31 mpg cooper

[pflowers]

Any ideas on what mpg we should expect from our 7 month old cooper bought 2 weeks ago. Mixed driving of motorway / town / a roads gives us no more than 31 mpg, a long way off the book combined of 42.2. We do keep the air con on most of the time, as I do in my 320d which if anthing gets driven harder, but I have no problem getting 45 - 50 mpg ( the book combined is 47.9 ).

Is there any thing wrong with the car or is this the best we can expect ?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[KenL]

A lot of people are getting similar figures to yourself.

How many miles has the car done, it may improve with age.

In my ONE I get 36-38mpg with mixed driving now it's up to 14k miles. I got more like 33-35 when the car was newer.

I don't have aircon but would expect that to increase your fuel consumption slightly.

[pflowers]

Thanks.

The car has done 12,500 miles so I suppose I will just have to accept it.

I might mention it at the next service though, although knowing BMW they will do nothing about it.

[pflowers]

Just got back from a regular 420 mile round trip to see friends ( first time in cooper ) great car for long journeys.

Route 95% motorway, steady speed 80 ish. Filled up for journey back now 29.6 mpg - surely not right. My wifes old Galaxy 2.3 tank would do 30 mpg on the same trip.

Of course the car was not bought for its low running cost but surely we should expect better. ?

[KenL]

When my ONE was ~1000 miles old I drove to south Wales and back. On the way home got ~43mpg.

So, your <30 doesn't sound good. A Cooper should only be a bit less efficient on a long cruise.

[Moley]

Unfortunately thats as good as you will get unless you drive every where at 40 Mph, I've had 2 Mini Coopers and now given up with them for that very reason.
I now drive a Seat Ibiza 130 Tdi sport.

[Sirobbo]

pflowers,

That`s about all I could get out of my Cooper. My S3 (1.8 turbo, 225 bhp remember) regularly gets 34mpg on a steady motorway run. I too mentioned it to BMW on one of my many visits to the service department and they said it was "about right for mixed driving".

[pflowers]

Where does the official combined of 42.2 come from? I drive 50 - 60,000 miles per year and every other car I have owned / driven gets within 10 % of the official figure on a run.

Somebody is telling lies.

I suppose though if they stated that the mpg was 30 they would not sell many.

What the hell is the cooper s like then, poor economy was one of the reasons we did not buy one.

Looks like we have been stitched up.

[Paul]

I get around 32 from Coopers, around 28 from the Cooper S

[HarryHBMCC]

Mileage depends entirely on how you drive your Cooper. To see the posted figures you need to shift early and drive the speed limit. If you drive it hard and fast the mileage sucks since the drag coefficient isn't good with the shape of the car. Driving 80-90MPH on the highway plus some city driving with the AC on all the time gives me 35MPG but redlining most shifts, not having many miles between stop signs and driving stupid fast (over 90MPH) drops it to as low as 28MPG or so. Driving 60-70MPH and shifting reasonably low gives much better mileage, 40MPG in mixed driving which is close to the published mixed figure of 41MPG (average of 50% 49MPG hwy and 50% 34MPG city). Long trips at 60-70MPH yield very good mileage.

Tips: keep your tire pressure up and don't use ethanol fuel for best mileage. Above 50MPH using AC is better for gas mileage than having the windows open but around town at 35MPH, windows are better.

Harry

[cristo]

my MC gets average of 27 around town (US 27
would be 32 for imp. gal) and best was 33 on long
highway trip (avg 70-80mph) (US 33 would be
39.6 for imperial gal. 3500 miles so far and loving it.

[pflowers]

Thanks for all the info on economical driving everyone.

All I am trying to say is that when I drive other vehicles in exactly the same way that I drive the cooper I get figures very close to those specified for the relevant car, so obviously my driving style is reasonably economical.

What is so different about the cooper ? I think I know - the quoted figures are a load of cr*p. To be honest I really don't care, if I wanted good MPG I would have bought a ' D '

Thanks

[MaRKaSaURuS]

Quote: Originally Posted by pflowers

Just got back from a regular 420 mile round trip to see friends ( first time in cooper ) great car for long journeys.

Route 95% motorway, steady speed 80 ish. Filled up for journey back now 29.6 mpg - surely not right. My wifes old Galaxy 2.3 tank would do 30 mpg on the same trip.

Of course the car was not bought for its low running cost but surely we should expect better. ?

depends how you drive, crusin at 60 i can get over 45mpg , 80+ around 35mpg anythin higher it drops fast due to the high revs. im very surprised at your low economy, and i thought mine was bad. even when i race it around the average never goes below 30.7mpg.

[profyaffle]

I've got nearly 15k on my 53 cooper and average 38-40mpg, mostly motorway and A roads and a steady right foot. Push it hard though and this figure drops lots!!! I find Optimax gives better economy/performance although it costs about £5 more for a tank full.

[twouptons]

I've been wondering a bit about mileage vs tire size. I would bet that the book values are done with the base 175/15 tires, while many of the cars actually sold have the 195/16s or larger. The wider tires could have a significant impact, particularly at speed, and that's before even factoring rolling resistance and pressure...
-Eric