Hello everyone. I have a 2011 Countryman S, driven by my wife. She is a little heavy footed but we find the gas mileage on the Countryman to be much less than expected.

Typically the driving is a mixture of open road and around town. Mileage is in the 20 to 21 MPG range. The sticky point for me is on the many occassions we have been given a loaner due to ours being in the shop, the mileage is much greater on the loaners they give us, on cars with the same features as ours.

Another issue I have mentioned multiple times as multiple dealers is the black sooted up exhaust tips. They continually tell us this is normal for Mini. I consider that to be a catch all answer. In all my years, sooted up exhaust is an engine running way too rich and wasting fuel.

The latest issue is the fuel pump just failed so that was replaced. I'm interested in seeing if that makes any difference.

I'm not a fan of this vehicle, it's overpriced for the features and so far is proving to be a less than reliable car.

Anyone have similar experiences with their Countryman S?

Thanks

 

I see 25-27mpg on my 12' CMs4, manual. I am def heavy footed & drive w/o the Sport button engaged most of the time.
It's def not what the sticker leads you to believe but EPA rating are usually quite inflated from my experience anyhow. FWIU they are based on vehicles doing 50mph (not the average 60-75 most ppl drive), they are also using 100% gasoline, but a 10-15% ethanol additive in those tests.

You on the other hand getting 20mpg is excessively low IMO.
I also have the soot. you may have a tune/software or 02 sensor issue.

 

I would first make sure that your car has all the software upgrades that are available for it. The tailpipes of my car also get black; probably it is running somewhat rich when the turbo is supplying boost.

With our 2012 ALL4 manual it is easy to beat EPA mileage test results (both city and highway) when I TRY to do it. When I don't try, it is easy to get much less; that is true of most cars I have driven, especially those with turbocharged engines. If you demand more acceleration and higher speeds, the Mini will oblige and use lots of fuel doing so.

 

I find that the quality of gas used and the amount you end up using the turbo makes a HUGE difference in gas mileage.

Also if you drive over 70 on the fwy, gas mileage goes down significantly.

My best tank has been 31, my worst has been 23

 

Thanks everyone. We have asked many times if there is a software/firmware update for the car and were told each time that all code was up to date..

Still makes me suspicious because in one instance we brought the car in because of a clunking sound when downshifting, (this car is automatic). At that time they kept the car for a couple days and claimed to have updated the code.. The car did seem to shift better afterward.

We do use premium gas in the car at all times.

The one thing as I mentioned before, the loaner cars they always give us always get much better mileage than ours.

So it seems that unless you bring something in that their diagnostic equipment can identify as defective, nothing is wrong with the car. Apparently everything is good or bad in that environment.

 

you could also get a j2534 cable from ebay and spring for a www.minitechinfo.com account ($30/day) and update the car to the latest software direct from mini.

 

Thanks for that,, prior to attempting this,, does anyone know if you can use a standard OBD device and read the current code level on these cars,, That might prompt the dealership to act if I could walk in with that type of information.

 

I 100% guarantee a standard OBD scan would not result in any error message, especially if the CEL isnt on.

 

Thanks,, I agree with that as well.. What I meant to say was, if using a standard OBD device,, can you display the current software level currently running on the car?

 

i dont think so, you'd need a manufacturer specific cable along with factory software (actually is available online) to be able to check the version number.

I could be wrong though.

 

the loaner car got better MPG may be becaz it has lower milesage ??

my 3500 miles old CM ALL 4 only got 18mpg... and i dont even complian about it... becaz i drove on local all the time with stop and go in NYC... even the time i drive on highway its still got crazy traffic... but if i drive a very long trip out of NYS i can get at least 28-32mpg

 

I wish that could be true, This car has never gotten good mileage, now has around 18K miles. I think they just don't know how to tune one of these cars, the dealerships are only break/fix.

 

I live in the city and only drive occasionally but usually it's short trips. My average is around 22-23. When I get on the Freeway for a long drive, I get 28-30 going about 70. I use to have a 2005 Acura TSX that got the same gas millage on the freeway but less in the city. It also lacked AWD and needed to winded up for power.

Compare the Countryman to the Turbo RDX (1st gen) and the CMS All4 gets amazing gas millage, for basically the same car.

I wonder if the design of the exhust tip with its huge rolled bottom conributes to the blackening. Secondly I wonder how other manufacturer's turbo engines perform in this matter.

 

My CM non Turbo exhaust gets black as well. They do tend to run a bit rich.