[OK'sMini]

NYC metro area to Hamptons, 100 miles, some stop and go, 60-70 mph when able, 1200 miles on odometer, 93 octane, AC on. Nice.

[kshapiro]

Quote:

Originally posted by OK'sMini
NYC metro area to Hamptons, 100 miles, some stop and go, 60-70 mph when able, 1200 miles on odometer, 93 octane, AC on. Nice.

Absolutely, positively no freeakin' way! You've made amistake somewhere there. One hundred miles is too short a distance to calculate that on anyway. You couldn't get 36.7 MPG out of a MCS at 70 MPH, with "stop and go" thrown in and the AC on. You'd be lucky to get 26.7

[OK'sMini]

Sorry but it's real. Stop and go was a small portion of the trip but it's totally in line with my other averages. My daily commute which is probably 65% highway and 35% town is giving me about 30-31 mpg.

[Wynn]

I won't discount the possibility that he's right, for two reasons. First, I find the mileage reported by others to be absolutely alarmingly poor, relative to reasonable expectations for a small car and small engine. It's shocking to think that you WOULDN'T get 30mpg on a MINI Cooper S. I do accept the truth, of course, but I have to also believe that the potential is there for much better performance under good conditions. Which brings me to my second thought:

My 1992 Nissan Maxima SE (3 liter DOHC V6, 190hp) is rated for something rather sad, like 21mpg city and 23.5mpg highway-- I was always amazed at how small the expected difference is. Anyway, on a trip across the south a few years ago, driving many hundreds of miles each day at 74mph with the cruise control on and A/C off (windows down), I got an AMAZING efficiency of over 30mpg, tank after tank. That's almost 50% better than rated. ...To get 20% over the rated efficiency would have surprised and delighted me, but 50% was almost not credible; yet, it was verified, and clearly true. Whereas I have to refill the tank every 260 miles in city driving, I was going over 400 miles at a stretch on one tank for that journey.

Which just goes to show you that when the conditions are right, this is one of those ways that your car might exceed expectations.

...Regarding the otherwise-observed poor figures we've seen for the Cooper and Cooper S, is that just because there's really too little engine for the weight of the car? That's my theory, but I'm an expert on Dr. Seuss, rather than cars.

wynn

[Smokey 4]

or are we hand crunching these figures. From your post I'm lead to beleive that this is from the computer, my computer has been high on every tank so far. Not much but about 1.4 -2.3 MPG. Pen and paper I'm averaging 28.7, computer varies from 30.1 to 29.7. Got 1700 miles in 12 days, and 5 tanks of gas (93 Octane).

Now I will freely admit I can't seem to keep my right foot off the front bumper while driving

[10 Pence Short]

36 aint that good!

I've done 300 mile motorway runs in my CTR twice now.

I sit at 60mph and be as careful as possible with the throttle.

On both runs I managed 46mpg (yes, I do know how to do the math). I did it twice just to confirm the amazing figure.

197bhp, 2,0 litres, 46mpg. Beat that!!

[AprilWhine]

Quote:

Originally posted by 10 Pence Short
36 aint that good!

I've done 300 mile motorway runs in my CTR twice now.

I sit at 60mph and be as careful as possible with the throttle.

On both runs I managed 46mpg (yes, I do know how to do the math). I did it twice just to confirm the amazing figure.

197bhp, 2,0 litres, 46mpg. Beat that!!

Sorry, I believe OK'sMINI, but I think you may be stretching the truth a bit.

[noahe]

Are we talking US or Imperial Gallons here?

[Bilbo Baggins]

Quote:

Originally posted by 10 Pence Short
I've done 300 mile motorway runs in my CTR twice now.

I sit at 60mph and be as careful as possible with the throttle.

On both runs I managed 46mpg (yes, I do know how to do the math). I did it twice just to confirm the amazing figure.

197bhp, 2,0 litres, 46mpg. Beat that!!

I can believe it. In a Ford F-150 pick-up with a 4.9L in-line 6, 5 speed manual, driving very carefully on a motorway trip, being careful to keep it at 60mph I was able to achieve 20mpg when my normal milage has consistantly been 12 - 13 mpg. I was able to duplicate the same thing on several occasions, as long as I can maintain the 60mph, usually I end up around 70mph and blow the milage down to the 12mpg range.

Drafting large lorrys/trucks, or tractor-trailers is also another way to increase the milage. Just don't ****-off the other driver, sometimes they don't take to kindly to the sport of drafting. They confuse it with tailgateing. Hmmmmmm, I wonder why!

[GMINI]

I got 320 miles (26mpg) on a full tank in my SAAB, everyday hwy conditions. Frequent trips from SW CT to Montauk get me over 400 miles.

I can never figure it out. The air? Low altitude?

We'll see how it goes with the MINI S when i pick it up next week!

[BruceK]

Quote:

Originally posted by noahe
Are we talking US or Imperial Gallons here?

Actually, that seems to be an unanswered issue with the On Board Computer.

Many MINI owners have reported gas mileage through the OBC that is just about exactly 20% higher than doing a paper and pen calculation of miles driven divided by gallons used. (The UK's Imperial gallon is 20% larger than the US gallon )

There is speculation that the OBC is only calibrated to produce MPG figures in Imperial gallons and not US gallons.

Has anyone contacted MINIUSA about this??

[An_S_4_Me]

The best I ever got was 32.6 MPG (running on Optimax 98RON) which was only due to me *****ing everywhere to see what the best I could get was.

The worst I ever got was on the last tank, 20.5MPG!! That involved some serious hardcore racing through the peak district though so was to be expected really.

£30 of petrol for 180 miles! NOooooooooooooooooooo!!

Andy

P.S. All measurements are Imperial.

[An_S_4_Me]

PPS, all my measurements are done the old fashioned way as I dont have OBC.

Andy

[cordial]

My wife's SLK 230 K (supercharged 2.3 litre engine with 190 odd horse power and 200 or 300 Kg more ballast)uses an average of 9L/100Km (normal driving ). It does seem hard to believe that the MCS should be thirstier??!!!

[Viscount Charles]

I've always recorded my MPG obsessively for each of the cars I've owned.

I always fill the tank to the brim, so use the pump's readout for the amount of petrol used since the last fill, and log the mileage between each tank-full too. So short of installing some pretty sophisticated equipment, my method provides a darned accurate assessment of fuel usage.

Right now I'm filling up with Shell Optimax when the one pump in town is unoccupied, 95RON at any other time.
And I can't say that it makes much difference to the figures which I use.

My driving is a mixture of fast dual carriageway (driven above the speed limit? Surely not ...), crawling dual carriageway at rush hour, and around town, doing about 60 miles a day.

And I'm getting 26mpg pretty consistently. This is with fairly hard - but not harsh - acceleration and smooth braking. The A/C is usually on. Turn off the A/C for most of the time, and do more miles on the motorway in 6th gear and it'll get up to 30mpg. The best I've seen was 32mpg, at the end of running in - so taking it easy, with an engine starting to loosen up a bit. I can imagine getting 34mpg by being insanely careful with no A/C, but I didn't buy a Cooper S to be fuel-efficient.

35mpg plus? I doubt it ...

[Washy]

I'm with VC on this one. I get about 26-27mpg from my S, that is with shell optimax.
I actually get better out of my 325ci..

[cordial]

Thanks for your feedback, VC.

I certainly didn't order an MCS to save fuel. I want to have FUN!

On comparing the 2 cars, I just thought such a difference was incredible. Hopefully, owning an S will be incredible...

[Washy]

Quote:

Originally posted by cordial
Thanks for your feedback, VC.

I certainly didn't order an MCS to save fuel. I want to have FUN!

Hopefully, owning an S will be incredible...

I have had some problems with my S, now resolved thankfully, but I would not change it for anything it is so much fun.
The fuel consumption does not bother me. I expected the car to be fairly expensive to run when I bought it.

[noahe]

Keep in mind that the MINI is not very aerodynamic. Great compared to old cars, but not compared to new cars. As it shares much of it's basic shape from the old car, it inherits the flying brick aerodynamics. So speeding a little, affects your fuel consumption a lot. I noticed a great difference between speeding on our roadtrip (Canada), and not speeding (US).

Also, heavy-footed acceleration hurts the mileage, but where's the fun in that?

Overall, combined cycle, I can easily make a 10 mpg difference, just by changing my style.

[swamos]

Have we tried getting the power out by reving lightly? Instead of putting on lots of throttle and changing up at 2.5-3k, put on a little throttle, and let the thing rev lightly (2.5-3.5k). That way you get your power out without using as much fuel (I think).