I've looked at a number of threads about this, but none in connection with the Clubman. Are any of you noticing that the speedometer is pretty far off? Based on my GPS, radar readings, etc., my Mini's speed consistently overstates speed by 4-6 mph.

It's mostly just an annoyance, I suppose, but I'm curious whether this is common with the R55s.

wn

 

This is common with all BMW products.

 

Yes, mine is usually 4 MPH off. 5 MPH on my 04 MC. The good news, from what I can tell, is that the odometer is perfectly accurate.

 

hhhhm... i dun really watch it thta closely... my eyes always on the road

 

I don't know how the speedo is separate from the odometer but if the odometer is accurate, I'm happy. I don't want my warranty to die before it is time.

 

Yeah, Mercedes Benz is the same way.

 

That was my main concern as well.

 

That's weird.. usually MINI speedometers are very good.. for ex. the R53 GP 0.0 deviation! 240 kmh is 240 gps

The Mk.II has about 5 kmh deviation MAX (242 kmh = 237 GPS), under 100 kmh there is no deviation.

 

Mine is 3 off at 63mph (60gps) and 2 off at 82mph (80 gps). Close enough to feel ok about it since I rarely look when driving.

 

I rarely look at my speed when I'm driving, but my speedometer always seems to read 0 when I'm not driving.

 

My experience is the opposite of Phurbahl's. That is, the error increases with speed.

48 speedo = 45 gps (3 MPH)
67 speedo = 63 gps (4 MPH)
85 speedo = 80 gps (5 MPH)

This is good for speeding ticket prevention, but bad for getting tailgated. I tend to correct in my head as I decide what speed to drive.

 

jvan, it seems the percentage 'off' stays fairly consistent with speed increase.
Since sensors are guessing the speed, what do we need to do, flag down a cop and have them radar gun us to learn a true speed?

 

and average a bunch of data.

Matt

 

Some towns in my area put out electronic signs that say "Your speed is...", and I've used that to test my speedometer before. Another thing I've tried is to follow behind my wife in my truck and ask her how fast she's driving.

 

Tim, do you really know if the truck speedo is 99-100% accurate?

 

Seems to be a lot more accurate than the speedo in the MINIs.

 

DW, It's a valid question to ask why do I trust the GPS over the MINI's speedometer. My rationale is that I've tested my GPS against my Honda Odyssey and Toyota Camry and it was always spot-on.

MINI owners take heart, my Yamaha FZ6 has even worse speedo error. But many motorcycles are notorious for this. I think the manufacturers conspire to keep our real speed down. If we can put a man on the moon forty years ago, certainly today we could employ accurate speed sensors.

 

jvandewark, mine is off about as much as you show. I will ask the service guys to check into it when I take it in. It will be a while because I only have a little over 3,600 miles on it.

 

From what I've noticed, the big speedometer dial is more likely to overstate speed by 3-5mph, while the digital speedo seems to be more closely aligned with the gps/"your speed is" measures.

 

The odometer and speedometer function from the same source, the transmission. If your speedometer is off, then so is your odometer. If your speedometer shows less than the actual speed, you will show more mileage on the odometer than what has actually been driven and therefore the vehicle will go out of warranty prematurely... (I remember seeing a segment on "60 Minutes" or "Dateline" or somesuch that alluded to some conspiracy in the auto industry.) The lower profile tires will also have an effect on speedometer accuracy.

 

Uh, oh, wotagame...but wait, mine seems to read faster mph...so then maybe my mileage will be less than what it really is and my warranty will last longer.

 

And yet for some reason, my speedometer is off and my odometer is right on. Go figure.

 

Actually, it's the other way around. If you drove for one hour at 55 MPH, then you just put 55 miles on your odometer. However, if both your odometer and speedometer are inaccurate by adding 5 MPH onto your actual speed, then you really only drove 50 miles. If you drive like this for 1,000 more hours, then your warranty will run out ~5,000 miles sooner than it should. Because you really drove the car 50,000 miles even though the odometer reads 55,000 miles.

 

Every BMW/MINI car knows exactly how fast it is driving. The speedometer is 100% accurate but it has a (maximum) 5% deviation (this is obligatory). So basically the car is intentionally showing a higher speed than actual.

In the B/C there is a secret menu V-EFF, which show the real GPS speed.




The MINI speedo is pretty accurate, I've seen R56's going 240 kmh on the speedo and the real GPS speed was 235 kmh. 242 -> 237 GPS, ..etc

 

it always feels like I am putting on miles faster on the Mini than other cars ... is the odometer off, or am I just motoring more?!