winter fuel consumption

[Lee Levitt]

Tihol Tiholov <t.tiholov at gmail.com> writes:
> I wrote
>    
>> When I switch from my wide, sticky summer tires to my snow tires, my fuel
>>      
> mileage goes up.
>
> Sure, if you drive on racing summers and get not much snow.  My winters are
> same size as summers, only much softer and have higher rolling resistance.
> This year here in western Canada we got a loooot of snow and spinning wheels
> is often a necessity to get anywhere, even turning off anti-slip control
> (even more wheel spinning) is the only way to get up some inclines.  My Jeep
> XJ with winter Toyo's rarely spins a wheel but its mileage's not good at all
> times.
>    

Summers are 245/40 17s, Dunlop Direzza Star on the A4, Toyo Proxes 4 on 
the C5 A6. Winter tires on the A4 are 205/50/17 RSi, 225/50/17 on the A6.

I wouldn't run anything wider in the winter, in fact, the 225 is wider 
than I'd like, but it's okay. Summer tires are pretty sticky, 
particularly the Dunlops.

Up until this year we didn't get much snow in Boston, mostly a half 
dozen or so days of slush and a couple of days of powder. This year 
we've had more...but still, probably 90% of my winter driving is on dry 
roads.

I was thinking of dry road conditions, everything else being equal, the 
winter tires give a couple of MPG better economy. Factor in snow, 
darkness, etc., we might be back at parity...Overall, my mileage is 
pretty consistent season to season.

Lee