Reply With QuoteBudget?
Use?
How many seats do you need? Must it be a tintop? Etc..
Good evening guys, I know this is a watch forum but I want to buy a car and was thinking of a Mini Cooper S. I don't need it for commute as I walk to work, its just gonna be for fun, darting around town, maybe a trip here and there. Im a single guy so no family.
Is the Mini Cooper S a good choice? Or does a Cooper get the job done cheaper? Or maybe another car? Any thoughts would be good, and also I was planning to buy used, maybe 2-3 years old, or should I buy new?
Budget?
Use?
How many seats do you need? Must it be a tintop? Etc..
Mini Cooper S is definately the one to go for if you want a blast every now and then. Bit cramped after a while though...
Budget = 10-15K ish maybe moreOriginally Posted by tertius
im a single guy so 2-4 is fine.
And is a sunroof good? or is it problematic, leaks etc
I had an S Works a few years ago, the most unreliable piece of rubbish I have ever owned. I may have been unlucky but would certainly avoid another.
The wife has had two (both Turbo versions) before she here Countryman S.
Get as new a version as you can as they made quite a few improvements to he ride and feel of the thing over the last few years. I think this is mainly due to the more advanced run flats they fitted to he newer ( 09 ) models.
Don't bother with the conv' version as its far to soft for keen driving, but the truth is the S is about as good a car as it gets.
Sunroof doesn't leak, but it is very noisy - spend your money on leather and Bluetooth and Nav if you have the option.
Later r56 s's (the turbo ones) are better reliability but a slightly different drive. (not necessarily worse)
surprisingly practical as well. My missus has one that has spent the winter 5 months in the alps with winter tyres and a roof box on to/from the uk. Ran faultlessly ferrying 3/4 people up and down mountains most days - sometimes having to be dug out from under 4 feet of snow in the morning!
Surprisingly good on fuel too!
Yep, I used to get 42mpg out of both our ours, and managed to fit two white Boxer dogs in the back :shock:
Had one for a couple of years, almost the same situation as you - was doing about 5k mileage a year and wanted summat fun for when I needed to drive.
The biggest problem for me was that every bugger had one. It was supposed to be a bit of fun for the weekend but everywhere I went there were loads of them which spoilt it a bit
not very reliable, went through tyres like no one’s business. was ok to own, but wouldnt have another.
if i had 10 - 15k i would be looking at something else:
s2000, Boxter, Classic Impreza, mk1 TT - summat a bit less generic
I've got 2 of them. S and SD (which is far better). Excellent cars, great sunroof etc. Lets face it, it's a BMW...it's going to work!
PS Avoid r/f tyres. You'll get 40k out of standard Michelins and 15k out of r/fs
Hahahhahahahahah, she bought a Countryman hahhahahahaha, God in Heaven, soooo many better cars, looks like the marketing dept caught another one, ooops did i put my foot in it again.Hahahhahahahahah
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Its a car you have to try, you will probably tire of it after a year but you will have a great year in it, S is the fun, I went for a Cooper and chipped it and tricked it up but the 'S' would have been more fun on reflection!
RIAC
Have you thought about the Renaultsport Clio 200 ?
They really are very good.
got to agree with this i have a Renaultsport Clio 182 and have been looking to get rid for the last two years and i just cant bring myself to sell itthere is just nothing else out there without spending silly money to replace it with in my opinion :wink:
I love them. Had a Cooper S for years and it was a hoot and didn't cost me much to run.
Now i have this as my daily drive. Even more of a hoot and plenty of space inside for 2 and loads of luggage room :wink: no rear seats :D Costs a bit more than the S in tyres, MPG and insurance but the smiles are also much larger. :D
Well, we are a year in and it's been trouble free. Now, it's my wife's car. I'm a big guy, and it is not a good fit for me on a long haul. We will drive it up 3.5 hrs to Mackinac Island again next month, and about that time I'm ready to extricate myself.
A blast in sport mode, mediocre gas mileage for a car that size.
Wife is absolutely in love with it.
The Cooper is over-servo'd as its a girls car so that's out (driven my Mum's loads, its fine for her). The two Cooper S I have tried (both variants) were auto with paddle / buttons on the wheel and manual. The manual is better, much better.
I personally did not like the auto at all. Its too big a car to be that cramped, I hate the speedo being in the middle of the dash, I hate that it changes gear at odd times and the lag you get through the paddles even with manual/auto mode and sport button on AND I hate torque steer. I personally couldn't wait to get back in the the little MX-5 I am currently stuck with (not that bad at all really!) despite the lack of power and to be honest the wife agrees. Its not even that powerful and if you gun it the wheel wants to jump out of your hands.
If I were a single guy looking at a fun sporty car for that money I would not be buying a mini, especially when there is so much metal available for that cash out there. Plus its not exactly a chick magnet. all the people above with one have pretty much talked about their missus liking it. Enough said.
Nippy fun weekend cars, possible top down action, there are loads of possibilities out there including a very nice nick Boxster S or Z4 or something, the other hatches mentioned are much better as well. Go and try a bunch of stuff.
Sorry to all the Mini owners, its a good car, I suppose. But not for me.
Thanks guys, after reading all the posts, Im getting slightly put off by the mini now LOL Especially if its considered a "missus" car!!? hmmm I guess Ill need to test drive a couple and see how it goes. But thank you all for your valuable inputs!
What about a 2d hand Golf GTI?
I drove my sister's Cooper and thought it underpowered; tried her John Cooper Works and thought it a little overpowered for the steering. A VW Scirocco is better to drive and a GTi Golf is better to drive and more practical. Personally, though, I'd rather have a Golf R32, for similar money - which is why that's what I drive now!
TBH.. if I was spending that sort of cash it'd be on a TVR.. but these threads always go like that, so was trying to stay on track!
My thoughts precisely.
One of our pool cars is a Copper S, if you want high speed cornering and quick acceleration then I suppose it's a good car. However the steering is completely dead with no feel whatsoever and the acceleration is strangely unrewarding. I also think the ride is unecessarily hard but that seems the current vogue. I much prefer my 20 year old Alfa 33 though it's not as quick (though I'd actually say you can corner faster in it becuase of the confidence inspired by the better steering feel).
Among my other niggles with the MINI (in no particular order):
- Dreadful Fisher-Price dashboard with appalling ergonomics
- Rear view mirror really intrusive in your forward view.
- Silly return to centre control stalks
- The only way of getting the most important information directly in front of you (ie. speed) is in a silly 1cm high digital display (Actually I think if you go for the SatNAv then the Speedo does move to in front of the driver)
- It's impossible to get cold fresh air ventilation without aircon and the windows don't lend themselves to being opened a small amount.
- Very fatiguing to drive long distances, even on motorways (probably down in part to the run-flats).
- Silly small boot. I took my wife when I went on business recently and we could not get everything in the boot. All we had was my work bag (laptop and projector), clothes for two days and coats. I can get more in the boot of my AH Sprite.
- Not the best wipers in the world, especially on a greasy screen.
- Seat belt always gets trapped between the seat and the B-post.
- Easy to grab reverse instead of first when pulling away at lights.
- High road noise at speed (those run-flats again)
- Hard to shut the boot without getting your hands dirty.
All I will say is buy a bug sponge for that bloody windscreen (or should it be magnet!).
Single bloke + 15 grand - car = Lotus Elise
Job done.
Had one for 18 months, most unreliable pile of crap I have ever owned- bought new, looked after well, but broke 3 times and rattled from day 1 and did the same mpg as my Carrera 4s
utter triumph of marketing and bullshit over substance....never again.
did handle quite nicely though.....
Goat
My brother has an R55 Clubman, pre facelift but with the LCI 1.6 turbo shared with the 207 GTI and whatever else. He's had to have one of the rear windows replaced as the heater stopped working, a water pump recall, new dash top and rev counter in the search for a rattle, one of the windows kept dropping and had to be fixed and also had some pretty shoddy dealer service.
It costs him about £125 per year in road fund licence (cheap!), he reckons he averages 45-47mpg to a tank and drives it carefully, but it's a nice car. Ride is a bit hard on RFTs but it's well specced although not cheap.
i really dislike minis, for that money get a 2nd hand rx8 or something that is much more fun to drive and can be had for well before 15k, could get a nice prodrive rx8 for that money which would be nicer than a mini or a s2000 = rear wheel drive = more fun
The other half had one of the first coopers and kept it 7 years which is a record for her.
Great car, no problems at all and quite nippy. Get normal tyres and a can of gloop rather than run flats, much better ride.
Mine at was a 2 year old JCW with 11k on the clock and driven carefully (the odd foot down but no red lining etc etc!!) - gearbox needed replacing, supercharger replaced, panoramic roof failed (got stuck wide open, handy!) and needed replacing plus some other bits, the bill came to about £5k I believe and was covered under warranty. I have since owned many different makes of car, all bar an M3 (mainly niggly problems but headlights packing up at £3k a pair) have behaved. Says something about BMW to me, converted to Audi and no problems thus far.
Agree with the advice at £15k for a man's car, you can do a lot better. A Boxster S, Elise etc etc - the rear seats in a Mini are tiny anyway and not really suitable for adults IMO so you may as well look at a two seater :D
Another thing to mention is that if you have large manly gentitals, a Mini will do fine. If you are tubby and bald you'll need something more flash to disguise your microscopic willy :mrgreen:
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