I remember reading on Consumer Reports site (which I don't have access to anymore) that they did some testing regarding the best fuel savings when accelerating from a dead stop.

The results shocked me. In a manual transmission, the best fuel economy was running at WOT, but only to about 3000RPM in each gear. Because the car's fuel injected, it will only deliver enough fuel to achieve maximum acceleration, and won't waste any. The fuel savings come from accelerating to cruising speed as fast as possible, using more fuel in a shorter period of time is apparently better than dragging it out.

I'd try this out, but there's no way that I could shift before 5000RPM.

 

No I hear where you're coming from, I disagree, but I see your point. My point was that a Mini seems like an illogical choice for that mindset. A Prius or some other hybrid would get better gas mileage. Mini's whole "thing" is speed + decent mileage. Not exceptional, decent.

 

Agree with this 100%, there has to be some compromise. If I wanted maximum MPG without regard to having any fun behind the wheel I would have bought a Prius .

 

I did consider a hybrid, but there's nothing that gets better mileage than the MINI that won't put me to sleep

 

X2+

I am always 3/4 to WOT in 2,3,4,5 just because its fun! who cares if i lost 3-4 mpg along the way!
if your that worried about fuel savings either
1) get a better paying job
2) get a prius

 

I'd say the same thing about performance.....the MINI is decent but certainly not exceptional. With a 1.6L engine that puts out 170 horse (assuming you got the S) and a 0-60 above 6 seconds....I hardly think you bought it for it's exceptional acceleration either.

It's a nice balance between the two. Fun performance and great gas mileage. It's not number one in either aspect....but it does well in both.

 

An interesting exercise is to put your tach readout on realtime mpg to watch how it varies with the cruise control engaged.

Then you can try to maximize your mpg's by imulating the results.