Hey Everyone.

Over the past week I've been pushing my MINI to get the absolute best mileage I possibly could.

The good news: I reached a whole new mileage high out of one tank of gas!

The bad news: It wasn't easy and I almost gave up a few times.

Check out my story on my blog: http://goo.gl/WbXSD

Thanks Everyone! Please post comments and feedback.

John Lindauer
DrivingMyMINI
www.drivingmymini.blogspot.com

 

Since you reference your shift point, I assume you have a manual? If so, not using the Sport button didn't do anything for your mpgs.

2,000 rpm shift point seems a little low - may have lost some efficiency due to the engine lugging a tiny bit when you hit the next higher gear. Sweet spot seems to be in the 2,600 range give or take.

If you were really committed though, you would have gone and got some skinny LRR tires before starting your experiment. :-D

 

hypermilers are a pain in the a$$ to all traffic around them...

for every gallon you save, other drivers waste 10...not to mention the accidents hypermilers cause

carefully watch the traffic around you ... you are causing grief for everyone around you ...

go with the flow is the best for all

scott

 

In 3+ years of hypermiling, I have yet to see any accidents occur behind me. Speeders are far more likely to cause or be involved in accidents than hypermilers.

 

not my experience living in lalaland for 5 years

hypermilers = danger, they are almost always out of sync with the rest of the traffic, speed does not cause accidents, difference in speed does

scott

 

If they were good drivers, even going fast, the presence of a hypermiler should not cause them to waste any gas nor get in an accident.

 

Can you expand on this? I love the way the car drives in sport mode, but have been avoiding it to keep fuel economy as high as possible. (So far I have 170 miles on my tank, and only two "bars" down). I would think the increased throttle sensitivity (and whatever's going on with the exhaust to make it pop and burble all the time) would decrease mileage, whatever the shift point is.

 

I'm sorry but why buy a mini to save gas.... these cars are FUN TO DRIVE. Driving like that is extremely boring and dull. You're in a MINI, step on it and take it around some turns.

Gladly getting 23 MPG while driving her hard 24/7.

 

Hmm, guess I do need to get with the times and modify that. I forgot that the newer models have the pop and burble which is burning some extra gas. So maybe for very late models that have that option, keeping sport off may be worth it even in a manual.

Otherwise, the sport button is only changing the throttle mapping. I know I'm not alone in the opinion that the increased sensitivity of the throttle with the sport button on actually increases my ability to control the throttle. And with better control of the throttle, I can avoid getting into it harder than necessary. Clearly this may not be true for everyone - some folks like the control better with sport off. The point being the sport button and/or throttle mapping in itself is not going to affect your gas mileage. It is going to come down to how well you control the throttle.

 

did you run the car dry?

 

Because part of the soul of a MINI is fuel-efficiency. Paying attention to fuel-efficiency along with the fun factor is part of experiencing everything that makes a MINI a MINI. To wit, a couple passages from the MINI USA web site:

and

If one is ignoring the fuel efficiency capabilities of a MINI, then they are ignoring part of the purpose for its existence.

And imo, driving a MINI fast vs driving a MINI fast AND maximizing fuel efficiency is like the difference between driving a car around a circle making only left hand turns vs driving a car around a circuit that requires both left and right hand turns. Much more of a challenge to try to maximize all the functionality of the MINI.

 

Gotcha, and I agree, sometimes with a vaguer pedal it's possible to over apply throttle.

I'm not familiar with the mechanics of the pop and burble...is the combustion taking place in the exhaust system rather than the combustion chamber, which is wasted energy since it's not being used to move the piston? However, it usually occurs when letting off the throttle (engine braking), where the fuel supply is cut by the computer anyways (right?).

 

Right... How many accident reports contain the phrase "caused by one car going too slow", versus how many contain "excessive speed was a factor"?

 

I guess it depends where you are hyper mileage that depends if it is safe or not. If you are on the freeway doing say 60-65 in the right hand lane I see no problem with that. Even if you are doing the same thing on a surface street out of the faster peoples way there is no issue. But if you jump on the freeway get in the left lane and go the minium of 40mph then there is a big problem. You will probably be run down by some jack *** doing triple digits if not you will probably be shot by some lunatic. When I am commuting back and forth to work I try to save as much gas as possible but, on the weekends that is out the door.

 

I don't worry about the gas. We bought our cars for fun. Even having fun they get pretty good fuel economy. If I was worried about the gas or couldn't afford it I would have bought some other uninspiring brand of car.

As it is were miles ahead of the guy that drives his F250 truck back and forth to work cause he's cool and has no real need for the truck except for the look at me factor.

 

This is a physics FACT!
(you may try to say that exceeding your available traction due to speeding but the root cause is still the speed differential between tires and surface)

 

One more point to note... "excessive speed was a factor" is just the lazy answer. Works both was though... EXCESSIVELY SLOW FOR CONDITIONS. <--- Saw this one in person, Grandma was pissed-off!

I find nothing wrong with getting the best efficiency out of your vehicle but being a hinderance to traffic is NOT the answer. Some vehicles hit a sweetspot for MPG higher than our MINIs. My BMW is 67mph, the 300zx was 71mph, MINI is 58mph... you get the idea.

Suggested:
-Diet for you (unless you are 12% BF or less, gotta be healthy)
-Diet for car (remove rear seats, tool kit, spare if equipped, light wheels)
-Narrow LRR tires inflated to slightly elevated psi
-Lowering springs (aerodynamics)

 

Now that we are in very strong agreement on! Anyone doing well under the speed limit in the left lane needs to pull their head out and move to the right!

Speed differential may be the proximate cause of damage and injuries, but speed differential between a car and the road/trees/walls (and other stationary objects) is frequently a significant contributor. And I still contend that several orders of magnitude more accidents are caused or contributed to by excessive speed than by excessive slowness.

But if you want to drive your MINI fast, that's cool with me. Just don't crawl up my butt when I'm cruising at a slower speed in the right lane, trying to react well in advance to traffic and road conditions.

You enjoy your car your way, I'll enjoy mine my way.

And it's fun taking junctions between freeways at 50+, especially the ones that have a "suggested" speed of 25 MPH.

 

So during my mileage experiment, I stuck to the right lane as much as possible as I was hypermiling. I didn't want to interfere with traffic flow in the fast lanes and didn't want to **** people off. However, those triple digit drivers you mention above also love to use the right lanes. That's where I got the tailgaters, dirty looks and middle fingers. Totally unjustified. I was doing 55 or 60 on highways. If they want to do 70, 80 or 90 or more...they should use the fast lanes (just like I do when I'm NOT hypermiling!).

 

Oh Man...you totally got me on the tires! Not sure I would be THAT committed to throw on LRR tires! And totally agree about the 2600 rpm sweet spot. the only reason i was shifting earlier was because the MiniConnect app with the efficiency (fishbowl) game, says to shift at 2k rpms. But, like you, I was wondering if I was actually wasting fuel.

 

No...didn't run it dry. But, came a bit close for comfort. I don't always let it get that low...this was just for the experiment.

 

I do love those on and off ramps!

 

I read your blog, but didn't see your mpg for the tank. What were you able to achieve?

In my Justacooper, my worst avg tank (hand calculated, not using the OBC) is 36, and the best I averaged on a tank was 46.8 (out in the country, 55mph, flat country, no traffic to speak of (and I never drove under the limit, so no worries about being an impediment to the flow of traffic) and very few traffic lights. No special driving techniques except gentle throttle and some coasting before having to stop. Can't ask for much more than that!