital rules]

Not much difference here as I avoid short trips as much as possible in the winter. Work is just far enough to recover the initail loss. (25 miles)

I figure about 1 MPG less due to the winter gas & ~ another 1 MPG hit due to the effects of cold weather. Closer to 2 MPG loss when WAY below freezing.