Starting this thread to post some pictures of a road trip we took in our Countryman.

Someone asked how we liked our CM, I sent him this comment after returning on Saturday with 9.5 hours of Saturday drive time.

Check my picasa as I filter/edit and update some road trip pictures.

Don

 

Some great pics there old81 - I see you made it up near our way into Alberta!

I'm less than half way thru the break-in period, so I know things haven't settled yet, but I'd have to agree with you on the mileage/fuel economy so far. Not bad for what it is, but markedly worse than my Cooper S Clubman.

Thanks for posting!

 

Great pics! Looks like were in the same parts! Stan's my MA and I live in the SE part of Denver suburbia, but I'm willing to drive the hour+ since the folks down here can learn a lot when it comes to making a sale.

 

Thanks for the report, have not taken any really long road trips with it yet but I have some plans in August...

 

Posted some albums of our trip in the public area of our picasa space. Enjoy.

Don

Some of the good pictures along the trip.



On the downside of Beartooth Highway on the Wyoming side towards Yellowstone NP.



Very dirty CM, I washed RD after this 5 hr road trip, but did not get all the road grime off until Sunday. Road was clear, wet in spots and the snow was still pretty high for June.



This is the last few miles 10-15 or so of Chief Joseph Highway in Wyoming going towards Casper, WY. It had some great 70+ areas and all these nice curves.



One of the many excellent vistas in Glacier National Park, we were the only Countryman and we only saw one other MINI in Glacier, actually we did not see any others in GNP.

Don

 

Probably should put his over in the Countryman MPG area, but.... Going to add it here.

One of my peeves with the CM is the small gas tank.

This is why. We drove 2787 miles on this road trip, then I put on another 100 after my trip to the dealer on Tuesday/Wednesday.

I filled the Countryman's tank 18 times on this trip.

Average MPG for the entire trip on the NAV trip computer was 27.9 mpg.

My overall computer average speed was 56.2, most of my highway driving was 80-85+, some hwy speeds were in the 70s, but I90, I25 and I15 are flat and fast. Montana and Wyoming have posted speed limits but the Highway Patrol still observes the safe conditions speed rules, but they will flag you and give you a ticket if your being stupid.

I did not get any extra taxes on this trip. I did watch my speeds and kept below legal limits on the 2 lanes and small towns, tourist beware!

Our Countryman was loaded with two adults, back seats down, loaded up pretty well with 2 medium suitcases, about 3 other travel bags and stuff.

I never run with a spare, I believe in AAA Plus and was willing to see how MINI USA handled a failed CM in the wild country.

Closest dealers on this trip I think were Provo, UT and Seattle Washington, but I would have pushed to get it flat-bedded back to Colorado.

Three issues came up and I thought one was going to put us on the flat-bed, but the CM just kept on chugging along.

It is a delightful road and trip machine, I plan on more trips this fall. Probably visit all 5 National Parks in Utah again, since it has been a few years.

Don.

Btw, our CM ALL4 S is my wifes daily driver, so it now has 7200+ miles with smiles.

 

It is amazing how much power it takes to push a well-laden CM (with the aerodynamics of a file cabinet) through the air at 80-85 mph! I can add 4 mpg (calculated) to my '04 MCS JCW by keeping my speed at 65 mpg and I'm sure it is has a slightly lower Cd (0.35) than a CM. For comparison, a 2010 Toyota Prius has a Cd of 0.25 (really aerodynamic) and a 2003 Hummer H2 has a Cd of 0.57 (über bulldozer territory). Remember, at highway speeds, ~60% of the engine's power is used to overcome aerodynamic effects (drag); at 80-85, I'll wager it's more than that!

Interestingly, Formula 1 cars have some of the highest Cd values, typically in the 0.70 to 1.1 range. This is the result of the aerodynamic design stressing downforce rather than speed. To compensate for all this downforce, high horsepower engines are used to counteract for drag by pushing out somewhere in the range of 800 to 1000 HP. Quite a bit more that the CMS puts out!

It would also be interesting to see what your calculated mpg was from the journey. Most BMW computers' mpg values are notoriously optimistic, especially if you do not reset the mpg value and the average speed value each time you fill up. That's why I always like to refer to calculated mpg and pretty much discount my computer's mpg readout. Even with the mpg/speed resets at fill-up time, my MCS computer is at least 8% optimistic (about 3 mpg too much).

Yes, I think the CM tank could use a bit more volume, but you can minimize the stops to fill up by adapting your driving to increase mpg. Not quite as fun, though, is it?

 

I imagine I could have optimized. What fun is that?

If you have driven Wyoming and Montana, you probably know that on some of the country highways that gas stations can be rather sparse.

Some of our fill-ups were not really needed, but I did not want to drift into town on fumes.

Our CM is still a great MINI and it feels like a MINI all the time.

Another item of note, since the 'roads' were were traveling were a bit rough with potholes and outright bad road sections I had the CM aligned this past week.

It was spot on, no road damage induced changes to the alignment. No damage to the wheels, so a pretty great setup in the ALL4 systems and suspension.

A data point, my local dealer on the north side charges $150.00 for an ALL4 alignment.

Anyone else have some numbers $$$?

Don

 

Don,

Nice Pics and congrats on your trip.

One question: Did you use the sport button on the hills or at anytime?

Thanks,
Lorin
INIMINI