I have a friend who has got a 1.6 petrol engined multipla and when they start the car from cold it sounds like a diesel, does anyone elses sound like this? also roughly how many miles should be expected before there's no sign of oil on the dipstick?

Any help or surgestions on these little problems would be much apricated.

It may sound a bit rattly in the morning but not like a diesel. Does it have a miss fire?

Best thing is to fill the oil up when it gets to minimum instead of waiting for it to get off the bottom of the stick. Check it every 1000miles i reckon.
Depends on how cars are driven as to how much oil it will use.

I have the 1.6 Multi, yes it does sound rather lumpy first thing, but only takes about 1-2 mins to settle, i presume it takes this long to get the oil round the engine.
I would think around 6-7K for the oil i just top mine up when it reaches around 3/4, that seems to be around 2-3K