Curious what other Clubman S owners are getting in the way of gas mileage....

I just did a trip from Florida to VA (800 miles) and averaged 35 mpg at an average speed of 72 mph.

 

24 - 28 around town, usually in Mid mode, sometimes Sport.

40-42 freeway with occasional SoCal stop and go but usually cruising 60 to 70, actual speed

Interestingly, around 70 steady is better mileage than steady 60-65. These little cars wanna go fast.

 

At 7200 mi. 2016 F54 nonS 33 mpg overall half hiway, half suburban.

 

Any JCW F54 owners want to chime in?

 

Easter Sunday 84 mile round trip inland to see the in-laws. Mostly freeway, light traffic, some stop and go town driving. Mid mode, cruise control at true 67 mph for 80% of trip.

Light pedal (spouse in car), holiday weekend drivers and California Highway Patrol everywhere so I took it easy.

Reset the computer at start of trip. 37.6 average MPG was the final reading when I parked the car at home after the 84 mile round trip.

Happy Easter to all.

Zagman: JCW F54 owners will provide unreliable MPG data -- they drive hard... because they can

 

Over the winter MPGs have not been as high as I was expecting, probably due to winter blend gas and low temperatures (northeast). Fully loaded with people and a roof-box crusing in the low 70s, returns low 30s mpg. Sport or Mid mode with short trips around town is mid 20s. Highest I've ever seen is ~38mpg in Green mode, averaging 60mph on country roads. I would imagine that can be pushed toward 40 with summer blend gasoline.

For sure the killer is short trips. I ride a bike to work, and the kid post-school pick-up run is 2 miles each way, so that really does a number on the mileage. Even in green mode with a gentle foot it's hard to break 25mpg. In sport it's closer to 20. Overall, depending on driving style can result in anywhere from 250 to 400+ miles on a tank of gas.

 

My F54 JCW has about 2200 miles on it now. No full tanks expended on highway miles so always mixed miles. I don't think a tank has done worse than 25MPG. A couple of tanks had more miles highway than city and I saw 28 - 29. Seems like sport mode doesn't adversely affect mileage much and it seems to be getting slightly better as I add miles to the odometer. It's not really broken in all the way yet so I expect it to improve a bit more.

I just wish the tank was a bit bigger, haven't seen 300 miles on a tank yet. Weekend trips to Northern Michigan will start up for me soon, I'll check in with some highway numbers then. I will ONLY use green mode on the highway, using it any other time is just depressing. I will probably buy the Dinan piggyback unit at some point and we will have to see what that does too, but probably not till I've hit 5,000 or so miles at least.

 

Same 84 mile trip (this time 86 miles) as last reported. Heavier Mother's Day traffic, more stop and go than usual. Slightly lower freeway speeds for much of the trip 55 - 65 for about 2/3rds. 2 adults, no junk in trunk. A little more weight for the return trip due to massive Mother's Day luncheon.

33.9 Average MPG

 

Just completed a 650 run up to Yosemite and back. Freeway, highway, mountain roads, including a bit of freeway stop and go. Mostly cruised along at highway speeds (or a little more .

34.6 average MPG with Dinan in Sport+ on 91 top tier pump gas. 2 people and light luggage. High elevations and sea level. Temps in the 90's and a bit over 100 through Bakersfield.

The Clubman purred the entire trip and seemed to love it most when I gave it the spurs in Sport mode.

 

I'm 1600 miles in on my JCW F54. Half highway and surface streets. 27.8 mpg.

 

I'd love to know what the milage difference is, if you remove the rear seats. Or at least the rear seat backs. I had them out on my Justa S (hardtop thingy) cause I needed the space, and didn't need the weight. However, with the Clubman, you have to remove the hatch area lower cubby cover too, or the floor really isn't flat any more. I need it sorta flat, since I'd like the option to sleep in the back, when needed.

So I have not removed any seats yet. But the gas milage concerns me!

(Okay, I've only had it for 13 days so far.)

edit: then again, if I have to remove that floor-cubby cover in the back, while I'm installing some towing wiring real soon now, I may just take a look at the level of the seat backs too.
Deb

 

Haven't had any good long highway runs yet, but around town I am generally showing in the 25-26mpg range. So far, been pretty happy with the results. I need to transfer my hand written log into my tracking spreadsheet to see what the specific numbers are. It is still amazing how much of a difference there is between the winter and summer blend fuels are that they sell around here...usually in the neighborhood of 3-5mpg.

With Deb's (godskid) question above, I don't think you would see really any change in mileage with the seatbacks removed. When you consider the percentage of weight of the seatbacks to the total weight of the car, it is less than 1%. If you plan on snoozing in the back, I would have to think you would want the rear seat backs and cubby cover to give you a flat surface to lay on, no?

 

That's probably true, about needing the back to be flat to snooze in there. And it's certainly easier to carry passengers (the once every 5 years that I need to do so) with the seat backs in place.
I might still take a gander under the storage cover, to see what the hinges look like. They weren't in the way when I took out the back seats on my Justa Cooper, but that was small enough that I never even dreamed of sleeping there. I piled emergency blankets on the seat, to make the area level, and put a throw rug atop it all. But only for luggage.
I'll probably wind up leaving these in place!

 

Picked up my 2018 F54 JCW last Wednesday. After 7 days I put about 700 miles on (unusual, but work had me all over the place); mostly highway but a lot of that in moderate traffic. When I leave it in Green mode, I average about 32 (popping back into normal for quick lane changes is almost like hitting nitrous!). In normal mode it hovers around 30mpg, and likewise drops to the high 20s when playing on the back roads in Sport.


I spoke to my Dealership about a Dinan tune that they now do as of last month. Anyone know how much that will affect my mileage? 30mpg is horrid, but a far cry from the 38-42 I was getting with my '08 non-S.

 

Having switched jobs in mid-July, my commute is now a lot different than it used to be. I used to commute on slow surface streets with traffic and lights and only got about 26mpg on most tanks.

Since I've switched jobs, my overall average is just under 30mpg (29.8 or so). I usually pull off about 31mpg on the commute itself but the around-town stuff in the evenings drags the average down a bit.

I find that auto-start/stop makes quite a big difference. I find it quite annoying because the restarts are a bit rough, but if you care about MPG, leaving that feature on is the way to go.

I never use green mode, BTW. Can't stand how slow the car feels.

 

Good to know that you see a difference by using the auto-start/stop. You may make me use it some more.

I don't actually turn it off, but after selecting SPORT, I also push my shift lever to the left, to get into the *other* kind of Sport driving. (If you don't push the **** up or down Ithat's M mode), it will still shift for you .... but there is a noticable increase in sportiness. So I use the SPORT silver ring, and the SPORT push lever to the left.

Oh, and being in the shift-lever SPORT mode, disables the auto-stop/start. I do find that useful (to have off) when I'm pulling into my garage, and trying to inch up to the "park here" marker. If I'm not in shift-level-sport, I have to flick the button to turn OFF the auto-stop/start. It totally interferes with braking and inching to a spot.

Actually, normal "D" mode (sport or not) has a higher idle (I think?) and thus it's quite hard to inch to the right spot. In shift-lever-SPORT, I can inch to the correct spot much more easily.

Deb

 

Mine's a manual transmission -- I have none of those concerns!

 

Oops -- sorry! I've mostly had manuals, but decided to slum it this time with automatic, since my hands are acquiring some arthritis.

 

F55, Cooper 3 cylinder automatic here. Got 45 mpg on a trip this weekend. 70-75 on the Interstate. Usually get around 40 mpg. Regular gas. Very happy with mileage and smoothness of transmission.

 

38 to 42 mpg indicated. Best was 46.7 mpg indicated (I was trying). Where I live there is no such thing as city driving.
Dale

 

I have noticed my average mpg/tankful has dropped a bit into the 22 ~ 24 mpg range. Doing more city driving on shorter trips around town running errands. Also, the right foot is getting heavier as I continue to marvel at how much fun it is to toss the Clubman around. And I can't keep my fingers off the paddle shifters.

When I pay attention and really try, it's easy to bump the mpg up into the low ~ mid 30's, but not as much fun per gallon. Still running 91 top tier pump gas with the Dinan set to Sport+ (+3psi boost). Also it's almost automatic to click into Sport mode at the start of even around town drives. Just nicer throttle tip in and tighter shift algorithm.

Paid $3.21/gal for 91 last week and saw Chevron at $3.45 yesterday, so with prices rising it might call for some restraint, or not...

Coming up on 6,000 miles on the odometer. Car still feels as new almost a year into it.

 

LOL. I've stopped worrying about my gas mileage. Oh yeah, Sport mode is always the first thing I set.....

 

Drove inland from the Orange County coast up into La Canada through hideous LA freeway stop-and-go, then out inland through Pasadena at freeway speeds, then down through Anaheim on the freeway back to the Coast. 28.7 combined MPG, Sport Mode, Sport+ on the Dinan, fair amount of cruise control at 70 when I could, too much stop-and-go when I couldn't.

As an aside, we were in the HOV lane and following the flow, I glanced down at the speedo and the analog readout was 80. These cars are so happy speeding along.

My wife, who has an uncanny speed sensitivity (when I'm driving) did not notice we were flying along. The car just hunkers down and zips.

 

Looking at the Clubman vs S ALL4, and the gov't website says the S gets better mileage that the non-S?? Wife is concerned about mileage, but I'd rather have the S, esp. if the mileage is better!

 

These cars, S or non-S, can get very good mileage, as in over 40MPG, if one really tries to eek out the most.

But, we are usually drawn to MINIs because of their performance, fun, and practicality, usually in that order. And the Clubman All4, which has some heft, delivers a much more BMW-like driving experience in the S or JCW format, for sure. The larger 4 cylinder engine on the S/JCW is a bit more soul-satisfying, but the smaller non-S engine definitely has its fans -- especially if one likes to feel that little motor working hard to deliver reasonable performance. You gotta drive them both, and feel the difference.

Depends how/where one drives and what sort of driving experience one seeks.

But, let's say one pushes a Clubman S All4 hard around town with some stop and go, with firm acceleration from a lot of stops (which I have been known to do from time to time) and the average mileage drops to the low ~ mid 20's. As compared to more moderate driving in the same circumstance, which will push the mileage up into the low ~ mid 30's.

So, let's call it a 10 MPG differential depending on driving style and habits.

So, the hot rod/heavy footed driver, getting 25MPG, burns 4 gallons every 100 miles, whereas the 35MPG lightfoot burns 2.85 gallons over that same 100 miles. Heavyfoot burns 1.15 gallons more every 100 miles. At $3.50/gallon, heavyfoot spends $4.02 more every 100 miles having his kicks.

From an environmental point of view, if every tankful I only get 25MPG, after 15,000 miles I've burned 172.5 more gallons than the lightfooted driver, at an opportunity cost of $603.75 for a year's extra fuel at $3.50/gallon.

Of course, in reality, in combined city/highway driving, there are times when I'm getting over 40MPG out on the freeway, which pushes my annual average mileage up closer to 30~32MPG.

So, if one does a little spirited driving, and some conservative, with-the-traffic-flow highway cruising, fuel cost differential goes way down.

Bottom line, the MINI Clubman S All4 (with a Dinan or NM or other sport performance tuner box plugged in) is a very entertaining car, especially when one zips it around quickly, but responsibly. And these cars do get solid gas mileage when consistently driven conservatively, and they also deliver reasonably good mileage when driven the way they were designed to be driven. S or non-S is more about how they "feel" than about how much gas is used, IMHO.