(Originally posted to HCH Forum; copied here when that thread was closed)

It hasn't been a very cold winter here - I've only driven the car in sub-zero weather on two occasions since I got it on 06-Jan - but I'll pass on my observations thus far (for the record: Burlington, Vermont has about the same climate as Minneapolis - so not as cold as, say, Duluth).

First, from an FE standpoint this car isn't any worse in the cold than any non-hybrid that I've driven (Pathfinder, various Subarus, Volvo...). I've been tracking my mileage in the Pathfinder for years, and I know that I'll range from ~17 mpg in the winter to ~21 mpg in the summer. If you figure that I'm getting ~48 mpg in the HCH right now at 30F, and that I'd be getting about 18 in the Pathfinder, that puts me on target for ~56 mpg in the HCH come summer (applying the same 3/18, or 17%, increase). This seems reasonable when I look at what people are already getting in the warmer climes. (It also says I'll probably drop a couple more mpg if we ever get 'real' winter temps again). That kind of difference (a 10 mpg drop vs a 4 mpg drop) satisfies the naysayers, but they're not doing the math (and sometimes just conveniently ignore that 4 mpg drop on the non-hybrid altogether). Because when you do that (the math), you'll find that as you apply higher-percentage drops to the hybrid and non-hybrid (ie reduce each by the same percentage), the hybrid actually looks like a *better* deal than it did before you applied the reduction. So don't let the big 'absolute' numbers turn you off.

Mechanically, all I can say is that most things mechanical do not like the cold, and this one is no exception. By that, I just mean that the **** things don't go as fast or as easily as you want them to go. On the plus side, it does seem to warm up faster than my other vehicles (and I don't mean idling in my driveway ).

Much has also been made in these forums about how Auto-stop doesn't work for the first 5-10 minutes of driving. That is true, but as my first full stop on my way to work doesn't usually come until 45 minutes into my trip, I'm not bothered much by that.

One other point about snow - I've said this before, but I just haven't seen a big FE hit when I'm driving on snow. This doesn't surprise me though as most people slow down from 60 to as low as 40-45 when it's really bad, and it just seems logical that the decreased wind resistance offsets the increased rolling resistance.