Has anyone else experienced the differences between cold and warm weather driving that I have?

Last October & November, I was around 27/28 overall MPG. December, January & February it was down to 22/23 overall MPG and I was ready to trade it in.

Now that the weather has warmed up again, for March & April it has climbed back up to the 28/30 range. That range I can live with.

The overall type of miles was never different over that span..........lots of small town driving, very little highway miles and a short commute to work.

 

I got worse gas mileage over the winter too, driving the same routes. Now that it's warmer, I'm doing great now- much better than last summer when the car was new. Now I average 30-33, suburban driving. It's normal to get worse mileage in cold weather. I'll let those who really know why explain, but it's normal. Btw- your driving routes are the direct result of why you can't seem to push it must past 30mpg. Get the car on the highway and you'll see how much the car prefers it. But, 28 to 30 is not bad at all.

Dan

 

Yeah i've noticed that with me too. I was doing like 30-32 prior to winter and during winter no matter how i drove it was like 26-27

 

Short trips during cold weather will do a number on fuel mileage due to the increased viscosity of the engine and drive train oils and the richer fuel mixture during warm up.... The same amount of miles driven in less trips will yield more miles from the same amount of fuel. These little engines warm up quickly and dissipates heat quickly so you can use a lot of fuel in just a few miles just out running errands in very cold weather.

 

I get better mileage in the winter than in the summer. But then again winter here is about 50-60 degrees where summer is 90+ and you have to drive around with A/C blasting, whereas in the winter I enjoy the nice weather and put all the windows down. Car drives so much smoother in cooler weather.

 

55Fit55-

Check out my Fuelly bar graph--it's shows practically the exact same trend as yours with the big increase in the summer compared to the winter.

I was up over 36 a lot last summer, and down below 33 for much of the winter. Back up significantly recently with the nice April we've had here.

 

another factor to remember is that the gas is different
from winter to summer. the gas companies change the
mixture between the winter and summer. i used to live
up north and the same thing happened to me.
now in FL nothing changes.

 

Check my Fuelly chart as well...mine may be starting to go back up...

This thing better start getting some better mileage soon! Winter blend..summer blend..I don't care if I drag race in the dead of winter with three passengers and lead weights in the back...24-26mpg for a "fuel efficient" car is very very sad. I used to drive my Saab 9-5 Aero Wagon year round and get those numbers(albeit with premium). Had 130+ more horsepower, weighed 1100lbs more, and had more room!..too bad something always needed to be fixed.