Has anyone herd that you get less miles to the gallon in the winter?

 

probably due to the fact that people give the car longer time to warm up. otherwise once fully warmed up, the engine should perform better in cold weather, therefore giving better mileage.

 

I got better on mine. May be because it just roll over 10k miles, so the the mileage improve a little. I'm on snow tires right now, though.

 

mine improves in the winter. Probably due to the fact that I don't drive the car as hard than in the summer.

 

Generally, average mileage drops because:
1) It takes longer for the engine to warm and reach homeostasis.
2) All the lubricants (oil, tranny, diff, even the wheel bearings) are thicker when cold, and act as parasitic draw, lower fuel efficiency
3) The engine has to run richer to provide good driveability until the engine is warmed up
4) Probably more tire inertia when cold
5) In Metro areas, fuel is reformulated in winter, generally by adding oxygenates, generally alcohols. The alcohols used have less specific output per unit of measure, so they produce less power, and to compensate, drivers push harder on the accelerator, lowering economy. These reformulated fuels are another EPA idiocy - compared to "full-power" fuels, they are lower in byproducts which form smog, but because more fuel is consumed to travel the same distance, that cleanliness is offset.

As I recall from reading in the SAE archives, 68-70 degrees F is the optimum temperature for fuel economy.

Hey, I kjeep my home thermostat at that temp - maybe I am turnin into a car. Or I am a closet homeostatic?

 

good answer Road Rage,

I would've just said yes, mine is slightly lowered vs spring/fall. but about same for summer. avg city/hwy drive = 22 mpg or so. The trip up to NYC this past weekend I avg about 27+ mpg.

 

Let's not forget that mileage plummets as we "drive" down the freeway 1 car length at a time in the gridlock that a bit of snow produces in much of the U.S.

 

Roger that. Here, there is practically panic when a few inches come down. Race to Ukrop's to get the bread, milk, and toilet paper. Schools close in advance of the snow, and stay closed until the last snowflake has melted.

I hear people say "Northerners know how to drive in the snow", and I want to scream "Hey stupid, do you think this is garnered as part of Jungian collective subconscious learnings? Is there a snow driving gene? You are 50 years old - are your cognitive abilities so tiny that experience has taight you nothing!".

But I don't. I am appeased but the fact that most of them have figured out that the urinal is for #1, and the commode is job #2.

 

Road Rage's reply #5 was what I remember from the past. I remember my Integras used to get great mileage, but once winter started and the reformulated gas was distributed, my mileage was great affected with my same driving habits.

 

I grew up near Memphis, TN. and have lived near Columbus, OH for 30 years. People around here *DO NOT* know how to drive in the snow. Hell, they *DO NOT* know how to drive, period. The idea "slower traffic keep right" is considered on a plane with quantum physics: such a complex idea that no one could possibly be expected to grasp the concept.

Since Ohio gets snow regularly, we have the plows and salt trucks that aren't economically feasible in climates where it seldom snows, but the drivers are just as bad, period.