Winter Blend

[bakerf72]

My MPG has dropped close to 2 MPG since winter has set in. Winter blend sucks!

[radtastic]

I hear that. I don't think it's around in my area yet, but I never look forward to it.

[MMUK]

Cold weather will also drop mpg regardless of the fuel blend since the engine takes longer to warm up

[MatrixDom]

^ True story. The MPG drop I get with my car is really bad. 32mpg avg down to 27-28mpg in the middle of winter.

[DTMAce]

Yep. All my vehicles drop MPG in winter, and even with blends, I would put most of the blame on the cold, not the fuel. Just typical.

[DTMAce]

Although, some of you in warmer states with only a 1-2 mpg drop can probably attribute that to the fuel blend, if the temp stays the same. Those of us in the north however, see anywhere from a 3-8 mpg drop, depending on how we drive our cars in the winter (excessive idling, warming up, etc). So from my perspective, a 2mpg change is nothing. My van changes vary from 2-5mpg depending on driving style (city vs highway) even in summer. So honestly that isn't that bad.

[bates]

Back before the Bush Administration started the ethanol mandate CA used to switch to a high ethanol blend for summer before they outlawed MTBE. I could tell you the exact tank that I got the first slug of the E10 summer blend because my mileage at the next fill up would drop significantly. Somehow by replacing 10 % of the gasoline with alcohol my mileage would settle down about 20% from 33-35 MPG down to 27-29 MPG. After the outlaw of MTBE in CA the mileage never recovered in the summer or winter. Now I lose about 3% in winter or 1 MPG on average with the year around E10 blend. I live in Southern Cal with very mild winters, normally a dozen or so nights that get down to or slightly below freezing and about the same number of summer days with highs of 100 degrees F.