What are people with the base model getting for fuel economy? We've gotten 6.8l/100km on the highway a few times (34.58 mpg), but mostly around town, probably 65% in town driving, we get around 8.4 l/100 km (about 28 mpg). It seems low doesn't it when compared to the S and the ALL4 which are pretty similar. I wonder if the engine working harder to move the weight is the issue. This is also for an automatic Countryman and I would expect the manual version to be slightly better.

 

On our base automatic countryman, we average around 29 MPG. Have gotten as high as 33 MPG on long highway trips.

 

Automatic. Average 29 best 33. 2500 miles

 

base countryman manual: 28.3 average for 5k I'm not a very conservative driver

 

sounds great...im looking forward to better gas mileage....are you base countryman owners using 89 octane? or ____? to achieve that mileage. thanks in advance

 

I was originally using 89 octane per the gas cap however the guy screwed up and gave me 87 the one time. After calling my SA and consulting this forum everyone decided that was OK and have been using 87/88 since. I honestly haven't noticed a difference if I use (Shell/Exxon/Sunoco) however the 2 times I've used shittier no name gas companies (Gulf/Citgo/No-Name) I have had terrible mileage and poor performance. I even tried v-power again a few weeks ago and got nothing performance or mileage wise (and I was really paying attention). I would put in the 89 or 92/3 for peace of mind but it's like 30-40 cents more than regular where I live...

 

I've used both 89 and 91....noticed no difference.

 

zoedog did you get the optional dynamic traction control for your base? i know it comes with dynamic stability control but i would rather not get the dtc option is i dont have to. i live in mass so we get 3 or 4 weeks of bad snow. but streets are usually cleared a couple of days after signficant snow fall

 

I did not get the DTC. Haven't driven in the snow yet....but curious how it handles without 4WD. I can give an update as soon as it snows in Minneapolis which will probably be sooner than later.....though I'm not really worried about it.

 

glad you said that zoedog...im thinking that the mini countryman base is already front wheel drive and has stability control and all season tires - so should be able to handle 98 percent of the weather throughout the year in massachusetts. plus, i've driven my2003 acura tl for 8 years and it had the standard traction control which i guess now called stability in the mini and the acura was fine...i sometimes get caught up in all the hype about 4wd etc.

 

Our last fill up was our best so far at 33mpg, with 3000 miles and a bunch of fill ups our running total average is 30.5mpg. I have been using Fuelly to keep track of our overall MPG and fuel costs although the first 800 or so miles are not accounted for.

*Note, all of these fill ups are using 89 octane from Shell.

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/mspro/countryman

 

I noticed most people are using 89 octane. I gather it is considered "mid-grade, "premium" being 91? We've been using 91 so could we technically downgrade to 89?

 

As explained to us at the time we bought the car, when you open the gas filler door it says Premium but then says 89 octane. I was told that in Europe they have the same octane ratings but over there 89 is Premium. I don't know how accurate that is, but that is what we were told.

 

NOT accurate. Hopefully, that information did not come from your MA.

Fuel can have its octane rating expressed in one of (at least) three rating "standards": RON (Research Octane Number), MON (Motor Octane Number), and AKI (Anit-Knock Index). In Canada and the US (as well as a few other countries), octane ratings are expressed using AKI. In Europe, octane ratings are expressed using RON or (less likely) MON.

The AKI rating is actually an average of fuel's RON and MON ratings. This means that the AKI rating will be a lower number than the RON or MON rating number for the same fuel. So, European octane ratings will seem a bit high based on Canadian and US standards.

In Canada and the US, fuel with an AKI of 87 is considered "Regular" gasoline. An AKI of 89 can be named in several ways (no standard name) like "Plus" or "Mid-grade", and an AKI of at least 91 brings the "Super" classification. Generally, an AKI of >91 can have a number of names with "Super Plus" being rather common. I stress that while the name "Regular" has been commonly adopted for AKI 87, the other names can be all over the map.

A comparison of identical fuel with the same octane test results is shown below. The fuel is the same but its octane ratings differ based on the rating standard.

AKI RON MON
87 - 92 - 83
89 - 94 - 85
91 - 95 - 86
93 - 98 - 90

Most vehicles sold in Canada and the US have their octane requirements labeled for the AKI rating. Some might also refer to the AKI as the RON+MON/2 rating method. In either case, you will be safe using the octane recommendation for the AKI or RON+MON/2 number.

The manual states that you should use AKI 91 in your Countryman. It also states that you can run a minimum AKI of 87 in your Countryman or a minimum AKI of 89 in your Countryman S. The recommendation is not to go lower than the 87/89 minimum requirements.

HTH,

 

Excellent summary, thanks!

 

I agree, thank you. We haven't ventured into using 87 yet, but now that you posted that we might try it and see how it goes.

 

My MA mentioned that 91 should be used in the warm weather months, but they've had good experience with customers steeping down to 89 in cooler weather. I may need to try that to see how the car is affected. I'm in CO, so 91 is premium here whereas my family in the midwest has 89 as premium, I'm guessing for difference in altitude.

 

That's interesting. My guess would be that the 89 would be more of a match at higher altitude because of the lower ultimate compression available. More at sea level, higher compression, better match to higher octane rating.