[jokell82]

Originally Posted by The Placid Casual 

I used to have an 06 Cooper S. I covered 30k miles or so in just under a year.

I'll preface this post by giving you a short background, so you can put my comments in context - I am over 30, have had an extensive collection of performance cars (both front and rear wheel drive), had a lot of professional training on both bikes and cars, and regularly do track days and events.

Ok to the Mini Cooper. For the first few months I *loved* it, but as time wore on, I got exceedingly tired of the little niggles when I compared it to other cars, and traded it after 10 months or so.

My prime annoyance was the gearbox, a 6 speed manual. It was *so* stiff and clunky. It was nigh on impossible to 'heel and toe' gear change, and when changing gear under acceleration, it was very on/off and jerky. I first thought it may need to be run in, or have the oil up to temperature, but after 30k miles, it was only worse. It made town driving such a pain, I often preferred to take the tram after a few months!

Things were made worse by the 'long' clutch on Mini's. Really doesn't help the gearbox issue, and also makes it really hard to steer the car on the throttle, when it should be a breeze. It is either engaged, or not engaged, and can be hard to balance.

Suspension was hard, not spine shatteringly so, but still lacked some compliance over different surfaces that I had expected.

Torque Steer. By god do you get torque steer!

Fit and finish in the cabin was not great after a year. There were significant rattles and squeaks that drove me *nuts*.

My girlfriend *loved* the style and look of the car, it was undeniably cool, but found it awful to drive due to the 'snatchy' nature of the clutch, and the gearbox issue... she infinitely preferred her Golf GTi.

I have driven Mini's since, and have to say that if you have to get one, the 'S' is not worth it for town driving, with the standard Cooper being more compliant. They are a good car, but not as good as the hype suggests, and I'd say to look at all your options.

I looked at a ton of options and decided to go with the Mini. I liked the way the R56 clutch handled during my test drives. I've also never been a "performance car" driver - my current car is an Acura MDX and before that I owned a Toyota Solara. The Solara was definitely a sportier car, but by no means a performance auto.

A huge difference in the ride between the one you had and the one I bought is that I will not have run-flat tires and I won't have the sport suspension. The ride will probably be completely different between the two.

In any case, my Mini will be here in less than two weeks.