Great rental but could you live with this micro car?
Written: Oct 31 '03 (Updated Oct 31 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Handling, styling, fun factor
Cons: Hard ride, Weird dash, tight interior, dubious English quality, pricing
The Bottom Line: Very cute-looking car that has a hard ride and has to fight SUVs for its space on the road
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| harrison310's Full Review: 2004 MINI Cooper |
The return of this classic British marquee comes with some snappy advertising promising that the SUV backlash starts now. Americans vote with their wallets so when gas prices started jumping past $2.00 a gallon in the Los Angeles area, I decided to have a look at the Mini as a smart choice - a good-on-gas car that's fun to drive.
Background
The lease on my BMW 3-series is coming to an end and I'm beginning a long and thorough examination of what fun-to-drive cars are out there. I'm not a mechanic or a car nut - but I like to drive. Originally on my short list was the PT Cruiser. I didn't find that car underpowered but have yet to drive the new turbo PT Cruiser GT. When the Mini came out last year - along with the longest commercial in the world in the form of the movie, THE ITALIAN JOB - the car was too cute not to want to test drive one.
The Mini Cooper is assembled in England but the parts are from various places. The company itself is a subsidiary of BMW which explains the suspension design, derived from the 3-series. The engine is amazingly from a Daimler-Chrysler plant in Brazil! I was less concerned about its international genes than its English assembly - I used to have a Triumph TR6 and that car was in the shop more than it was on the road! And anecdotally, every Jaguar owner I know happens to know their mechanics on a first name basis!
Walk-around
This is a real jewel of a car. Looking at a shiny 'Chili Red' Mini, I was very impressed by the car's fit and finish and detail. The side marker lights, very much in the German automotive tradition (see VW's and BMW's and Audi's) is a work of art, sculpted into the little car's flanks.
The modern Mini looks a lot like the old Mini of the 1960s, but modernized with a few aerodynamic touches. It's larger than the old car, a salesman told me, but it still seems so small that you could almost hug the car with your outstretched arms! I think the Mini is probably even smaller than the Geo/Chevy Metro (remember those?) Like the Beetle and the PT Cruiser, the Mini has a cute 'face' with loads of character. It looks like nothing else on the road.
Inside the Mini
When I got into the red Mini - the base Cooper model as there wasn't a supercharged Mini Cooper S available - I was first impressed by the wild design of the interior. It has a retro-futuristic style to it with over-sized gauges and aluminum trim abound. As a careful compromise between cars with center dashes (like the Scions and the Saturns), the Mini has a large tachometer facing the driver while the even larger speedometer sits in the middle of the dash. The salesman blathered something about proven racing ergonomics but I couldn't help but think that this was a cheap way of making left-hand and right-hand drive cars more easily - again, memories of my old Triumph.
The Mini's seats are comfortable but not particularly supportive, especially in the lumbar area. Also, given how small the interior was, the seats seemed almost too large, with huge side bolsters. Again, this was the base car.
Driving Impression
If you drive stickshift, the Mini is a lot of fun. Shifts are like my BMW, very crisp and sure. Even this base Mini seemed pretty peppy with only 115 horsepower from its 4-cylinder engine and 2 full grown adults in the car. The handling is very crisp - and this is a front-wheel-drive car - but the ride is *very* hard. This is the amazing "Mini go-kart" ride/handling and I felt every bump and pebble on the road through the seat of my pants and some feedback through the chunky steering wheel. Driving off parking lots, the little concrete pavement texture changes felt like speed bumps.
Once underway, the Mini itself feels very responsive - and it needs to be, because either other drivers are closing in on you for a closer look or side-swiping you because they can't see you. I haven't felt this vulnerable in a car since I drove a Miata! At least I could then understand why the side bolsters of the seats were so pronounced - you'll be doing a lot of lane changes in the Mini to avoid getting crushed. Of course, the Mini's speediness is partly illusory given how low the car is to the ground. Drive 70mph in a Mini versus 70mph in an SUV and you'll get two very different views and sensations of the road.
The car is also much narrower than I was used to so when grabbing for the stick shift, you have to be careful not to accidentally molest the passenger beside you!
Parallel-parking is a snap. The car is almost a cube so it doesn't matter what angle you approach a parking spot. Steering effort is firm, not overly power-assisted.
Realistically, on the streets of L.A. where it seems that half the vehicles are SUV's (with only a driver and no passengers, btw), driving the Mini seemed to be a dangerous affair. Try getting stuck in traffic behind a Hummer, Excursion or Suburban! You feel like you could drive the car right under them and pull a Jayne Mansfield.
Back at the dealer's lot, I purposely tried the back seat. This car is small! An adult can sit in the back seat but as a 2-door car, it feels very claustrophobic, especially as the rear passengers sit almost right up against the back window. Even a Beetle treats its rear passengers with more space.
Overall
I like the way the Mini drives but I don't think I could live with this car. It's too small and therefore dangerous on the road because other drivers will sideswipe you. I'm also at the 30-something age where I like my 'sportiness' with a certain amount of comfort and the ride quality of the Mini is too rough for me. The interior design could also wear thin as my eyes kept darting to the center to look at the oversized speedometer that's like a big toy clock from FAO Schwartz. Having an oversized tachometer wasn't helpful to me as I shift by sound and feel, not by indicated RPM.
From a practical point of view, the Mini suits a young single person who wants a fun car, rarely carries passengers or cargo and who doesn't live in SUV country. EPA mileage is rated at 28/37 with premium gas only which didn't seem to be that good for such a small car. Also, expect to pay more for maintenance since you can only get service from a select number of Mini dealerships that are also BMW dealers. As a BMW driver, I can tell you that everyone scrambles to find non-dealer service as soon as the warranty's over.
But here's one other nasty surprise. The base Mini lists at an attractive price of $16,000. Try finding one! The dealer had every base Mini loaded with various option packages that took the cars to over $26k - no haggling. Yes, the Mini's are still in their honeymoon era when they can command list price or even a premium! For that money, you're into a lot of competition. A PT Cruiser Turbo is about that price and you get a lot more usable space. A Beetle Turbo S is also a bigger car and a nice ride. There are also the new twins, The Pontiac Vibe and the Toyota Matrix.
Of course, none of those aforementioned cars match the Mini for its looks and style. So as a fashion statement, why not try the Mini on for size? In L.A., there are a couple car rentals that rent Mini's. This could be a good 2nd car or the car that goes to college. But for a car that will spend a few years in my garage, I'm looking for something a little larger. I still need to try the PT Cruiser GT. Rumor has it that the BMW 1-series will debut next Spring. There is also a Mercedes A-series heading for these shores. These cars are supposed to be fuel-efficient, spacious hatchbacks with German handling. For someone like me, spoiled with my 3-series, it might be worth the wait.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 25900
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Epinions.com ID:
harrison310
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 175
Trusted by: 6 members
About Me:
Author, film and Internet marketing and communications professional based in Los Angeles.
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