I have a 2006 MC, not an MCS...I hit 406 miles and still hadn't heard the "ding" warning on my first tankful. I think that's goooood so I am pretty "tankfull" I figured my mileage would be lousy til it had more miles..not the case. About 70% was highway.

 

I can tell you that the tank was completely filled as i pumped 11.5 gallons into it but Ive only gotten 160 miles to a tank full after several fill ups. Im already thinkig of getting rid of it.

 

What is your OBC showing for average MPH for a tank?

Worst MPG on one tank for my 2002 manual MCS was hand calculated at 17.1 MPG (199 miles / 11.662 gallons). My OBC read 19.1 MPG and 15.5 MPH average for that tank. On this particular tank it was all stop and go driving on the streets of San Francisco. My MINI has averaged 31.3 MPG over almost 17,000 miles of road trips to Oregon and Socal.

An MCS will get crappy mileage in all stop and go traffic on city streets. An automatic will get worse mileage than a stick, but I'm not sure it should be as bad as yours.

I think you need the dealer to check it out.

 

Something is not right - cars do get better mileage after they are well broken in, but yours seems very low (I would suggest you track it for a while manually however before coming to conclusions). There are various things that might effect it -gas quality, how you drive, etc - but in any case it seems like you need to bring it into the dealer. These cars run notoriously rich, perhaps yours needs something worked on - after all, if they are misrepresenting the car's mileage it shouldn't just be dropped, there should be some action to protect consumers.

Funny thing, BMW has had this problem before - I recall reading posts from 3 series owners (mostly with the sport pack I think) reporting what horrible mileage they were getting, in the teens. This was with manual transmissions - cars had idle issues, stalling, etc and it may be that the software fix attempt for that also made the mpg wretched.

Our MCSa is a city car too, perhaps we'll do better about tracking the mileage and see what we get (although we are both performance oriented and do not drive for good mpgs really).

PS: fwiw, on the highway in 6th the car runs just a hair over 2k, so the auto has the potential to be good on gas.

 

The OBC is showing 12.9 miles per gallon.

 

How many miles-per-hour did you average for the tank?

 

I'd say have you dealer look at it if it keeps up. You may have a very strange lemon. I find it extremely strange problems haven't popped up in other areas of the car (especially the engine) if you are getting such bad milage on the car.

 

Take it to the dealer! What are you waiting for? That's what your warranty is for......it won't cost you a dime. How can you sit around feeling like you're ready to get rid of it without taking it in to see if there's something wrong with the computer or whatever? Mini's just don't get 12 mpg. Whenever there was a problem with my '02 I headed right for the dealership.....ASAP. The last thing I would do is sit around fretting about the problem without doing anything about it. Get on it, pal!

 

Using the numbers supplied (12.9 mpg and 160 miles in a tank), that comes out to 12.4 gallons on a fill. That's a full tank in my book (7/8 or so)

Definately take it back to the dealer. There's a major problem there. I'm kind of curious as to how the engine sounds when it runs and if there's a puddle of oil in your intake or if your exhaust is exploding rather than popping or if your plugs or wires are disconnected or your if your SC is turning or... well basically, there could be a lot reasons for the trouble. I don't mean to play the guilt trip, but you should have had it back to the dealer way sooner, like after the first tank at the latest. I don't know how the law is in your neck of the woods, but here in Cali, you only have 30 days to invoke the lemon law.

 

its pretty hard to get that low of MPG in a MINI.

I would say stop relying on the OBC and do calulations yourself.

My driving style yeilds about 20-21 mpg in the winter. the WORST i have ever seen was an avg of 17, the first week i had an S. i think there was a reason for that one!

Mileage driven divided by gallons used to fill tank to the top = MPG

fill the tank, reset your trip indicator.
drive until you fell you need to refill (I never drop below 1/2 tank mark).
fill it up to the top till it clicks.
divide the mileage you have driven by the gallons used to fill the car.

very simple. i do it every time i fill up. city or highway driving, shifting at about 3-4k rpm average, i get roughly 20-21 mpg.

 

I’m with MINI USA. I’m sorry to read about your problem with your new Cooper S. If you would like our assistance, please phone us at (866) ASK MINI or email us at MINI.Assistance@askMINIUSA.COM and mention Reference #200604101387 so that we can help you more efficiently.

 

Yay MiniDivision to the rescue! Good luck!

mb

 

You know, I hadn't thought of this simple solution before...

Is it possible that someone is stealing your gas? Just pulling 3 or 4 gallons (about all that someone could realisticly pull out and walk away with by themselves) would show this type of mileage loss.

If nothing else, has there been an update on this, the thread started last month sometime.

 

I bet your are leaking fuel somehow.

 

If your computer has the wrong settings for wheel/tire size, it will give you incorrect values for your distance, therefore you are ACTUALLY driving further than you think, you computer is merely registering less... I would imagine the computer would have to have a much smaller value for your wheel diameter than is possible such that your wheel speed would appear lgreater (thus less distance travelled) and so worse milage...

Some other things to check:

-People have had trouble with their bypass valves sticking closed (due to leading vacuum hose) which forces the engine to work much harder... but I think this would be noticeable during your driving. It's not a big deal, and its an easy fix if it is.

- Break-in period is pretty bad for gas mileage... my MPG improved by almost 8mpg after 1500miles!

-Finally I would say it could be something in the engine management, but I find this less likely...

-Oh, and don't forget to check your tire pressure! This is always overlooked and can really hurt mileage.

RM2k5

 

with my 06 mcs, i get 23 city/29 hwy...

maybe a reprogram of the brain is needed....?


Just filled up today... 303miles...12.9Gal....23.4mpg

 

MINIs do get horrible fuel economy in real city driving (frequent lights, idling, etc.), but not nearly that bad. I drive a MC and I usually get around 20-23 in the city, but it's very easy to do much worse than that if I drive enthusiastically.

He said that all of his driving is in the city. Maybe he doesn't want a ticket or a vehicular manslaughter charge.

 

now that I think about it, after looking at the milage I've been getting in the last week just driving to work and back (less than 4 miles each way, with many stretches of less than 300-400 yards between stops, and I'm getting 15-16 on my less patient days and over 20 when the lights are good), knowing that sunoco in NY is 10% ethanol, and assuming your traffic is as bad as mine, there might not be anything wrong.

 

I took it to the dealer this week and they couldnt find anything wrong but they did agree that my MPG was very poor they also mentioned theyve only seen one other car at the service center with such poor gas milage. It was a 2005 MCS. They also mentioned they were unable to identify the problem with the 2005 MCS. HELPLESS!

 

maybe your transmission is never shifting out of 1st.
what's your OBC showing for average speed??

 

GBMINI#3 is also an MCSa and living in Boston we also get winter gas.
My worst tank in the year I have owned it was still over 23mpg, and I normally get 300+ miles from a tank - always more than 250 miles!

The dealership MUST resolve this problem for you, or you should lemon the car (assuming your daily journey isn't only 10 miles or something - GBMINI#3 does very poorly until it is warmed up each morning)

 

I live in a small city and stop and goes are the name of the game. When I first was breaking in the MINI, my gas mileage was poor and I was disappointed. It is a 05 MCSa. There was a program fix that was recommended and installed for my car and this improved the driving performance and gas mileage. I was very pleased. My city driving mpg is about 24.

It would be disappointing to own a MINI and not have great gas mileage.

 

10.9 miles