I love it! I consistently get 28 mpg:
The dip you see in August was because of a bad fuel pump. When I log my mileage, I also log where I get gas. I filled up 3 times at Arco because there was one on my route to work (I got a temporary job after 3 months of unemployment and I hated it with a passion). The bad fuel pump would cause the car to start-up terribly. I took it in to be serviced and it only took a couple of hours to replace. Apparently they do fuel pump replacements often (I suppose for a similar issue with the 135i and 335i). So the rule is, don't fill up at Arco or Costco when you have a high pressure fuel pump for a direct injected motor (at least that's my rule). I used to fill up the Z at that Arco and never had any problems. Now, I only go to Chevron for both cars.So if you do get the Mini Cooper S, always drive it with sport mode on. I've tested the mileage with sport mode off for multiple tanks and there's virtually no difference. According to my research it actually is slightly worse with sport mode off. The problem with that is you have to turn it on every time you turn on the car. The BMW care-free maintenance sucks. You can really only go in every 15,000 miles. You can't go in any earlier for oil changes. I don't know about you, but I can't stand the thought of having oil over 6,000 miles old, even for a new car. Yeah, the maintenance helped me with the fuel pump but any other car company should have fixed that free of charge too. Oh, another thing I log with the Mini is how much money I save driving it versus driving the Z. I do this by calculating how much it would have cost driving the Z for that many miles assuming the Z gets 16mpg (which it does based on my Z Excel spreadsheet). For exactly 1 year of driving the Mini, I have saved $1,263.80 on the price of gas. Maybe that'll help you in your decision, I don't know. 
I average 42 miles a day.
You should also look into the VW Golf TDI. My coworker just got it and has been doing about 30-32mpg (that's what the dash tells him, I don't think he checks at fill-up). It's a much roomier car (4 doors) but it's not as fast or fun. It's also a couple grand cheaper than the Mini. Feel free to e-mail me if you care to know more!
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I have a 2009 Mini Cooper S as my daily driver. - 
