Does anyone have any confirmed information of when the Mini Cooper D (diesel) will be arriving to North America? As we really need something like this now with the way gas prices are - hybrid's can't even get the 3.6L/100km that the Mini Cooper D is getting.

 

It is coming here??? I'd not heard anything.

 

I haven't read or seen anything to indicate that BMW will make the diesel engine available in the US. I seriously doubt they will. The general attitude toward diesel engines in this country is that they belong in big trucks, not fun little cars.

I'd L O V E to have a diesel Mini. The diesel engines responds soooooo well to turbo-charging and the gas mileage, as you know, is fantastic. If the diesel is ever offered here, I'd buy one right away.

 

Here's something from www.leftlanenews.com basically comfirming the Diesel MINI for North America!!

http://www.leftlanenews.com/mini-dea...ed-for-us.html


The MINI UK site list the "extra-urban" fuel economy number with the manual transmission at a whopping 67 MPG US (80.7 Imperial MPG). The EPA freeway test cycle probably wouldn't be nearly that good, but a hint at what it's capable of!! That, and the exact same CO2 output as a Prius. 104g/km.

 

Diesel in US would be nice but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to arrive.

 

not going to happen.

 

Why? I have no sources either way but I expect it to happen, BMW is bringing diesels over with success.

However IMO the luster of diesel is seriously diminished by the fact that it's $1 more per gallon than gasoline. But the more options the better.

 

locally super is $4.69/gal and diesel is $4.99/gal

regular is $4.45/gal all are from the same gas station (Chevron) so the price of diesel is higher but not that much higher (locally to me).

 

I'm not sure about diesel, but it looks like an electric Mini is coming next year:

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/07...n-summer-2009/

 

I don't care too much about the price (it's certainly an issue), just that I'm using less oil.

 

We're paying $5.75/gal for our biodiesel (domestic), but boy would I love to run the MINI on that!

 

I would love to have a "Cooper D" sitting in my driveway! I will keep my fingers crossed, but Im not going to hold my breath.

 

Not going to happen anytime soon. The investment to make the MINI engine within US guidelines is going to be too much for the sales volume it will see. Since they are currently partenered with Peugeot, which does not sell in the US and will next be partnered with Fiat which also does not sell in the US, BMW is going to have to find some way to split the development costs. Frankly the Fiat collaboration worries me from just about all aspects. As the MINI is currently selling out there is no reason to add another engine if they cant make enough of them.

 

not oging ot happen in my lifetime..

 

But how do we know it's not something as simple as adding urea to make it 50 state legal? I don't think making it 50 state legal is as much a challenge as you're making it out to be.

Either way, the VP of MINI says a 50 state legal MINI is coming, so I think it's already taken care of.

 

Up here in the North East (NJ specially) regular is $3.91, diesel is $4.85 (super about $4.11) last I looked, and has been consistently close to a $1 more than regular for over 2 years now. Diesel is just not the way to go here in the US, until the price of diesel drops, which doesn't look very likely.

 

so locally to you it doesn't make sense but I'm sure to others (including myself) it does make sense.

I agree that the price of diesel wont drop any time soon as the refineries that are capable of doing ultra low sulfur diesels are pretty much at capacity.

 

Actually, if the diesel design can truly approach something in the neighborhood of 70 mpg it would become cost effective. The current cost per mile for an NA R56 is on the order of a dime per mile. Even if the price of diesel fuel was $1 more per gallon, at 70 mpg the cost per mile would approach ~7 cents per mile. That could add up to a significant savings.

My concern with the diesel would be its cold weather performance. Perhaps technology has caught up, but it brings back memories of glow plugs and leaving the engine running during extended stops...

 

Of course at 70 mpg it would probably be fine, but the Mini D gets about 58 mpg combined, not really worth the added cost per gallon and hassle at this point. Plus mini would be taking a huge risk in trying to get the US to accept a diesel. A hybrid, or full electric is a much better venture right now.

 

I think I'll see pigs fly before the Dooper is on this side of the pond.

 

I define break even as when the price at the pump ratio equals the miles per gallon ratio. And I use the Cooper S for comparison cause I would want to have similar turbo passing power as the Cooper D (really it's the available torque). You really can't compare 0-60 here, the 50-70 mph passing performance is where the Coop D really shines.

So...

Cooper S hwy mpg from the EPA is listed as 34.
Mini Cooper D is rated at 60 urban / 81 extra urban, which works out to about 50 city/68 highway using US gallons.

Ratio of Coop S mpg to Coop D mpg = 34 / 68 = 1 to 2 !!!

Ratio of Premium gas : Diesel Fuel ... if Premium is $4/gallon, Diesel would have to be $8 per gallon (twice as much) to get to the point where it was break even!! Until that cost differential, the gasser is much more inefficient per mile than the diesel.

If you had a Cooper D, it would be putting money into your pocket.

So... let's approach it from another direction, using those Jersey prices (which is about the same here in NC):

Premium gas / Diesel fuel = $4.11/$4.85 = 0.85

Cooper S mpg / 0.85 = break even Cooper D mpg = 40 mpg

So, if the Cooper D squeezed out anything less than 40 mpg on the highway, it would be more expensive to run compared to the Cooper S.

In cold weather untreated diesel fuel gells up. So they put additives into the winter fuel. If this was a problem, they wouldn't be running VW TDI's, Smart Diesels, etc. in Canada and in the upper bits of Europe. Roughly 50% of the cars on the road in Europe are diesel. My TDI has glow plugs, it occasionally gets down to the teens here in the winter and I've never had to wait more than a couple of seconds in those situations.

And why would you want to leave the engine running? It's not a big rig.

Cheers
JnC

 

There is no point in comparing the cooper D to the cooper S as even the regular cooper is faster than the cooper D.

 

to make the comparison fair, you should use the mileage rating of the cooper S in the UK. since the mileage testing is different than in UK, you can't simply convert for the difference between imperial gallon and US gallon.

UK mini sites rates the MCS at 35.8mpg urban and 54.3mpg (45.2mpg us gal) extra urban.combined 45.6mpg (37.9mpg when converted for US gal). this is for the manual transmission version.

so it's not quite 1 to 2 ratio.

even still I would be willing to shell out the money for Dooper or Dooper Clubman.

 

i ofund this link

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/22/a...ho-cares-abou/

 

Seems like a good idea, but I'd have to see some real world figures before going this route. Mini D would probably appeal to Mini owners/enthusiasts, but IMO the general US public is not interested in diesel powered automobiles. Guess we'll see what BMW decides...