Winter Blend
December 22, 2011 4:58 PM 
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SubscribeI hear that. I don't think it's around in my area yet, but I never look forward to it.
Cold weather will also drop mpg regardless of the fuel blend since the engine takes longer to warm up
^ True story. The MPG drop I get with my car is really bad. 32mpg avg down to 27-28mpg in the middle of winter.
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.
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.
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.