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MINI Cooper
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Revka
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I'd heard of this happening to a few other people, but... I'm going to be driving my S this summer after all.
Anyway, went out and got a couple bottles of red wine... feeling pretty good right now.
Sometime in early July. >8=/
Minimum $1000-1500 options sounds like pure greed to me. The cars come well equipped as they are and the invoice gives them lots of profit right at MSRP. You should complain to MINI international about their behaviour as they likely don't want a bad rep.
For future reference, look for a direct link to this discussion in the Helpful Links (left side). You'll also find a direct link back to this area from that discussion. Hope this is helpful.
Revka
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I've been at my dealer 3 times in the past two weeks deciding if I want an S now or not. I got a call two weeks ago this Monday telling me they had an electric blue S available now - I'm supposedly 14 on their S list. They had a blue, silver and red S's sitting there unsold and available to the first buyer. There were 7 or 8 Coopers there with sold signs as well. Went in last weekend and the red and blue were sitting there with sold signs on them along with most of the same "sold" Coopers Went down yesterday with a friend that got on the list when I did and saw the red an blue still sitting there with sold signs on them - the silver S still hasn't been sold (all have premium and sport) and 5 of the same "sold" Coopers still there. I asked the sales manager why they haven't delivered the sold S's and all the Coopers that haven't been delivered either - he said the people that bought them are "out of town and will pick them up when they return" - what's up with that, did they take a slow boat to China? two weeks? I seriously get the feeling they are creating demand with sold signs.
Anyway to make a long story short - I asked for my deposit back and so did my friend - we plan to get one from another dealer, maybe Flow in North Carolina - they are fantastic to do business with - I have an M Coupe in my garage from them - I bought an X5 from this Orlando BMW dealer last year - that will be the last time I do any business with these jokers.
I'm not in a huge hurry for the S anyway - I have a highly modified 2002 turbo GTI for a track car that suits me just fine for now. It will be replaced by an S. This will give me some time to research performance mods for the S as they become available - I hear Dinan is comming out with a bunch of go fast stuff for the S - it's all good -
rich
I asked why all these sold vehicles were still there, and I was told people were taking there time to pick them up. I never did check back to see if any of them still might be there, but now I'm wondering if rickrover may be onto something with dealers trying to create a demand with sold signs.
Some people have had deposits on them since last year or early this year, especially the Canadian Launch Editions which 'sold out' in January. I don't know how long they can wait to pick them up but I wonder if the excitement has worn off for some of those people and they are getting cold feet now after such a long wait? How long can a person usually hold a car with a deposit? My car was available only, supposedly, because someone backed out of a deposit and got a 3-series Beemer instead.
I canceled my order, but I may re-order it when those goodies are available.
I drove a yellow Cooper 5 speed on Saturday at Downtown Mini, and am going back to drive an S next weekend. Like you I was a little surprised at the lack of grunt in the Cooper, but then again I was not winding it out too much. I was just hoping such a small car would get off the line a bit peppier. Mind you driving on I-4 in the left lane it seemed like plenty of power if you downshifted into 4th...
We own a "real" '67 S, so it will be interesting to see the differences between the two cars...I don't know if other folks would be interested in a comparison of the two. I would have thought most folks buying a "new" Mini in the USA would never have driven one of the original? I could be wrong...
By the way I am not an autocrosser/racer, just like to drive small fast cars. When we lived in the UK I drove a Rover Cooper as a daily driver and the S on the weekends to shows and such. I always enjoyed driving it. Here in the states Mom has a Minivan and I have a 4D auto sedan besides the Mini at the mo. Would really like to get into one of these. Here's what I wrote down as a first impression:
o Sunroof too bright - does anyone know if there is a solid shade vs. the fabric?
o Its been real hot (+92F) here in Orlando and the car did not get very cold -- even with auto AC set to 60 ..?
o Car could use more grunt
o Brakes great
o handling and roadholding very communicative as far as road feel goes
o steering great
o no squeaks or rattles
o car pulled to the left on the highway at 70+ (!)
o Back seat seemed bigger than I thought it would be
o clutch/brake were hard to heel and toe - I am 5'6" with small feet and I could not do it
o turn signal lever trim/lettering seemed like it would not last/wear off quickly
o hard to see speedo in middle of dash - not because of location but because of grey gauge face and orange needle. Perhaps this is better at night. Well anyway I drive on the tach. (I liked the fact the tach was right "there"; on my S I have a genuine period 60's accesory mounting for my Smith's 0-8000 RPM tach which I plan to move onto the steering wheel one of these days:)
o Passenger seat on the test car had a broken latch
Sum up: A pretty cool little car.
All the best...rich
Does anyone have any feedback on the Base Cooper with the sport pkg vs without it? I've driven one without it and am wondering how much different the sport pkg feels. Is it much stiffer? Is there much difference in the seats? How much more bumpy is the ride?
Thanks!
I think that's why they have the Supercharged Mini Cooper S;)
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2022 Wrangler Sahara 4Xe, 2023 Toyota Tacoma SR 4WD
For fast starts you need to dump into the clutch just a little but you can chirp the tires and get the ASC+T light to come on easily if you try. That light coming on means you are clutching and gassing right in the zone and need to back off a smidge. With a manual tranny you can get any car to move well at the expense of gas mileage and clutch life.
Same with cornering under hard acceleration: you can get the "remember buddy, you're only human" light to come on there too.
If it bothers you, it can be turned off but I find it to be a good retroactive traction control meaning it just brakes the wheels a little if you are barely on the edge. Some traction controls kill the engine at the slightest hint of wheelspin which I find to be dangerous (it can leave you sitting in the middle of the intersection with no engine power and oncoming traffic). I have yet to see my MINI actually retard the engine timing or anything that severe.
kev,
actually I was thinking more along the lines of Metro
And now, back to the subject of the Mini Cooper! Thanks for your participation.
Revka
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Hatchbacks & Station Wagons Boards
Thanks
I've seen 8.5 or better out of the base Cooper too which is good considering its power:weight.
Thanks
To 759397- You'll find detailed performance specs on the Mini Cooper S in Edmunds' New Vehicle Guide. Also, look for a direct link to the Mini Cooper New Vehicle information in the Helpful Links on the left side of the page. Good luck.
Revka
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Hatchbacks & Station Wagons Boards
My dealer told me today that the Xenon will be available on July's production(Lucky you! :-)). Since I am buying a car for my wife and she doesn't mind to wait another month, I kept my order. I must give my dealer a hard time yesterday. I hope they will relay it to the manufacture though.
Happy motoring!
Now then, talking about grunt...
A lot of people say the base cooper is lacking, but I'll repeat the same thing many people have said before... rev. it to 3-4000 rpm's, and drop the clutch! If that doesn't work for you, then get the Cooper S... That should eliminate any question you have about the power of the MINI!
Motor on
nyc - Yes, I am looking forward to driving the "S" on Saturday. I think I'll try and wind it out a bit.
*Sigh*
I guess I am just trying to transfer my current "real" S driving experience onto the new Mini, and I shouldn't do that. On my "S", driving on the interstate at 70 MPH you can just floor it and the car will overtake most anything around. This is very scary when things get past 85 or so; the fastest I've had it up to on a motorway has been about 90-95 (I could not see the speedo, things were vibrating too much:).
I seem to recall an old road test that said the original "S" was quicker from 40-70 than a 911 Carrerra...but I digress.
OK, what I meant about the grunt was that in order to overtake on the highway I had to pretty much row the gearbox down to 3rd then step smartly through the gears in order to keep the engine on the boil.
Now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing anyone put the engine on a dyno and generate a torque curve. I wonder if its as peaky as it seems...?
Long live Mr Bridger!
richard
Mike
I was real impressed with the car at my test drive-quality materials, good road manners (not darty like I expected) and alot of fun for the $. However...
Here is my question: Does anyone have any comlaints about the build and/or material quality? I went to the Atlanta auto show and the Cooper S that they had was absolutely falling apart. The leather on the drivers seat was wearing thin, the mesh sunroof shade had come completely of its track and didn't work and the black molding around the wheel wells was all scratched up!! Of course, the salewoman response was," well, there's been 600,000 butts in and out of this car." Well, my response is that the Mini was the only car I saw all day long with any wear and tear, and it wasn't the only show stopper there.
Any of you new owners lucky enough to be driving one have any gripes?? Thanx for any thoughts
There was a slight dash rattle for the first week and a half or so but it has gone away. It showed up again recently so I tried to show it to the dealer but it was silent while the tech. was driving it and hasn't shown up since.
Overall it seems to be well put together.
With a bigger rear sway bar this car should handle much better with more neutral characteristics and slight oversteer. I 'm sure it's fun to drive on the street as is though.
Watch out when aftermarket parts come out for it! It could become a handling demon..
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
S2000 is RWD, right? Maybe your friend isn't used to FWD?
H Stock again.
Thanks for your comments!
Revka
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Hatchbacks & Station Wagons Boards
here's the result:
May 5th results
those things stick like it's on rails when they run through the cones.
maybe it's because oldharry's friend isn't used to autox in a FWD car? FWD and RWD cars are completely different beasts in terms of driving style
Also too bad they didn't have a broken-in engine. The engine revs much more freely once you start to break it in.
I think the S is in G stock (GS) and I can see it having a hard time in that class. We 'll see. I hope it's not in DS! It 'll get killed by Type-Rs, MR2s and Audi S4s! I 'll go look it up.
Anyone got any auto-x results to show us with an S model besides the base model in HS?
The auto-x I went to, was by a BMW club so they only had 5-6 classes which wasn't too fair. I hope that guy just couldn't drive, because I thought the S would hanlde better than what I observed. Those crappy stock tires gotta go for sure. I need them to be more competitive. Makes me faster when I 'm auto-xing
Sunday I 'm racing with my local SCCA club. We 'll see if any Minis show up..
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)