I don't seem to be getting this fantastic mileage, everybody else seems to be enjoying, in my 2011 Clubman. During my regular week day driving I seem to be getting around 15-17 mpg. It's all city with lots of stop signs. I do get into the boost a bit but it isn't constant since I'm still on break in. I reset it yesterday & drove about 20 miles, driving VERY conservatively & got 18 mpg.

My MA says it will get better after the break in period but I'm at about 900 miles & it doesn't seem to get any better. I read in another thread about a JCW owner getting close to 30 around town & not much worse driving aggressively. My driving style CAN'T be that bad...

 

There is city driving and then there is city driving. Vehicles use the most fuel when stopping and then starting. Remember the engine has to rev up as it is in first or second gear. You will never get decent mileage when there are a plethora of stop signs unless you have a hybrid. I'll say that when you get on the highway the MPG will increase significantly. I currently drive a saturn aura (3 more weeks til my CM arrives!!!!) when I go into the city, my mileage drops to 15mpg but if I am on the highway It goes up to 25 + Stop signs, and untimed traffic lights kill your mileage.

 

it's all the stopping and starting that kills your mpg. I'm in the same boat. I have a regular Mini convertible and my daily mpg averages between 22 and 28. That's because my daily drive is 8 miles of Miami rush hour, most of which is bumper to bumper, school zones, a stop sign or light at every couple of blocks, etc... it's so bad that it takes me over 45 minutes to drive those 8 miles. Without traffic it takes me 10 minutes.

When school is in, traffic is worse and that's when my mpg drops closer to 20. The 2 months that school is out, traffic is a little lighter, not much, but enough that my mpg goes up to about 28. But on long drives with not much stop n go, I can get as high as 38 or 39 mpg averaged over the drive.

The thing is, different people have different ideas of what "city" driving is. And I know that for a lot of people, their "city" driving is nothing like what mine is.

Maybe you could try an experiment and take a 40 or 50 mile highway trip, set the cruise control, then see what kind of mpg you get doing that.

 

I have a 07 Cooper s and I consistently get 430 miles to a tank of gas and I still have 1 gallon left when I fill up!! And I drive it aggressive and easy and it stays the same!!! My Thor has 20,000 miles on him now and he seems to get better everytime I drive him.

 

Many folk mix up city and regular conjested surburban driving...
your mpg sounds ok,18 for city driving is fine, esp in a NEW car.
how many rpms are you running? The fact you ARE GETTING INTO BOOST tells me that for city driving you are driving with pretty fast starts....

 

I average about 29mpg in my 2012 MC.....lots of traffic!!

 

I get like 20-22mpg in my R50 in traffic. Not really heavy crawling in first gear traffic, but a lot of red lights and stop signs. On a long highway trip I was pushing 39mpg. Stop and go will kill your fuel economy, period.

 

The Clubman is heavier than the Hatch, so city driving will hurt it more. Still, it does sound somewhat lower than is reasonable. You might have your dealer check the long-term fuel trim to see if there is a long-term rich or lean condition.

You might also check for things like dragging brakes--you can put one wheel up in the air with the brakes off (for that wheel at least) and see how long it spins when you turn it by hand and let go. If one slows down and stops quickly and the others do not, that would indicate a problem on that one wheel.

What else? Maintenance could be due, but we would hope the maintenance minder would tell you in that case. Worn spark plugs could give you worse economy. A dirty air filter likewise.

How's the alignment? If the wheels are not pointed straight ahead, they'll give you more drag and potentially the tires will wear out sooner.

Are you using premium-grade fuel in the car? If not, that could explain your mileage. The engine management system will pull timing out and lower the boost when it detects preignition (pinging) and you'll need more throttle to get the same "go", which means more gas. It may also richen the mixture under those circumstances.

There is more friction in a fresh engine than in a well-worn one. I haven't heard any good figures for how the friction drops with miles, but it does drop noticeably in the first few thousand miles. I don't know if 900 miles is enough to not see effects from that, but that is a possibility.

Those are all that pop into my head right now.

 

going 75 on the freeway in 6th the RT MPG says 66mpg

 

OK, here's the deal, the 20 miles I drove yesterday was NOT neighborhood, stop sign on every corner. It was main blvds. 35 to 45 MPH zones with not a lot of traffic. Yes, I did hit a few red lights but the EPA doesn't test city without traffic lights. I was also driving it like a Grandmother. I would kill to get the 22-28 MPG that MiamiGuitarMan gets, in bumper to bumper, rush hour traffic. Obviously there is a problem. I will have to take into the dealer & hope that they can figure it out.

 

For normal driving, I keep the Sport button off. I shift up at about 2000 rpm. At 45 mph I would be in sixth gear, unless there was a grade to climb. Seeing a stoplight ahead, I would get completely off the accelerator instead of maintaining speed. I would stay in the highest gear that would keep me above 1750 rpm (where the engine first delivers full torque and will not lug), unless there was a need for more power, such as climbing hills.

Do you have the realtime mpg display turned on? (I mean the mode where you press the end of the turn signal lever repeatedly until the tach shows constant mpg updates.) If you leave that turned on and check it as you drive, you will get a good idea of what helps and hurts mpg.

With this very conservative driving, Top Tier premium fuel, mostly in town, with stoplights, stop signs, 20 mph school zones, etc., I have a 34.4 mpg average in the first 4,000 miles on my 2011 MCSm. When I am driving just for fun, the economy rules go out the window, but the fun driving is included in the 34.4 mpg.

I assume that A/T means you have automatic transmission. If that's true, you will not have the same control over engine speed. However, you can still use the realtime mpg to see what affects your fuel economy, and you can still avoid maintaining speed when you know you will have to stop or slow down. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

In fairness to your Cooper S, 20 miles is not enough to determine your fuel economy. Its engine uses the most fuel when it is first started on a drive. A couple of tankfuls would give you a more accurate estimate.

 

I've got 900 miles on it. I have been trough several tanks of gas. It has never seemed to get great mileage, even when we took it on a 100 mile trip on the freeway (it got about 25 MPG). I seem to be missing some mileage. I may just drop it off, Tuesday night, after work, & see what kind of mileage I can get with the loaner Mini.

 

2011 Clubman S. Average is 33 mpg with in town at 31. Just did 200 mile trip and the car got 34 at 75 mph. Sport driving.

 

Cartpix, are you using the same brand of gas all the time? Changing fuel brands will cause mileage to drop, as the ECM needs to adjust to different formulations.

 

If y'all don't know about www.fuelly.com you should check it out, it will help you see what your actually MPGs are from Fill-up to Fill-up, the OBC DTE and MPG ratings are not at all accurate.

Plus you can see what other MINIacs with your same vehicle(s) are getting as well.

 

I have been using the same brand (Mobil). I just filled up, today, & went motoring for 30 miles in Sport mode & got better mileage. Probably because it holds it in lower gears, so it doesn't bog the motor. Still only got 20.5 MPG though, not the 25-27+ everybody else seems to be enjoying. On top of that, my Sirius radio decided to quit working. One more thing to add to the list, when I drop it off tomorrow.

 

I thought that holding gears longer (higher RPMs) as sport mode does, would make MPG worse?
Also in sport mode w/ automatic the system never shifts into 6th on the highway so the RPM's stay high ~4000 which will kill MPG. I never use sport mode on the freeway except to pass. Though you can go to manual mode and shift into 6th with sport mode on.
I just did a 1600 mile trip and got an OBC indicated 40 MPG. That is with AC on half the time. Several mountain passes at 6K feet etc. Tire pressure 35 PSI, 91 octane.

 

I didn't go on the freeway. Also my Sirius XM came back as mysteriously as it left. Not wanting to be told that my aftermarket shorty antenna voided my warranty & I am responsible for a $1500 radio, I put the stock one back on. Just for fun, I checked it, & it worked. I put the aftermarket back on & it still worked. Weird???

 

I think the XM has it's own antenna separate from the AM/FM antenna.

 

Out of curiosity, have you tried calculating your MPG manually instead of going by what the car's computer tells you? Is it possible that it's the computer that's calculating it incorrectly?

 

I haven't broken out the calculator but when you fill up with about 10 gallons & the odometer shows about 10 times the mileage, it's pretty close.

To klricks, yes, I think the XM antenna is the "shark fin" part. I was just a bit paranoid about voiding the warranty. I have to stop reading the horror stories on this forum. LOL

 

I dropped it off at noon today. The SA said they can't adjust anything with the mixture & if it were off, I'd be getting a check engine light. He said it might be because it only has 1000 miles on it & it will get better. He did keep it & said they will look it over. I got a Cooper S Hardtop for a loaner. It has 1800 miles on it & it seems to get a bit better mileage city driving. My mileage drops, like a falling safe, when I drive around in neighborhoods with stop signs every other corner. The loaner wasn't even phased. I drove about 20 miles in moderate to heavy traffic & it was 21 MPG. I drove it around, in my neighborhood, for another 15 miles & it's at 20 MPG. If I had driven the same distance & traffic condition, in mine, it would have been 18-19MPG for the first part & 15-16 after the neighborhood loop.

Before anyone says the Clubman is heavier, both it & the hardtop are listed as getting the exact same mileage.

 

I'm not sure how you can calculate accurate fuel mileage if all you are doing is looking at the OBC readouts, your actual mpg should be calculated @ Fill-ups, here is what Molly's Fuelly Reports look like...
http://www.fuelly.com/driver/rjkimbell/cooper

Maybe it's time you signed up, then you'd really see what your MINI is getting in actual MPGs.

If you have a smartphone you can log in while still at the pump, which is what I do most times.

 

Here's an update. Last week my car started running rough & missing at lower RPMs, cleaned up some above 2500 - 3000 range but still surged, & the yellow engine light came on. I took it to the dealer & they gave me a loaner Mini convertible. On the trip home (I zeroed the MPG), the loner showed 26+ MPG as I pulled into my driveway.

My car had a defective spark plug. When I got it back, I took the same route back, hit the traffic lights about the same, about the same amount of traffic, 26 MPG!

What I got out of this is, if it doesn't throw an error code, there's nothing wrong with it & they'll just lie to you, tell you normal, & the mileage is calculated on a closed course with a professional driver. I haven't seen that SA there since & I go just about every week to get it washed.

 

I'm super-glad you got that result, cartpix, even if it took a CEL to get you to that point. I have a crazy commute with very predictable clog/crawl points -- my Mazda 3 is rated the same city/hwy as the Cooper S yet never in a zillion years did I ever hit mileage as low as yours. I know, not the same car at all, but that wide of a difference would be ridiculous and for the dealership to not find a problem would be very disconcerting.