Riddle me this, can't get MPG over 26.2 on trip MD to NJ

Mind you, I do this trip at least once a month.

In our 335d, I easily manage 37.5 mpg, that's over the EPA rating
In our VW CC, I easily managed 34 mpg, again, that's over the EPA rating....

I just can't seem to get this Countryman S, FWD, to get a normal MPG.....not even close to 28 mpg as the combined EPA rating...what gives?? Trip is 225 miles, filled up before I left, barely made it to the destination. I drive with cruise on, and per above referenced vehicles, I have some comparable data.....

 

at what speed?

at 55 mph on cruise, i have seen 41.9 mpg, 411 miles on 9.8 gallons

at 65 mph i usually see 32-34 mpg

at 70 mph that drops to 29-30 mpg

at 80 mph the drop is down to 24-26 mpg

since new my avg mpg is still holding at 28.8 mpg, now with over 9,000 miles

scott

 

77 mph, cruise. Flabbergasted, again, compared to our other vehicles, when I have same speed/driving style and surely not feathering it, that I can't get a decent MPG.....an MPG even that's even remotely close to the EPA rating, the EPA ratings that both our other vehicles easily exceeded.

I guess the engine isn't fully broken in yet?

 

you are getting similar mpg to my cms all4 at 80

part of it may be the aerodynics of the cm, i think a greyhound has better aerodynamics than the cm

scott

 

Yeah, I guess so.... luckily, this is Mrs' fun car....I merely took it on this trip to get it tinted by my favorite NJ tint guy....

I am usually taking the diesel for these longer hauls..

 

Bingo! The CM is like a block of cheese going down the road. You can see the mileage drop pretty quickly at higher speeds. My wife's 2011 AWD Outback gets better mileage on the freeway at 75 MPH than my CMS. The Outback certainly doesn't look like it cheats the wind, either. The CVT in the Subie is really happy cruising at 75.

 

I've averaged 16 mpg with my cms4 on my last 4 fill-ups. My commute to work is 4 mi (round trip) and my avg speed has been 13 mi/h since i bought the car in Aug '12. Total mileage is 1450. I couldn't have a chance to get out of the city to break it in. I took it to the service center and we had a test drive in which we averaged 18 mpg. What do you guys think is wrong?

 

i live and work in the same town. if i only drive around town, lots of stops and starts...mileage is in the high teens....i have a CMS without the ALL4. i think the 4 cylinder turbo is very inefficient on short trips. that said, you should try to take it on longer highway trips every so often, so the engine is able to reach its optimal operating temperature and can clean it self out of any buildups. highway mileage i get high 20's to low 30's with an average cruising speed of 70mpg.

 

It's very unnerving to get that kind of mpg from a 1.6 engine but it's another reason to bring out the rest of the horses onto the highway thanks for sharing your experience.

 

I don't think your driving long enough or far enough for anything to warm up....

I've currently got a VW GTi that is going to be replaced with a CMS All4, and I've found that on short drives (10 miles or less) the fuel economy stinks, my guess is because the engine really hasn't had a chance to warm up before I arrive. Longer than 10 miles and my fuel economy improves dramatically. Our Jetta tdi is the same way, and the Escape Hybrid we had before that wouldn't engage the hybrid system until the engine warmed up...

 

Engine not being able to warm up was my guess, too. Still i wouldnt expect it to behave like a gas guzzler even in these conditions. Let's see what kind of fuel economy i will get when i get the jwc exhaust system installed and chip tuning done

 

I don't think any car except an electric or hybrid is going to get good economy on such a short commute. However, to put it in perspective, with a 20 mile total weekly commute, even at 16 MPG, you're only using about 5 bucks a week in gas. You can't even go to Starbucks for that. Motor on!

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Even a hybrid wouldn't do well in that situation, it wouldn't be running long enough for the battery to ever charge so the electric motor wouldn't be able to kick in very often... And that's assuming that the engine didn't need to warm up before the hybrid system would start...

 

Good point. Heck, with that commute even I wouldn't be warmed up if I road me bicicleta

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I wish that was the case. Where i drive, a gallon of premium gas costs $10.5 right now :( As far as i know, Turkey is the proud gas price champion of the world.

Don't ask me how much i paid for the car itself. Taxes here cost almost as much as the actual product, sometimes even more. I miss NYC gas prices so much.

 

I drive 45-60 miles one way commute. Posted speed limit is 75 so I am always doing 85-90. I have had the car for 1 year and have 31200 miles. My all time avg on computer is 26.8 mpg. Wish it was at least 30 but I never saw that.

 

4 months of ownership, 14k miles. 70% highway, 30% town usually.
auto/ALL4. no cargo usually, no roof racks.
312 miles on a tank at most and tat takes is down to under 20 miles left. I know the obc is weird, but I dont have all my exacts.
Method calculation x miles driven divided by x gallons filled.
Always 93 from "reputable" places. Best I come up with is 26 mpg unless strictly station to station up i95.
Mileage seems to drop a bit more lately.
Personally, I'm disappointed, for the size and power of the car, for the same mileage, I could have gotten another WRX. My 03 with the guts of an 05 got the same on the highway and I averaged 25 with it aside for track time. Plus that had full time AWD. My fiance's IS250, 5 years old gets 32 miles average and she is all too fond of sport shifting and having a thrilling drive to work.

 

We had a '12 cma4 manual that had electrical system issues, and BMW has replaced it with a '13, which we ordered with an automatic. The car is brand new so I have not checked the fuel mileage yet, but I will say the upshift points are certainly not programmed with fuel mileage in mind, and that's with the sport button off. I find myself using manual mode and in normal everyday driving commanding earlier up shifts to save on fuel.

 

I was getting 28-33 until MINI reprogrammed Fenton with the 2012 update - solved some problems but my mileage instantly dropped to 25-28 for the same trips. It's a rare day on a long trip that I get over 30 now. Everything else is the same.
Solved some problems, but changed the economy...

 

took our first longer trip to go skiing in upstate New York yesterday. 24-25 mpg at highway speeds (70-80 mph). I assume the cold weather (single digits) on the way up did not help things.

 

I am currently averaging 19.9 mpg on my 1 mile commute to work.

I averaged about 24 mpg driving from Denver to Little Rock round trip and about 25 from Denver to Las Vegas round trip.

Not impressed.

And I've been driving like an old man.

I got better mpg out of my BMW Z4 Coupe and it was obviously much faster and more powerful.

If I don't see improvement on my next road trip, I might seriously consider trading in on a MCS Hatch. I was willing to sacrifice the better MPG between the CM and the MCS for the All4, but I thought the end result would be better than this.

I got 40 MPG on the trip from Denver to Little Rock in my 09 MCS hatch. That's a significant improvement and worth the sacrifice of the AWD IMO. FWD on the MCS works pretty well in snowy conditions and would save me a ton on gas.

Hopefully, it's just the wind blowing against me and getting broken in, but so far, the Gas mileage on this car has not lived up to the hype.

 

I have about 8k miles on my CMS manual and I don't think I've ever recorded anything lower than 28 MPG for a tank. Generally, it's around 30 via manual calculation. My commute is about 25 miles one way and is mixed highway with stops @ < 70 mph dictated by traffic flow and several stop lights along the way. My OBC reading always seems to be at 31.x before resetting at the end of each tank, which is pretty close to what I've been measuring by calculating it manually.

 

With a 1 mile commute your fuel economy is going to be a joke. Short trips are the worst for fuel economy.

While your numbers are low for your road trip, I've got to ask - what was the ambient temp and what were you expecting to get? I've noticed that in my current cars (2009 GTi that's getting replaced with a CMS ALL4 and a 2011 TDi Sportwagon) we get a 3 to 5% drop in fuel economy when temps are at or below freezing, and that's calculated and not based on what the car is reporting...

Just curious what you were hoping to get from the car fuel economy wise...

 

Mr B,
You haven't owned it long enough - Dec delivery right.

As mentioned the 1 mile commutes will kill mileage as you car hasn't gotten to normal operating temp. Mine takes almost 10 miles on highway to get to op temp on cold mornings.

Once we get to warmer temps(Spring/Summer) you'll see an improvement in mileage. Mine currently is averaging 24 city,28 hwy - winter. Summer it was 28 city, 31 hwy -w/AC on.

 

Our '12 CMSA4 manual now has 6800 mi. Just drove through California's central valley in good weather conditions, 65F, with cruise control set at 65 mph for 170 miles. Got 34 mpg average. The CM's have relatively high frontal area and not a great drag coefficient, so aero drag gets quite significant compared to smaller cars like the Mini hardtops if you drive much faster than 65 mph.