Yes, that's correct. The car is very safe until and the airbags will do just fine up until you hit 70.

 

I'm in the middle of a vacation drive between Boston and Columbus by way of Williamsburg VA. Only on my 2nd tank of gas so far and got 38mpg on the first tank driving at 70-75mph for a fair amount of the time. So far have 200 miles on this tank and am only down 2 bars on the fuel. Using name brand premium fuel. Have seen one other Clubman on the trip and that was here in Williamsburg. Hot chocolate with a black roof. Anybody's?

 

I'm starting to think there is something wrong with my car (clubbie S). I've only got 175 miles on it (in 2 weeks), but my OBC is showing less than 22mpg! I was getting better than that in my chipped Audi 1.8T. I still haven't figured out what represents 1/2 a tank on the stupid gas gauage, but I'm probably under the 1/2 tank point.

Probably 85% of the driving has been very short trips (<3 miles) in stop and go traffic at lights. The AC is ALWAYS on (summer in Florida). I haven't taken the RPMs above 4500 and I've tried to keep the turbo off line, so despite the stop and go, I've been trying to drive it soft.

I'm VERY dissapointed at this rate. I don't know if it is becuase I'm still so early in break in or not. Nearly every time I get out of the car, even after a 3 mile trip, the front fans are on and the car hood near the scoop is very hot. The engine seems to drive fine, but could something else be wrong causing the mileage to be this bad?

Jon W.

 

jweiss. Try resetting the mpg on your OBC. Your dealership might have even put in cheap gas, but who knows except them. my experience was the similar. I couldn't figure out why mine was reading low values, but when I finally broke-in the car at 1500 mi, the gas mileage has gotten way better. Just keep motoring ..

 

I have an automatic S. The below figures are hand calculations (OBC showed 1 or 2 mpg better).

First tank (provided by dealer) I averaged 25 mpg...that included 30 minutes of turtle speed traffic the day I took delivery .

Second tank (Texaco 93) I averaged 29 mpg.

I don't get a lot of highway driving in (most is in rush hour, so it doesn't really count as highway driving). I'm on the third tank now, and I'm hoping that the mpg will keep going up! I'm looking forward to Galileo's first road trip at the end of next month...I'll be sure to post the results!

 

So far, so good:
very first tank...7mi on Od.
115 miles pretty much all freeway (avg 70mph)
34mpg
1 bar down on gage
Manual S, no turbo

I love this car!

 

Ha! That's what my 8 year old tried to convince me of as we were driving down the freeway!! Thankfully, out of habit, she had hers on "just in case"

 

Just finished a round trip to Rocky Gap Resort in Western Maryland...150 each way. Loaded Clubman, golf clubs, two bags, and of course the wife. The occupant weight was around 400 pounds, bags and clubs, around another 100 pounds..500 pounds total. Left Bowie, Md..got gas at Texaco..averaged 32.4 mpg when I arrived home.
Car is great going up the steep inclines, zips right around all the slow pokes (I was in 6th gear and was pulling up the hill!) Very stable car, feels solid on the round, just like a roadster (steer brake) should feel!

 

When I first got my Clubman I got 30.5 MPG on a 2000+ mile roadtrip. Since then I have not seen better than 28. I'm not concerned as it seems in order to get better milage you have to drive like a granny in a Prius. Been there done that... I never got better than 44 MPG in my Prius. Minis feel fine at 100+ MPH and I'm sure there's no conserving gas at that speed. It's kinda like a econo sports car and I'll drive it that way.

P.S. I got passed by a couple of Prius' going like 90 MPH on my last road trip. I was experimenting (to no avail) with fuel economy.

 

lol -

I don't think so - Downtown MINI suggested to me that during the break in period I should vary the speed I drive and try not to drive it too long above 2500 RPM. Drive the car the way you normally would. Short trips are not very good for any car. My fan always comes on after a drive too - it is hot outside and the turbo needs to be cooled properly. There is no need not to work the turbo, it too needs to be broken in. (My numbers are on page one - since we live in the same area they should be close. I will include more numbers on next fill up.)

Can't wait for my first long road trip.

 

OK, just filled up with our 7th tank so far and using approx. your same parameters, the results from the previous tank were as follows:

Vehicle Type: Clubman S, auto.
Fuel Economy: 22.39 mpg (hand calculated)
Miles Driven: 309.3
Gals. Pumped: 13.81
Gas Type: BP/Amoco "Silver" (mid-grade)
Type of Driving: 80/20 city/hwy, (completely flat terrain)
A/C: "ON" 100% of the time (it's late June in FL, folks )
Avg. Speed: 33.9 mph (hwy. stints approx. 70mph)

Total Miles on Car: 1,789 (OBC shows avg. of 28.4 mpg. since delivery)

This time we filled up with BP/Amoco "Ultimate" and reset both the "Avg. MPG." and the "Avg. Speed" to see if there's an appreciable difference. The previous 5 tanks hand-calculated results were: 28.50; 23.61; 32.22; 30.10; 28.52, comprised of our normal amounts city/hwy driving with the two highs including a brief road trip to Savannah, GA.

Overall, I'm not tremendously impressed with the mileage so far compared to others on this board, but I realize it's barely broken in, it's an automatic, and hubby tends to have a "lead foot" compared to me (the "S" will do that to ya, he says). Experience tells me that things will improve once we rack up some more miles, typically around 8,000+.


Seems like most of our Florida Clubman experiences have been similar so far in terms of mileage, so I'm wondering if the added heat and humidity of our area lessens the fuel economy becauses it's harder on the engine (not to mention the constant A/C this time of year).

Regardless, there's some more data for those who like to compare.

 

It could also have something to do with the fact that there's so many people down there.

 

This is the best place to log your MPG.....
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

 

Amen to that! The traffic and congestion around our area have gotten ridiculously bad over the years. We pretty much go from stop light to stop light anymore which obviously kills our in-town/city mileage.

Slightly OT: BTW, Tim, how did you resolve the issue of the manual tranny and your wife on the Clubman? FWIW, I still prefer a manual on small sportscars, but since we already have one of those (Miata), we opted for an auto. on the Clubbie and are very happy with it for our needs (traffic concerns again).

 

We kept both cars. She drives the 04 MC to commute to work, and I drive the Clubman when we go places on the weekend.

 

Jon:

With so few miles and such short trips your mileage will be lower. My Clubman now has about 5000 miles and the mileage seems to keep imporving. The first few tankfulls the mpg rose each time. My last tank hand calcualted was 35.something mpg! The OBC now shows 36.5 for the life of the car.

Happy Motoring!

Jim

 

I appreciate all the optimistic thoughts and wishes. I don't know that my mileage is gettting better, but I'll really be able to test it in a few weeks with a trip to North Carolina. At least I feel better that nothing is (probably) broken. I've had the car 3 weeks and only have 200 miles on it. At this rate, I would have been in "break in" for 5 months.

I also finally figured out the gas guage. There are no lights that turn off from "Full" to "3/4 Full". "1/2" is straight up. I filled up with the guage lit at the 10 o'clock position, and it took 9 gallons. I initially wondered why it took forever for the first light to go off, and then dropped so quickly after that.

BTW, for all those in Central Florida, I'm a transpotation planner with the DOT. I don't think things are going to get any better any time soon with congestion. Costs have increased, and with the economic slow down, revenues and funds for projects are WAY down. Our 20 year plans are now 30+ year plans. Looks like we'll have to leave Florida (or at least the urban areas) to find a fun place to drive our Minis!

Thanks again!

Jon W.

 

Oops, double post.

 

I just turned over 1500 miles on my Clubman non-S automatic. 27 days of ownership. My 5-days-a-week commute is 60 miles round trip, about half highway and half country twisties. There was a 230-mile road trip in there, also mostly highway and country roads. I do very little city-type driving, maybe about 10%. Stats to date:
37.4 mpg per the OBC (Cumulative; not reset yet) About 4.5% optimistic compared to hand-calculation
35.8 mpg hand calculated (1498 miles/41.8 gallons consumed)
Always use Shell 93. Avg.$/gal to date $4.23 (which btw is OUTRAGEOUS)
11.8 cents per mile

My AC has been on about 50% of the time: it's been in the high 80s and 90s for a few weeks now, but the mornings are usually cool.

Overall, though, I'm very pleased. My Mazda Protege5 was getting 27.7 mpg after nearly 5 years. This is a 29% improvement.

But as ridiculous as $4+ per gallon is, it means the 20-25 cent difference between regular and premium is now pretty insignificant.

 

Over the weekend I got my best millage ever in my clubman on my way home from the blue ridge parkway tour. The route was Asheville NC to Frederick MD, so about 470 miles of straight highway driving with a little stop and go crossing into MD. AC on and Cruise control set in the 70-75 range for most of the trip. Sport mode used twice to get around people who don't know how to use acceleration lanes when merging onto the freeway . Hand calculated, my Auto S Clubman averaged 38.7 mpg. Did it on one tank of gas with 3 dashes left over when I got home.

Overall for the trip I averaged around 35 mpg with the worst millage being 32 for the Blue Ridge Parkway legs of the trip. I was expecting much worse since I was in sport mode, shifting manually, and going fast up and down mountains.

 

Welcome to Asheville! My LadyG had her maiden voyage Sunday on the Parkway. I think I'll be doing another round this weekend! I wish I saw you!!

 

those people who complain about premium...do the math..you buy a car which requires then you want to put cheap gas in it. If you drive 15,000 miles a year, premium is $2 more a fill up over regular. Just put the good stuff in, that is what the car was designed to use.

 

Can you get an "S" without the Turbo?

 

I would have been hard to miss with the ~20 other minis I was driving with. There's a bunch of info about the trip in the "National events" section of the site. You should check out the pictures to see what you missed.

 

No. You could get a base car and add sport suspension etc... Play in the configurator and you can see how close you can get to building almost but not turbo S