One more comment about the mileage thread, but I felt this deserved a thread of its own.

I know that in the US, in the summer months, we use oxygenated gas and it is notorious for bad gas mileage. I wonder since this car was released in the summer, that we are all panicing over mileage that will definitely improve as we get the non-oxygenated gas.

Just my thoughts! Most likely worth less than $0.02 cents!! :-)

 

You may be on to something. We've got oxygenated gas too and my mileage has been in the 13-15 mpg range.

Also my thoughts (and you get what you pay for). :D

Dave

 

"Oxygenated Gas" is a gas company marketing term..

It has little bearing on the Anti Knock Index (AKI) or the actual octane rating.

Here is a lovely conversation of gas and fule info, ratings, etc..

http://www.mini2.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-22136

 

I think you may have your seasons mixed up. Here in Maryland we have oxygenated gas during the winter months. The reason being that in colder temperatures the exhaust contains more un-burned gases. They add the oxygen to help things burn up more completely.

That being said, things are going to get worse - not better. I know my last car would drop 1 or 2 MPG in the winter. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the oxygenated fuels though - it may just be because things are stiffer and friction is higher for a longer time since it takes longer for the car to warm up.

 

The energy of Oxygenated Reformulated gas is about 3% less than conventional gas... So, it takes more gas to get where you're going.

What really sucks about the whole thing is fuel injected cars are way better at measuring the levels of O2 from the air, and in the exhaust, so adding Oxygen to gas is a complete and total waste of resources. As older cars with carbureted engines die out, there is even less of a need for reformulated gas...

Now, don't get me started with MBTE, my father is a cheif scientest in Ground Contamination Identification for the EPA, and would like to roshambo idiots who approved MBTE... he has done major research in CA on MBTE contamination in the aquafers, things don't look good...

Here's some interesting reading:

http://www.epa.gov/OMSWWW/rfgorig.htm

http://www.chevron.com/prodserv/fuel.../whwyoxy.shtml

http://www.mr2.com/TEXT/gasoline_faq.txt

http://home.att.net/~Lemon.J.Russell/poorgas.htm

 

yup! in winter we will get less mpg than summer, besides the oxygenated gas we use in winter ... there is this warm up thing our car needs to do every morning.