09, non S, with factory tires. 43 - 45 mpg back roads / city. 47 - 48 mpg highway. Found some Chevron non-ethanol in NC and got 51 mpg on the five hour drive home. Of course I can't get Chevron where I live.

Jim

 

Just remember, on a road like the Tail of The Dragon, they are both equal, cause you can't bring your turbo into play. .

Jim

 

Got 43.8 in my 07 S. Down the mountains of Utah into Ely Nevada. 80+ most of the way. Don't fret, it is the loneliest road in America. I was lucky and had a 3/4 ton Ford with a camper on it in front of me (at a safe drafting distance) until the state line. After that I feathered the throttle pretty light and filled up in Ely.

Next time you are out on the freeway keep an eye on the consumption rate in the tach box. Check out the difference between out-in-front. clean air vs dropping in behind a semi. You can lay back there a solid, safe distance and still watch the numbers rise.

Mind you, it is risky. You don't have to tailgate to get good numbers. Not recommended when following gravel trucks or on unkempt roadways. Windshields are expensive.

 

HI-

I have learned a lot since my initial posting. I am doing a tank now where I am leaving the Sport button engaged, to see what happens. My fill up yesterday was "only" 40.9mpg, but thats still excellent.

If there are Clubs for each color MINI, why can't there be a 40+MPG MINI Owners Club????

 

Jeez, you all must be the most boring drivers...lol 6800 miles, 32 mpg. But I drive it like I stole it.... MCS OBTW.

 

09, MC, 27K and I drive her hard too, but not all the time. There are times when I go for the mpg's and times when I don't. On a good twisty road is one thing, buy on the highway, or daily driving I want the mpg, but that is just me.

Jim

 

I'm finding 40+ is easy in 6th gear and impossible in 4th. At legal highway speeds one really needs to look ahead and anticipate as there isn't much torque available in 6th.

It reminds me of driving early 60's British cars and VWs on hilly interstates. Especially if they were down on compression.

 

+1

 

I've been tracking OBC vs. manual calc mpg for the last year. Here are my mean avg results: 37.918 mpg manual / 40.663 OBC.

Over the year, I had three tanks which were not in line with this. I consider these 3 of 49 tanks to be "flyers".


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I was maybe half a dozen car lengths behind a semi just east of El Paso when one of its tires came apart creating a cloud of tire bits and hurling large strips of tread fifteen feet in the air. Great fun dodging those big heavy snaky strips of twisting venom--both of them. I wasn't drafting to boost mpg, just getting ready to exit. Don't think I will put myself in that position again, not anytime soon.

 

I get 28.7 MPG on my MSC. My best run was 32.1 MPG.

Does everyone reset your MPG counter everytime they fill up?

 

I do. According to the OBC, I typically average ~39 MPG driving back and forth to work (mix of 2 lane roads through rolling hills and small towns, with a 5 mile "burst" of expressway). Using the manual method, it's more like 36 MPG.
I got into the habit of resetting the Avg MPG calculator at each fill up when I had my 06 MC ... not sure why, no logical reason. The habit has continued.

 

My JCW consistantly gets 30-33 mpg. I do a good bit of heavy traffic highway driving.
I manual calculate but it's almost always within 1-2 mpg of the computer.

 

As I understnd it you should reset for each trip. I believe it takes the average of the last 18 (or maybe 36, not sure) miles to give you the reding. If you keep driving for the entire tank it will work out to be lower as there are more miles to compare it against.

I put the Sprint Booster on mine, my driving got more agressive and MPG dropped to around 38. Now the ECU seems to have adjusted to the change and I'm back up to 44 MPG.

Jim

 

I use this site call

www.fuelly.com

A lot easier and there is a 1-2 MPG margin of error.

 

Tho i have an 03MCS, ive been squeezing out 37-40.1mpgs (OBC), 36.5+ (calculated). Mpg has increased since adding 1. ALTA CAI and 2. 15% pully. AND i also drive spirited, backroads, and try to stay away from highways.

 

I can bring my turbo into play leaving my driveway, but thats besides the point in this thread.

 

On a good run on the Dragon (no impeding traffic), I keep the rpm above 3-4000 and I have a feeling the turbo is in play.

But...on topic, I just drove back to Ohio from Florida - 80mph on cruise - and averaged 34.3 mpg, manually calculated using the odometer. This is the best I have ever gotten. However...if the odometer is high by 3%, like the speedo is, I got 33.4.

 

YIKES!!!

I haven't been that close to the actual event (but I did have to take evasive action due to a cow recently), but I've had to dodge the remnents at highway speeds a few times now, thank the maker for nimble feet! Those flying strips could be quite deadly to those of us in lower cars with the tops off!

And to stay on topic, I'm at 37.3 according to the OBC doing "normal" (for a MCS driver) driving and top down unless it's raining or the funnel cloud is on the ground. Also I use "sport" mode sparingly but wish it was the default mode for the car!

 

I've noticed my mileage has been dropping since my first fillup.
I started out at just over 32 and last was just over 30. Right now my OBC is
showing 28.8, which is probably more like 27.
I think the more I am used to driving the MINI, the more fun I'm having.....its
hard to stay off the gas.

 

I understand this if you want to downshift to slow down, but ??? It's not like everything stops working when you shift into neutral. Your brakes still work the same as being in gear.

On the way to Rockford, IL, on Rt. 20, there are 2 stop lights that you can see a mile away. If I see it changing or it has been green forever coming up to it, I push the clutch, shift to neutral and coast. Look at your tachometer. When in gear, doing 60mph, it is above 2000rpms. When you put it in neutral, it goes down to about 750rpms. Lower rpms = lower fuel consumption.

My 09 Lancer GTS has real time data and when I push the clutch and coast at 60mph, I regularly get over 120mpg. Coasting in while in gear, I get about 75mpg.

 

Well, yes - BUT - in the MINI, coasting in gear actually shuts off all fuel flow to the injectors. Theoretically, your realtime mileage reading would then be closer to infinity, and that's why it jumps off the scale when you're motoring downhill in gear. It's like the difference between coasting downhill in neutral with the engine idling and coasting downhill in neutral with the engine switched off. (I don't recommend the latter, by the way...)

Meaning, the engine requires a bit of fuel to idle, but you can eliminate that factor by coasting in gear. This was implied above, but this is my angle on it.

Cheers,

Spridget

 

OLD TIMER!!!!! Bite THY tounge! I'm only slightly younger and I remember the two energy crisi/shortages with their associated gas rationing and when gas first went over $1.00/gal. But I won't start that rant, since gas continues to be way over priced IMHO. Of course I also remember filling the tank of the family's Olds Delta 88 for about $8 and burning all of that gas off in a single night! Of course a 400 CU engine and vehicle weight of 2 tons combined with a lead foot may have helped that along

And I'll never be old, at least not in MY head (the body, that may be a different story!)

 

I live in San Francisco and live on top of a giant hill (about 23% grade) and drive justa Cooper with racks. Almost always hauling another passenger and get about 27 mpg. Pretty huge difference to my old GTI which did about 16 if I'm lucky.

MC

 

Trust me, I've got the "old timer" by ten years and your mind my say 20 something, while you body says "in your dreams".

Jim