does ne one else get bad mileage in the winter. during the summer i was avg like 28-30 with about 50/50 city/hwy. now im at 24-26 about 60/40. im going to contribute the bad mileage to people driving slower and less hwy drivin. ive just been like wtf wherd all my mileage go. i havent changed my driving i dont think and to be honest im driving less. just seeing if ne one lese experiences this.

Cold weather & cold fuel = lower MPG

gotya i knew there had to be some other variable that is causing a loss of somewhere around 5 mpg.

Blame Reformulated fuel...cold air and cold fuel makes for more power( a racers battle forever) a heavy foot makes it less.
BUT : extended idlying for warm-ups , different driving styles for bad weather..trying to do burnouts in the snow....running the heater while parking( those darn kids again-snicker).You know..fun stuff,that kills milage!

Winter blend fuel.

Winter blend fuel.

x2....

Winter blend fuel.

X3, they add an ethanol mix to the gasoline to keep it from freezing.

X4 yep winter crap blends in CA they call it oxygenated fuel and its been killing MPG for quite awhile

Yep Mine Dropped about 4-6mpg. Granted i have been letting the Car warm up for about 10min's before and after work. Plus it has been really cold here not to mention snow every other day.

i hate ethanol. so do my friends who raise livestock. its put feed corn prices through the roof.

My average city mileage went from 25-26 to 21 in one tank. Highway mileage I do not know what it is doing? I can tell it is much worse and I am not happy about it.
There are other factors not just winter gas blend. Lately the wind has been very bad with the cold fronts coming in. During the Summer there is usually a mild steady breese coming from the south. Some of these cold fronts have the wind howling and even when it is coming from the south it is still stronger during the Winter. Oil is much thinner when it is hot. We do not let the car warm up in the Summer.
There may be other factors I do not know about but we know mileage has took a dump and quickly.

Granted I do'nt have Ohio winters, but my mileage stays the same. Our lowest temp so far this winter has only been 17* though.

X3, they add an ethanol mix to the gasoline to keep it from freezing.\

They add ethanol to the mix year round.

[QUOTE=solman98;341022]Granted I do'nt have Ohio winters, but my mileage stays the same. Our lowest temp so far this winter has only been 17* though.
QUOTE]

yeah we had -2 a week or so back. my blue baby did not like that at all. she did not want to go at all. but i did some hwy over the weekend and focussed a little more on my hypermiling and i got the mpg up to 25. i still want it back up to 30.

Winter blend fuel.

X5... but necessary when the mercury hits -30F (without accounting for the wind chill) and you need her to start without having the block heater plugged in.

did some researchin and there is a difference between winter and summer blends of fuel. they both have ethanol but winter has on avg 1-3% more. also winter has some more random crap. ill try to find a link when i get home from work.

There are a whole bunch of factors that come into play in cold weather.

Winter blend fuels do not have the BTU (energy) content of summer blends.

In cold weather, fuel mixture is much more rich during warmup. That is a much bigger factor in "short" trip driving.

Tire pressures decrease when colder. Check 'em! (And that goes for you Nitrogen fans, too, since the same applies!).

The tire rubber gets "stiffer" when cold. Rolling resistance goes up. Same applies to lubricants when cold.

Add 'em all up and you will see a drop!

I just checked and aired up my tires. I know that is not my problem. Oil and all other fliuds are thicker when cold. Do not know just how much of a difference that makes.
Maybe the choke circuit is pretty rich? Car definatly starts up and runs good in cold weather. Plus the weather (and mileage) had been pretty consistant until the last tank.
I think 4 MPG on a tank of gas in the city is a big difference. More than I expected or want.

One thing that makes me curoius is it appears that a crosswind hurts MPG more than a head wind? Any opinions on that? Still there has been a lot of wind lately and no matter what direction unless it is a tailwind hurts you. Just do not know how much.

aired up the tires and rotated, up to 27 now. still not the clost to 30 i was getting in the summer. just have to wait till spring to get that bac

i just changed oil , put in synthetic, mpg is better. while on highway i try to go 66mph it is a "sweet spot" for my 08 2.4 auto panel. i drive 270+ miles 6 days a week. i still go faster sometimes. i am most always concience of my engine speed. i tryed old trick yesterday , it does not always work , but sometimes when taking off from a stop , while getting slowly up to speed i let completely off the gas , sometimes this will make the trans shift to the next gear sooner -decreasing rpms and the amount i spend at the next fill up.i have to fill up daily , you can believe i watch everything about my vehicle. the oil , the speed , and the easing up to speed , and letting off , all work. i have tried not doing any one og these things , and it did make a difference. i just purchased my hhr a month ago , so i do not know what it does in the summer. but i increased my mpg from 24 to 27.

Mine's been steadily going up since summer. Go figure.

i just changed oil , put in synthetic, mpg is better. while on highway i try to go 66mph it is a "sweet spot" for my 08 2.4 auto panel. i drive 270+ miles 6 days a week. i still go faster sometimes. i am most always concience of my engine speed. i tryed old trick yesterday , it does not always work , but sometimes when taking off from a stop , while getting slowly up to speed i let completely off the gas , sometimes this will make the trans shift to the next gear sooner -decreasing rpms and the amount i spend at the next fill up.i have to fill up daily , you can believe i watch everything about my vehicle. the oil , the speed , and the easing up to speed , and letting off , all work. i have tried not doing any one og these things , and it did make a difference. i just purchased my hhr a month ago , so i do not know what it does in the summer. but i increased my mpg from 24 to 27.

:) Hypermiling....... Search "absurd mileage"

had my good gas mileage back. and is even better. got 36.0 on the highway.

Blame Reformulated fuel...cold air and cold fuel makes for more power( a racers battle forever) a heavy foot makes it less.
BUT : extended idlying for warm-ups , different driving styles for bad weather..trying to do burnouts in the snow....running the heater while parking( those darn kids again-snicker).You know..fun stuff,that kills milage!
Technically you get more power per unit of air / fuel at higher temps. Cold air and cold fuel will increase charge density, resulting in more power at the bleeding edge, but the tradeoff is combustion efficiency. Much fuel is wasted to obtain the increase. Combustion efficiency increases with increased temperatures, but so does tendency toward detonation. A British firm made some injectors that had little heaters in the tips to help vaporize the fuel, and the efficiency increase was significant.

how would i know if and when they change what they add to winter fuel??? i just gained 2mpg after changing to a lighter oil and addng some fuel system cleaner. i was just wondering if they may have changed the fuel at the same time i did this.

warm weather was more noticable for me. according to a few chemists i talked to the only real thing they add to winter fuel is a little more ethanol. it absorbs water and will keep it from freezing.