Well, mileage is building up very slowly and I just turned over another mark on the odometer during the weekend. Here are my comments;

I drove mostly on the freeway for the last week and I averaged about 27 mpg. I don't see any improvement on this side.

It is a nice little car I am mostly happy and the exhaust growl is a bit louder and I love it. The A/C controls are not easy to work with and a big disappointment for an economy car in this price range. The setting **** is design for "hot", "warm" and "cool" A/C and no modulation in between. I is inconvenient for desert climate users and it is becoming a concern no matter I have tinted windows.

The fabric seats are nice and comfortable but they are sticky mostly in the back rest. I am not sure they would be as comfortable they look on a 600 miles trip I will have to do in December. The fabric is not easy to keep clean and fade as worn looking stuff if not maintained on a weekly basis. Your wife's hairs will stick on the seat back rest so if you have a mistress, clean your car before you go home LOL.

I have the feeling my JCW may have to go to the dealership often for some issues they seem clueless......

We are now back in the 80's and the engine has still the erratic idle when hot that are even worse than before.....1100 with drops to 800 rpm. It is annoying but the engine is always responsive with no hesitation.

I also observed the headlight optics may have to be checked. Some inner reflective coating problem that seems to develop at the outer edge of both headlamps.

About performance....... well, the sport button is needed and the engine seems tired at 5000 rpm in need of cooling off. The front end looks nice but I believe the engine more cooling.

The Brembo brakes ........first class all the way but dusty.

Stay posted for the JCW Coupe 1500 miles diary.

 

My car's DOB is 7/13, I bought it 4/14 but it's a 2014. I get 27 MPG in town (sport button always, I don't baby it), and about 32 HWY. Only issues were the black strips in the top faded badly so I had the dealer remove them (I left the red ones on the hood and the hatch). And one 6" bass speaker buzzed so they replaced it. Sounds fine now. Engine is a beast all the way to redline. The cooling fan runs more than my 2007 I think that's the bigger turbocharger. Idols at 800 steady, once it went to 1100 for short time. I'm a fan.

 

I am glad you have no other issues than stripes. I don't think a month difference in the production sheet is significant for a JCW Coupe. They should be pretty much the same.

May be I have an engine that doesn't perform properly during the break in period. You seem to suggest it needs to run at redline for some performance but I am not convinced about that.

I am probably too accustomed to Japanese cars that revs freely with a lot of power in the upper rpm range. All the torque and hp at low rpm and mostly no power in the upper rpm range from the JCW engine is a bit strange.

For sure, it is a complete different driving experience as a first owner of a Mini. I will see in a few month how I feel about it.

 

Welcome to modern turbo engines. FWIW German cars such as the e46 and e90 m3 are free revving engines that produce power in the upper revs. 😁

 

Is it your A/C compressor kicking on and off and the car adjusting the idle to compensate for the additional load?

 

No. It is more like a starving engine issue for dropping up and down so much.

Today I reached 1500 miles from just freeway driving at a steady 80mph. My best has been 27.6 mpg.

Some plastic vibration coming now from the right rear interior trim. Some loose panels and I have an idea from where it is coming.

 

1. My manual climate control hot/cold wheel on the right has 9 detents from top to bottom, not 3 like you say yours has. I have 4 fan speeds (and off).
2. Usually my AT shifts at around 5,000 rpm if I'm on it. But if I'm FOT it shifts about at redline (6500). If I'm not in Sport mode it shifts a lot lower of course. I rarely use it.
3. I get about 30-31 mpg combined. 27 in town, 32 highway. Thereabouts. Not as good as my 2007 MCS but hot horrible. I didn't expect the same mileage.

 

On the A/C right control wheel, only the last three detents actually provide cooling of the cabin. The others are set for warm temperature. It is what I have experienced until now so they are useless for where I live.

If I can go up to 30 mpg combined with the manual transmission , I will be happy What is your mileage now as a reference?

But, 32 mpg highway driving seems pretty low for a so small engine. My Infiniti G37 recorded up to 35 mpg at 80 mph on many 350 miles trips from Vegas to LA.

At 80 mph, the JCW engine cruises at about 3100 rpm in 6th gear. It should at least be as good for the same if not better.