Are you actually calculating your MPG based off of fuel usage, or are you going off of what the MPG in the car is saying??

I find it hard to believe you are actually getting 34MPG with 40% stop and go driving.......most people won't even get that high of MPG doing nothing but highway driving.

I think 25-30 is much more common.

 

Gearing is also differant on the 05+ cars....they also have a few more hp from the factory, so different stock programming of the ecm....not huge changes, but changes that will +/- a bit...
Things like tire choice (rolling resistances + width)make a discernable differance.
i love my r53, but when i calculate the cost per mile for fuel (+20¢ per gal), my wifes toyoda highlander costs less per mile to fuel up........but the mini is way more fun!!
if she makes the choice to switch cars, she should do it based up liking the car....doing it expecting to save $$ on fuel or other expenses is unlikely to actually work out as planned...

 

off the OBC.

 

According to www.fueleconomy.gov, the '10 VW Golf gets 22/30 mpg, and the '06 MCS gets 22/29 mpg. Thus, switching from the '10 Golf to the '06 MCS mainly for improved fuel mileage doesn't seem like the smart move. Newer MCSs get slightly better mpg, but even if they got 5 mpg better than the Golf, it would probably take decades just to break even from ditching a nearly new Golf so soon. The MCS takes premium gas too.

 

Thought too about an '06 'S'.
Settled instead for a non-S with sport suspension and different tires/wheels/brakes.
Drive it for all it's got when I get the chance (which is just about every time I drive).
Never get less than 30mpg and at 70mph w/CC 40+mpg.

 

Well, try calculating it off the acutal miles you went / the gallons you used. My MPG meter says around 32mpg all the time, but I'm actually getting 26mpg based off of the actual fuel I use and miles I went. Those things are not that accurate.

 

yep, the obd is not accurate. the best way is to use gps for mileage. if your tires are larger you will get better mpg, smaller will be worse.

 

Finally, a voice of reason on this thread. Trading a '10 Golf for an '06 MCS to get better gas mileage makes no sense whatsoever. I have a friend with a GTI and when we take road trips together, he gets about the same mileage as my 04 MCS. The R53's are no mileage champs and poor fuel mileage was one of the main reasons BMW went with a different engine on the new cars.

- Mark

 

I calculated mine today on a partial fill-up, and it was right at 25 MPG (9.5 l/100 km). That includes several high-speed blasts yesterday, which don't do good things for mileage... (I shouldn't say how fast I was going, but it was very fast.) Operating at 6000 rpm for sustained periods (i.e., minutes at a time) just drinks it up. But that's true for any car.

Having said that, I'll bet if I were careful I could get another 10 mpg. Fact is, it's just very, very hard to roll out slowly and shift low all the time! I might challenge myself for this full tank, and just see if I can hit the 35 mpg mark; if possible at all, this will be very difficult.

For what it's worth, I have pretty minimal mods: K&N CAI, MSD coil pack and NGK wires with NGK MEG plugs, Bavarian Autosport lowering springs, and Yokohama S-Roads on stock S-Lites, which I keep at 45 PSI (warm). None of those, I don't think, should adversely affect mileage. Maybe the CAI?

 

I've tried being as easy as I could on the gas, getting into 6th as soon as possible, not taking off fast...on and on.....and it get's me at best 2-3MPG more than just driving the car how I was to drive it....on the gas, but not hammer down all the time. I think it would be tough to squeeze another 10mpg out of your mini just by driving it easier. I guess it really depends on if most of your driving is stop and go traffic of or highway.

 

22.42 average MPG based on actual gas burned. I guess about 70% street and I really hate going slow.

 

This is interesting. She gets about 18-19 in the city and 23-24 on the highway and got about 28 mpg on a 600+ mile road trip we took. She isn't exactly an intense driver. Before she started looking for a better MPG car, I think she (well we...) both assumed that the R53 would get semi-good MPG like my R56, so that was really the only thing that got her looking at MINIs... then she drove one. Now I'm never going to stop hearing about it *nothing wrong with that!*. So smiles per gallon is important in a MINI. But MPG are very important as well. I think by this point she's so invested in the R53 at the dealer (Laser Blue Metallic w/ white roof) that she has forgotten all about MPG. I'll be sure to show her these replies and go from there...

 

If she's looking for better MPG, why not get the Golf TDI. Easily mid 30s city and 40+ MPG highway.

Besides... even if the MCS is more fuel efficient, it's more costly to maintain.

 

One thing to keep in mind....
Those mpgs are with 100% pure gas....all fuel sold today has 10% ethonol (e-10) blended with it per a government mandate. Results in less btu's per gallon of fuel, which equals less mpg. Most folks lost 1 or 2 mpg when the change hapened (2005 if i remember right).

 

And most obc's seem to read 2-3 mpg high...
All my numbers are from the old fashioned calculator method.
When tuned, the obc can be ajusted, especially if differant injectors are used, but if not adjust, the numbers will read optomistically high (by much more than 1-2 mpg).

 

how would i go about adjusting the obc? my tune came with injectors. also i must really get in the throttle a lot more than most, because my obc says 25mpg, and actually i average about 21 with about 50/50 hwy/side street. although when i go on trips i do get 28-32 mpg.

 

I get on the highway 27 on the highway at 85, 30 at 70, and around town 19-25 depending on how fast I drive. 2006 mcs with 47k miles.

 

I've only tracked the mileage on long trips. Going from Florida to upstate NY and Back I get 27mpg, that's mostly on I-95 75-85mph.

 

That's the truth! We're fortunate to have one location is this area that still sells "pure" gas (93 octane only), but I don't know how much longer that will be available.

 

You're gonna take it in the shorts trading in a car that new unless you've paid down the loan a lot or paid it off. Sell it privately for the most money (thousands more).

Also, on the 06 in question, ask them to inspect things like the lower control arm bushings, the power steering lines/pump, oil pan gasket, etc. Nothing worse than buying a used car and finding those things that add up quickly after the fact.

 

Agreed, I had to fix all of the above (except power steering) when I got my R53 @ 36k miles.

Using the gas buddy app on my iphone I calculate my mpg to be 28 mpg, with my driving split pretty evenly between highway, suburban roads and city traffic jams. I got 33 on a 300 mile roadtrip once. I'm not an intense driver but I definitely don't like to drive slowly.

If your gf cares only about mpg then I would suggest a prius, but she seems pretty set on the mini I don't think that small differences in mpg really matter that much; I used to drive an SUV that got around 20 mpg and since switching cars, I haven't noticed a huge change in my gas budget.

 

How are you guys actually figuring your MPG? Are you going off of what the gauge in the car (OBC) is telling you, or are you actually calculating your MPG off of miles driven vs fuel used??

My gauge in the car is always 2-3 MPG higher that what I'm actually getting. For example, the time I filled up I reset my gauge and this week when I filled up the car it was showing 29mpg average.....but when I actually did the math a divided the miles I had driven by the fuel I burned, it was actually around 26.5mpg.

I'm amazed that some of you guys are saying you are getting 30+ MPG around town....the best I've ever got with mixed highway/city has been 27mpg, and that was babying the car like crazy. When I drive it like it should be drive, I get around 25mpg. Haven't taken the car on a long road trip yet..but I'm guessing I should see around 32 mpg on the highway.

 

Yea, I hit low 30s on road trips to Fort Worth. Average about 27ish when putzing around town (doing math, not by the car meter).

 

Motor on. Seems that we get hung up on mileage per gallon. When indeed it is enjoyment per gallon that is the true tell. If we all were truly concerned with mileage, and turning a profit for every mile driven, we'd all be driving Honda Civics like old ladies to the tune of 42 mpg.

Since that is not the case, I say motor on.

Motor on into the daily drive to and fro work.

Motor on into the nightly errands of your dearly beloved.

Motor on into the early eve to warrant your familiar to those that are most important.

Motor on..simply...motor on.

 

06 S, 29,000 miles. Driving it 120 miles round trip to work: 5% city, 10% hwy, rest 80mph interstate. Doing that I net 26-28.

Oftentimes I take the scenic route for fun. Driving 5% city, 95% hwy at 60mph with about 15 rural stops, and spirited but not kamikaze runs back up to speed gets me 29-30. I might be able to sleep 31 mpg out of a tank that way, but why bother...