http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister...le_1256559.php

This isn't such new news that people are dumping their SUVs but when MINIs are the switch-to car it makes me happy.

It's just another factor that keeps demand up for MINIs and our resale values will stay strong.

Hope they don't drive like SUV drivers in their MINIs.

 

Not bashing our SUV owners (lots of legitimate uses), but......people are incredibly stupid and tragically short-sighted sometimes. Ya'd think this whole fuel-economy thing was just some sort of late-breaking current event. Hell-o.....news flash.....this has been with us for a long, long time and ain't going away. Seems like lots of folks at some point just switched off their brains, went into zombie-mode, and bought whatever Detroit decided to sell us....in this case the SUV!! Mindless...and given the sheer numbers of this automotive pile-on....insanity!!!

Yes, I'm glad folks are considering more efficient alternatives....like rats from a sinking ship. I do hope we learn something from all this but I'm not holding my breath. Our aptitude for short attention spans is truly astounding.

 

Maybe thats true in CA but certainly not here, SUVs are everywhere and more will be sold as the snow comes

Before spewing your hate for SUVs, have you paused to consider that maybe many MINI owners ALSO have SUVs or do you automatically assume if you own a MINI you wouldn't touch a SUV? Is there not a place for both as both serve different purposes?

As to the cost of gas ... as Edge and I have discussed, depending upon the spread between premium and regular gas prices, the cost of driving MINI or SUV is the same for me or a few cents apart. If I bought say a 2007 RAV4 getting 28 mpg, no contest ... CHEAPER to drive the SUV for gas than the MCS so making generalizations about SUVs vice MINIs is not a good idea cause you lose. More and more SUVs are getting better and better gas mileage on "regular".

Maybe you ought to buy one of the high mileage SUVs and SAVE money over buying that premium gas?

Edited: BTW, just for one example, I had to take both our dogs to the vet yesterday. Both were a bit hyperactive (i.e., hate the vet). Controlling a 100 pound dog who insists on sitting in the front with claws tearing at the leather ... do you really think thats something to put into a MINI? His claws would rip that leather to shreds. Throw him in the back of the SUV, nobody cares about the claws as the carpeting is all different and no leather.

 

This is true....I actually have no beef with the actual size of a vehicle....even a Hummer....but we have demanded very little of automakers in terms of economy. In many regard, we have been asleep.

AND........it's also true, the MCS is not a stellar example of fuel efficiency either. No...the "sip-not-guzzle" award only goes to the Cooper, imo. Pretty darn good for a lesser, "base" model, eh? I could insert a long rant here but I will probably alienate most of NAM in the process. Suffice it to say that the Mini was, at it's inception, a low-cost, efficient (for the day) urban runabout. Why we overwhelmingly seem to want to take it into the pocket-rocket category is beyond me, although I suspect testosterone...and the need for aftermarket sales....may play a role. A little balance is called for in the way we think of MINIs.

What disappoints me most is that I was getting 43 mpg (city) back in 1990!!! I think we lost the way somehow.

 

So i paid $50 to fill up my G35C today with V-Power.

i don't care.

but why go to a MINI for mpg? get a 06 Civic. 40mpg on
regular fuel... $33 to fill up, goes like 500miles+. lol

 

Well really, if we were all going for total fuel economy, we'd all be buying those fugly hybrids. I considered it before choosing the MC. I keep secretly hoping MINI will make the Cooper in a hybrid - like 70 MPG! Ha!

Anyway, I am one of those where we have (or will have, soon) a MC but also have an SUV. Some people do need them for their daily work (my hubby drives it, and it involves picking up product from vendors at least weekly, if not daily. And then when we drive to the Sierras in the winter, it's nice to be able to haul the two of us, our two dogs, our skis, and a week's worth of luggage, groceries, etc in something that we know won't dive off the side of a mountain should we hit a patch of ice.

But I get the annoyance. Here in the Bay Area our freeways are crowded with SUVs that are clearly just 1-person commuters. THAT is a waste, and those are the people that will eventually see the light as gas creeps towards $4 and $5 a gallon.

 

i guess if you need 3rd row seating often SUV's and minivans make
sense. i personally prefer wagons (i have a Legacy wagon) and that's
our family car. has enough cargo space to toss in basically everything
comfortably. i even bought 2 filing cabinets for my home yesterday
with my son still in the child seat, all the other crap associated with
kids and still had plenty of room for groceries. and yes, my
wife was comfortably sitting in the front seat. we have roof racks too
if we need to carry more.

 

Exactly....a MINI should/could do better. I personally would be driving a One-D if fuel economy were the only issue to consider.

 

[quote=chows4us]Maybe thats true in CA but certainly not here, SUVs are everywhere and more will be sold as the snow comes

Before spewing your hate for SUVs, have you paused to consider that maybe many MINI owners ALSO have SUVs or do you automatically assume if you own a MINI you wouldn't touch a SUV? Is there not a place for both [quote=chows4us]

Easy, there. I'm not spewing hate. I love SUV's and they have their purpose. But in my opinion, that purpose is not to carry one passenger and a shopping bag from Barney's NY.

I have a Ford F100 that gets no gas mileage but I only use it to transport big loads....like 3 dogs.

 

I don't really hate SUV drivers, just those who go on the local TV news and complain about gas prices when they're driving 80 miles one way to work in their Escalade with no passengers.

Or those who drive them like they are sports cars, weaving in and out of traffic like madmen doing 100 mph. Gee, and people wonder why they roll over?

 

Sorry if I misinterpreted what you said (it kind of sounded like it). This has been discussed countless times. I do agree its overkill for one person .... we agree

Some of us use them as intended. I am constantly making Home Depot trips ... its literally endless. Easy for the transporting the dogs ... hauling stuff to the Dump. ... and, when there is 8 - 12" of snow on the ground, well they were meant for the the snow (softroaders)

GOkart. yep, you are right. We did not buy a MCS for gas mileage. Your right about the testerone crowd too

Hybrids? yech.

I have looked at most scenarios and right at the moment this is perfect for us. I get 22 mph on regular. MCS gets 25 on a good day, on premium. We do all the house hauling, dog hauling and bad weather stuff in the SUV. MCS is for fun. Wife loves it. Should I get rid of a softroader? To replace with what? I still got to haul crap ... forever. Getting a new SUV is wasteful ... I own this one. Getting a car like Kens ... and I Saw a really nice G35 the other day ... won't work. To much leather. Can't haul 10' lumber, etc.

I guess if I lived in an apartment, had no little or no parking, didn't have to keep replacing fence posts (10' long and some always rot every year), one small car would be fine but not not right now

 

Well the way they decide to drive should make things interestin, maybe those are the people that dont wave

 

I sold my Explorer back in early 2001 because of gas prices shot up to $1.50 from $1 within a few weeks. Well, that wasn't the only reason. I had traded in a Ford Ranger for it because I thought it would be nice to have rear seats. Little did I know it was worthless for carrying sheets of plywood, 2x4's and dirt and so on. Give me a truck anyday over a SUV. Plus my Ranger with the same engine averaged 5mpg better.

I would hate to have needed to put premium in that thing. Unlike the MINI where the gas mileage is a lot better it is still a lot cheaper to run premium than regular in the Explorer. At 16mpg it would cost me $52 a week to drive it compared to the $33 it takes me in the MINI because I average 27mpg.

If someone wants to have a SUV. That's fine with me. It's their decision. But complaining about gas prices now? This stuff has been going on I know for a fact for 5 years. It's not like it happened over night.

 

5 Years? Are we living in the same country?

People ... in general, NEVER complained about the price of gas. Heck at 32 cent/gallon who cared?

People ... in general, have been complaining, whining, beetchin, or whatever you want to call it about the price of gas since late 1972 ... thats for about the last 34 years. I don't know if you all remember gas lines and odd/even days but I do ...

34 years is probably longer than a lot of MINI owners have been alive so this is nothing "new". I remember being totally shocked seeing a signed for gas in NYC for 73 cents/gallon!

73 cents/gallon???? Are they nuts? Who can afford those prices??????


And so, for the last 34 years, we all know that prices never go down ... they only go up ... so their is no excuse for whining about gas prices. You knew it was going to only get worse

 

Yup, its definitely a frog-in-a-frying-pan thing.

 

I've only been driving since 1987 so that's what my decision was based on. I probably couldn't remember anything about 1972. Well, except that I am pretty sure I was potty trained by then.

When I started driving. Gas was at $0.79 a gallon. Forward to late 2000 early 2001. I was paying $0.99 a gallon which is not much of an increase in 13 years. So going up $0.50 a gallon in a few weeks was a huge increase for me.

Nothing as bad as it was in the 70's, I'm sure, but for my generation it was or should have been a wake up call.

 

Absolutely true 73 cents/gallon in 73 is like $3.90 or something gas now. Adjusted for inflation its still higher than todays prices

But, the fact remains, prices for raw materials always go up over time. This is true no matter what the material including gold ... over time, it always goes up. About the only thing that gets cheaper is CPU power due to Moores Law.

SO, anyone who think they are not going to pay less for gas in 2009 than today is a bit dillusional(sp)

 

If there were more fun-loving motorers on the roads, the world would be a happier place.
Minis were born out of a fuel crisis, and the world fell in love with them. One might hope the same thing would happen again. Down-sizing for fuel economy would be an exercise in belt-tightening for many.....but if they were to discover the joys of MINI-motoring in the process, well that would be a good thing. At least we have a premium alternative...in years past economy cars weren't so nice.

 

I am sure that MPG is not the only thing why those SUV owner choose a MINI. If that were the only reason, get a Honda Insight!

 

I see it has already been addressed here, but I will add my $0.05 ($0.02 adjusted for inflation).

I have an SUV and I am not getting rid of it. Much as I like my MINI, it can't carry 1000 lbs of farm supplies in one trip from the Co-Op. It can't easily carry lumber from Lowes. And it doesn't have 4wd, which is necessary when you live far enough from the urban mecca that they don't plow your roads when it snows.

As for gas mileage, with such a small car and a 1.6l engine, 32 mpg is kind of a let down.

 

Then why did you buy the MCS? It's supercharged... by default, supercharged and turbocharged engines will consume more fuel... why not an MC instead?

I'm just pointing out that I never understood why anyone that buys an MCS complains about their gas consumption. I have one too (JCW just like yours) but I don't complain about it... I figure that "you pay to play".

 

I wonder what you all have to wine about when it comes to gas prices...

I am paying 1.34 euro a "LITER" for premium. Thats 3.78 liters equals one gallon. So I am paying 5.07 euro for 1 gallon of premium gas. To fill up, it can cost me upwards of 60 euro...

That over 75 dollars just to fill up on one tank of gas .

So anyone in this thread of even in this forum has no right to complain about gas prices. You all have it easy and cheap. I will admit that German cars are more fuel efficient that US spec vehicles. Still, its very expensive to drive, and to add, the MCS MINI is considered one of Europes biggest gas guzzelers like any SUV.

Just a little information to put things into perspective.

 

You see, here in the US, we have all sorts of rights which includes the right to complain about anything and/or everything.

I understand that. It is always fun to hear how much worse it is elsewhere.

Just like the costs of housing which varies from place to place, it is all relative. And relative to $1.50/gal $3.00 is big. Especially considering that we have been geared to low prices and now we have to change gears for the quick rise in gas prices.

I suppose in Europe the problem may be that you guys have already been all about conserving for gas prices so when the prices go up, its not like you can move into a dramatically better mpg vehicle. At least here we can still do that which is what this thread is all about.

The people I feel for are all those people in the trades that own pickup trucks. I say this frequently wheneverthe SUV topic comes up but three out of the four top selling vehicles in the US have been pickup trucks. For example, in 2005 Ford sold nearly a million F series trucks. The top selling car was I think the Camry at like 400,000 units. Big difference.

I know a lot of pickup truck owners now reconsidering about how much they really "need" their pickup. Unfortunately many in the construction related trades do need their pickups and the price of gas has really eaten away at their income.

 

The major difference between Europe and the US is also the importance of driving. Most of Europe has the most amazing public transport that leaves many people driving for fun and less as a necessity. Sadly somewhere in the US design and spread we wrote off good public transport making it almost completely impractical or unavailable in most of the US. There is no public transport that my husband or I could use for work. He did in the past until his office moved to an area with no train. It is an hour drive each way. Thank goodness he gets to telecommute most of the week but he still has to go in at least 2 days a week. If we had to pay your prices and continue to drive the way we do our society would hurt and probably create horrific issues.

We need to fix many things here and I hope that with some of the complaining going on in America right now maybe we will come up with some long term fixes that we can stick to. I hate to see us swing back and forth between here's a great high MPG car oh wait its _______ (see the Geo metro, the electric car and so many others) now we need some gas hog with big wings, huge body or whatever, oh wait gas is expensive lets get this little high MPG car again.

Maybe one day we will learn from Europe!

 

take a look at an A/F plot off a dyno. The car uses gas for water injection, to cool the combustion chamber. Crappy design, but who would remember to fill the water injection tank? Sure the MCS is boosted. But even so, it's gas mileage is pretty poor for the power level.

Matt