Practicalities of the Mini

Practicalities of the Mini

Author
Discussion

markizok

Original Poster:

620 posts

255 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
Hi

My girlfriend has a new job and for the next 6 - 9 months will be doing a 60 - 80 mile daily commute cross the A606 to Nottingham.

She really wants a cooper or cooper s (10k - 12k budget) but i have heard they have shocking fuel consumption - are they really bad, and if so is there an alturnative like an LPG conversion.

Cheers guys

Plotloss

67,280 posts

277 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
Cooper S I averaged about 22mpg on a variety of motorway and urban.

Marki

15,763 posts

277 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
Plotloss said:
Cooper S I averaged about 22mpg on a variety of motorway and urban.


are they really that bad !

markizok

Original Poster:

620 posts

255 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
OMG, i was expecting you to say 25 - 30mpg. Thats insance, what did BMW do to the engine????!?!?

bompey

570 posts

242 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
we have a cooper convertible and average 35mpg around town, which is excellent compared to our 330i which averages 24mpg, same driving style.

markizok

Original Poster:

620 posts

255 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
So a cooper could be the choice!

bompey

570 posts

242 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
we heard the S was terrible for mpg but the cooper was fine - wouldn't fancy an S works

markizok

Original Poster:

620 posts

255 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
Its just a shame the MCS looks so much meaner - the scoop in the bonnet is great. On the plus side she wants black or red so ill be more than happy to drive it on the weekends!

baskey

14,291 posts

233 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
our mcs averages 30-32mpg (over 5k miles). missus uses it all week... that might be part of the reason it's ok! it also has better mpg with tesco 99ron (or optimax) but obviosuly that costs a bit more - but our 99ron is onlt 90.9 or 91.9 at the moment so that's ok.

minimax

11,985 posts

263 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
markizok said:
Its just a shame the MCS looks so much meaner - the scoop in the bonnet is great. On the plus side she wants black or red so ill be more than happy to drive it on the weekends!



I borrowed the company mini cooper for 1000 miles or so and I was horrified at the fuels consumption! it was truly very very poor - I do drive very quickly but even given that I had my foot on the floor almost all the way from nottingham to london (140 miles) to average 17.2 mpg was bloody shocking, I attempted to drive slowly (75-85) on the way back and managed little over 24mpg..

however, although it has a very peaky engine it is really good fun to drive and above 5000rpm (even in 5th gear!) it really flies!

markizok

Original Poster:

620 posts

255 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
30+ seems good.
It turns out that one of the guys i work with is on his 2nd MCS - the first did 30-35mpg, the newer one is returning 22 max and its over a year old!

Seems strange

baskey

14,291 posts

233 months

Tuesday 29th November 2005
quotequote all
markizok said:
30+ seems good.
It turns out that one of the guys i work with is on his 2nd MCS - the first did 30-35mpg, the newer one is returning 22 max and its over a year old!

Seems strange


there is something about the CATs breaking up (the con of having an overrun - popping car!) and the bits getting stuck in the exhaust system further back losing power. this doesn't seem to be dependent on age or miles elapsed from what i can gather. the point is if you end up driving it harder to make up for the fact that it's not making the full complement of horses then i guess that would harm MPG... just a thought.

to be fair though it isn't a car you buy because of it's economy. you might want to look towards a fabia vRS/ibiza cupra/polo gti (if the diesel does come - whatever it isn't out til may06) type thing...

love machine

7,609 posts

242 months

Wednesday 30th November 2005
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Driven around Clifton today, billions of BMW minis everywhere. Be different, get a decent car for £10-12K. She could have a V8 Capri for that sort of money, or a Caterfield. Life is too short to drive a big box badged as a smaller better box.

Cooperman

4,428 posts

257 months

Thursday 1st December 2005
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Fo a 60 to 80 mile a day commute I would go for a one ot two-year old Golf Turbo-Diesel. They do over 50 mpg, are totally reliable, hold their value, are large enough and structurally great. With the latest T/D engine they have adequate power for all normal road driving.
Personally I'm not a fan of the BMW small car they have named a Mini. Nothing wrong with it as a car and good engineering, but the price is, IMHO, far too high for what you are getting and the performance nothing wonderful, just average. If they had called it a BMW 216, how many who now own one would have bought one?

rich-uk

1,431 posts

263 months

Thursday 1st December 2005
quotequote all
I average about 30-32mpg in my MCS, I've done 36,500 miles in 2.5 years.

baSkey

14,291 posts

233 months

Friday 2nd December 2005
quotequote all
love machine said:
Driven around Clifton today, billions of BMW minis everywhere. Be different, get a decent car for £10-12K. She could have a V8 Capri for that sort of money, or a Caterfield. Life is too short to drive a big box badged as a smaller better box.


yep, v8 capri will do just the job as an economical, reliable car for his missus' daily commute..!

i think you should get a Rodius - be different!