Mini Momma, Bimmer Poppa
Written: May 31 '02 (Updated Feb 18 '03)
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Pros: Kind of cute, cute name, featured in Mike Myers and Mark Wahlberg movies.
Cons: Harsh ride, looks like a lunchbox, not a real Mini, pygmy in the SUV jungle.
The Bottom Line: Well, do you want it or not? If you want it, then throw that comparison sheet away. But if youre unsure, please step aside.
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| erazo's Full Review: 2002 MINI Cooper |
Note: This is a review of the MINI Cooper S, which I own, not the MINI Cooper, which I do not own, nor have I driven, but which I would own, however, if I could afford a second MINI. See “Cooper or Cooper S?” below.
Prospective MINI buyers fall into one of two categories: (A) Those shopping for a small, sporty coupe, sports sedan, roadster, or econo-car, and comparing features and prices with similar models (if you can find them); and (B) Those who saw the MINI and decided to buy it, whether they needed it or not.
Put me down in B. If you fall into Category A, then my suggestion is to go ahead and buy one of the other cars and leave the MINI for those who really want one, period. My Pros and Cons were deliberately worded to send you Category A fence-sitters away. Have a ball in your Boxster or TT or Z3 or NSX or Miata or Civic Type R or New Beetle or whatever. We Cat B folks have some serious motoring to do.
Admit it, nobody buys a MINI as a result of a careful comparison with other cars. (My guess is that the balance sheet could easily tip in favor of the other car, unless you assign extraordinarily heavy weight to fun.) The typical MINI owner, not unlike the owners of the original Mini, chose this car simply because they wanted it, and for no other reason. Not that MINI lovers lack the means to make rational decisions, but where does it say you have to be rational all the time? Were you rational when you rafted down the Class VI Futalefú?
Wait. Some of you have never heard of the Morris/BMC/British Leyland/Austin/Rover Mini, much less the Mini Cooper. If you’re one of them, then the MINI may not be for you. Save some time and read no further.
Or, read on, become a MINI enthusiast, and dream of one for yourself.
Son of Mini
(Note: the following section is a mini-history of the Mini. Please skip it if you’re not interested, but be advised that if you want to either view or test drive a MINI at the dealership you will first have to pass the Mini Heritage and Motoring Exam, which will also have questions on subjects such as transaxles, multi-link suspensions, anti-roll bars, brake force distribution, understeer, the use of capital letters in marques, and the meaning of the words “marque”, “bonnet”, and “boot”. But you’ll have to find the answers to those elsewhere.)
The word’s been out for years that the Mini was coming back. Actually, it never went anywhere, it just hasn’t been imported to the U.S. since 1967, when new emissions regulations went into effect, and the larger, more reliable and “cleaner” VW was already dominating the small car market. But since 1959, when the British Motor Company (formed by the merger of Austin and Morris) began producing the Austin Seven and the Morris Mini-Minor, the Longbridge, West Midlands plant, as well as other plants in Europe, South America, South Africa, and Australia, kept producing Minis up until October, 2000, after over 40 years and 5.3 million units, making the Mini the most produced automobile in the world, after the Beetle. Even though the Beetle outsold the Mini fourfold, it was ranked fourth, while the Mini was ranked second as Car of the Century* by automotive journalists and experts for its trend-setting small-car engineering. (After all, aside from the Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer, how many vehicles with rear-mounted air-cooled engines are being built today? But to be fair, air-cooled engines were killed by environmental regulations.) (*The Ford Model T was first, and the Citroën DS placed third.)
John Cooper was a maker of Formula I race cars in his “Works” garage and the Mini Cooper was his performance improvement to the popular Morris Mini people hauler. In 1964, the Cooper S won the Rallye Monte-Carlo, then went on to repeat for the next three years, much to the humiliation of the likes of Citroën. (In order for a French car to win, in 1966 the judges had to disqualify the top four finishers – three of them Cooper S – on a headlight filament technicality). Leave it to the genius of John Cooper to transform Sir Alec Issigonis’ tiny, cheap family sedan into a record-breaking rally champion.
Cooper severed his relationship with British Leyland in 1971 over some disagreement with the new management of the nationalized company formed from BMC. (The bureaucratic tightwads probably didn’t want to pay him royalties for his name.) For the next decade, the Mini was the pride of state-owned auto plants in both industrialized and industrially-challenged countries, and served as a cheap “people’s car” with hardly any engineering improvement whatsoever, except for the replacement of the sliding windows with cranked ones, and the use of fiberglass in place of rust-prone sheet metal. Sort of like a socialist answer to the Nazi Volkswagen, only 40 years later.
The Mini name returned to private hands in 1980 when the Rover Group assumed ownership of the Longbridge plant. Rover executives saw the now-named Austin Mini as an automotive anachronism and wanted to kill it off in order to modernize the plant, which suffered from low productivity. The design of the Mini had become so outdated that it could not economically benefit from advancements in automotive engineering and manufacturing. Also the Mini, while retaining a loyal cult following, no longer appealed to the broad motoring public, and the lack of the Cooper designation didn’t help. But resistance, stubbornness, and union pressure kept the car alive, however, and the car did see some minor improvements, such as an increase of the size of the “lawnmower” wheels from 10 inches to 12. But some original features that made the car economical to build, such as exposed body welds, had become uneconomical and anachronistic. Plus, the car still rusted like a paella pan at the seashore. The fact that the Mini served as a symbol of British manufacturing was either a compliment or an embarrassment, depending on your view.
In 1990, Rover persuaded John Cooper to allow the long-neglected Mini back into his “Works” garage and the Mini Cooper had finally returned after a 20-year absence. But even John Cooper was limited with what more he could do for the little car, aside from putting his name on some commemorative Rallye models. Such innovations as fuel injection and airbags were incorporated, but the Mini was still a Mini, even though the wheels had grown to a huge 13 inches. The car could no longer be improved without a redesign. But how do you redesign the automotive equivalent of the venerable C-47 Gooney Bird?
Under heavy competition from Peugeot, Fiat, and Japanese and German marques, Rover began to lose its economic footing in the 1990s. When Daimler-Benz merged with Chrysler, BMW hastily searched for a counter-acquisition, saw a bargain in the Rover Group, and snapped it up in 1994. But BMW was unable to obtain the necessary productivity gains to make a profit from its acquisition. BMW blamed an unfavorable Pound-Mark exchange rate and British resistance to the Euro, but the real problem was chronically low productivity at the Longbridge factory. So BMW dumped all Rover divisions (including Land Rover, which went to Ford) except the Mini, where a redesign had already begun. But to salvage the Mini, BMW moved its development and production site to the modernized Cowley plant near Oxford.
According to analysts, BMW viewed a new Mini as an entry into the sporty subcompact niche, sort of an entry-level BMW. But in my opinion, BMW had its focus on the gargantuan American car market, which was ripe for the introduction of a small (by U.S. standards) and innovative sports car – spiced with a bit of nostalgia, and below the 3-series in price.
In 2001, the MINI One was introduced in Europe, with MINI spelled in uppercase to distinguish it from its mother, but no BMW in the marque or badges to identify the father. Of course, BMW had no plans whatsoever to market the MINI One in the U.S. The real purpose of the One was to test the basic MINI design and to work out the production bugs in the year prior to the introduction of the MINI Cooper, to be followed by the MINI Cooper S. Is there any mystery why the U.S. was the first country to see the Cooper S in the spring of 2002?
Look for other variants next year – such as a cabriolet (convertible), a panel van, a diesel model, and even a maxi-MINI (primarily for the USA). Pickup or Sport Ute? Stay tuned.
Footnote: John Cooper died on Christmas Eve, 2000. His son Michael of John Cooper Garages is already working on an aftermarket “Works” MINI Cooper.
Mini Nostalgia?
I have viewed retro cars as naked attempts to capitalize on nostalgia. But the Mini held a strong bond to my youth, so I followed its renaissance with increased interest, while never expecting to actually want to buy one, especially since my present wheels met my needs.
Anyway, the MINI’s future in the USA didn’t look good, as business analysts (who liked to dwell on BMW’s problems with their Rover acquisition), Mini purists, and automotive writers sniffed and scoffed. “Just not clever enough…Sir Alec Issigonis [the late designer of the original] would not approve,” sneered Car and Driver in 2001, likely after a lengthy séance with Sir Alec, but long before even driving the car. “The Hummer says Arnold Schwarzenegger, [while] the Mini says Austin Powers,” said the New York Times, pessimistically disdainful of the public’s penchant for size. “Wrong place for a speedometer,” said a more than a few totally clueless automotive editors whose names and publications I have since forgotten.
But the sales figures told another story. The MINI One was wildly popular in Europe. (Europeans do know their motor cars, even if some of them still drive Citroëns and Fiats.) And prospective buyers began forming waiting lists at those lucky 70 BMW dealerships in the U.S. hand-picked to sell MINI Coopers from newly-opened or under-construction showrooms. (See “Buying a MINI” below.) A couple of laudatory test-drive articles confirmed what the buyers already expected: this is one hot little car.
Think Big
There are three reasons the MINI will be successful in the U.S. (unfortunately for us Category B folks).
First, it’s not small cars that the U.S. driving public has an aversion to -- it’s the tinny, mundane, look-alike subcompacts sold only to meet CAFE standards with names like “Geo,” “Escort,” and (can you believe this?) “Aspire.” These cramped, underpowered, poor-handling, poorly-equipped versions of larger models are cars only Ralph Nader would love. But, hey, they get 30-40mpg, so what’s not to like? The BMW strategists didn’t have to be Warren Buffet to see an opportunity in this market. Are small cars unsafe as a rule? It’s true that an idiot driving an SUV can kill someone, while an idiot driving a subcompact car can get killed. Lesson: don’t drive like an idiot, and avoid those who do.
Second, the MINI is not a retro car, no matter what anyone says. (Tip: any reviewer who calls the MINI a retro car, or spells it Mini instead of MINI hasn’t done basic research.) A retro car is a throwback skin over contemporary production model innards. The PT Cruiser is a modified Dodge Neon underneath (a minor improvement). The New Beetle is a Golf with a smaller trunk and hatch (an un-improvement). And the T-Bird is a Lincoln LS with a cosmetic makeover (a non-improvement). But the MINI is a new generation, while clearly retaining its Cooper breeding in style and concept. Not a throwback (which a rebuild of the original Mini would have been), but a boost ahead of the Cooper tradition into the present time. This is no European or Japanese subcompact city car in disguise. It’s a Real Sports Car.
Which is the third reason this car will succeed. The MINI is a quick, agile, thrill-to-drive sports car, even though it’s a hatchback! (For a definition of “sports car,” please refer to other forums.) But the MINI is cheaper to insure than “true” sports cars since it seats four and its engine is under 2 liters.
The MINI retains the Mini’s short length and wide stance, the transverse-mounted engine, front-wheel drive, rack-and-pinion steering, independent suspension, room for four adults, and “cheeky” body style. But side-by-side with its namesake, the MINI looks like a Mini on steroids. The MINI is basically a bigger, bulked-up, modernized, and globalized Mini.
The 1.6-liter 163bhp supercharged Pentagon engine in the Cooper S is built by the Tritec factory in Brazil in a joint venture between BMW and DaimlerChrysler. (The Cooper uses the same engine, but at 115bhp unblown.) The Pentagon was initially designated to go into the Dodge/Chrysler Neon, but Chrysler went with the 2.0 liter Mitsubishi motor instead, and BMW almost abandoned the project, until they decided it was the best fit for the MINI. The Pentagon is also used in non-U.S. Neons and PT Cruisers.
The 6-speed manual transmission is made in Bordeaux, France by Getrag of Germany (BMW’s preferred gearbox builder), the same plant that makes a similar transmission for the Audi TT and Ford Focus SVT. Apparently this gearbox handles the extra horsepower of the Cooper S engine better than the BMW/Rover 5-speed made in Midlands. The 6-speed is the only transmission offered in the Cooper S. If you want the CVT, you’ll have to get the Cooper.
The suspension is McPherson strut forward and Multi-Link aft, and the body is made exceptionally rigid to improve handling. The Cooper S is equipped with the Sport Suspension PLUS (SS+), with stiffer springs and heavier front and rear anti-roll bars. (And if you get the optional 17-inch wheels, you’re as close to a race car suspension as you can get.)
The body was designed in the Rover studio in England, headed by Geoff Upex, and a design team headed by American design engineer Fred Stephenson. The design project had begun before Rover’s acquisition by BMW, so was completed in typical inefficient British fashion, by hand using clay models and without the aid of computers. BMW is promoting the legend that Stephenson hastily fashioned the model’s exhaust tip from a polished Budweiser can, but I find it hard to fathom that even a Yank expatriate would pass up English ales and lagers for this ricey American brew, even if he could find it in the shops. But perhaps nostalgia works both ways.
While assembled in Oxford, England, is this still a British car? I’d say that the MINI is about as British as you can expect a British car to be nowadays.
But is a MINI a Mini? That question will be debated by Mini and MINI enthusiasts for the next __ (insert expected life of the MINI here) years. In the end, the tangential Rover and Cooper connections may not be enough to satisfy Mini purists who disdain all things German or BMW, and may harbor some anti-BMW bitterness after the Rover fiasco. Americans, who care less (if at all) about heritage, lineage, or pedigree than our UK cousins, are quite content not to discuss this issue at all while motoring along in their new MINI, or original Mini. This is America, man. Chill.
Styling Impressions
The exterior design is distinctively Mini, but with noticeably larger wheels, more slipstream nose and windscreen fairing, and a foot wider and two feet longer than the original, which defines the word “Mini.” These design evolutions reflect BMW’s safety and efficiency advancements, while retaining the original Mini’s distinctive Small Saloon With an Attitude (or “cheeky” as the Brits like to put it). While small by U.S. standards (indeed, the MINI is the shortest new car in the U.S. market), it’s positively mid-sized in Europe, where tiny econo-cars and city cars are prevalent, and the original Mini is still widely spotted.
The minimalist interior meets BMW standards for comfort, looks, and functionality, and its styling, though lacking somewhat in seriousness with its overuse of circles of all sizes, confidently avoids both the pretentiousness and the juvenile futurism found in so many wannabe cars. I realize there is no longer any practical reason for positioning the oversized speedometer in the center of the dash (even the original Mini later moved it to the conventional position over the steering column), but I admire BMW’s respect for the Mini heritage by putting it back where Issigonis had it originally. (Incidentally, the late John Cooper is said to have approved of the design. Even Paddy Hopkirk likes it.)
When I first got into the car, I was reminded of boarding a thrill ride at Magic Mountain. I sort of expected a foam-padded safety harness to lower across my torso. In fact, after taking the test drive, I think a safety harness would have been a nice feature.
Driving Impressions
The reason I call the MINI a sports car is for the way it handles. If you’ve never driven a true roadster before, then you will have to adjust your driving style. (Or maybe you should forego the MINI and get that Acura.) The slightest steering correction generates an immediate response. Are you sure you’ll be comfortable driving a go-kart back to forth to work on a busy freeway? (I didn’t think so. Better call the Mazda dealer.) Wouldn’t you prefer steering response which is more forgiving? (There’s a VW dealer near you.)
It’s inadvisable, not to mention illegal, to test the handling limits of a car like the MINI on a city street, even a deserted one. But you don’t have to be unsafe to feel and appreciate the car’s performance. It seems to want to do what you want to do, only faster, like a terrier waiting for you to throw the ball. The problem is, every time you approach a curve, the MINI actually lures you to . . . (Oh, behave!).
Speaking of terriers, reviewers (and the BMW ad campaign) like to compare the MINI to a bulldog, because of its wide stance. Dumb idea. The dog that comes to my mind is the terrier – small, quick, eager, agile, and close to the ground. Like a fiery little Patterdale. Somehow I don’t see a bulldog cornering like the Cooper does. Leave the bulldog icon for the Mack trucks.
The 6-speed Getrag transmission of the Cooper S is said to be an improvement over the unevenly-spaced standard 5-speed gearbox in the Cooper (which I haven’t tried so can’t compare). But since the generous torque spread of the supercharged engine can pull the car to 60mph in second gear, does it really need 6 speeds? Well, if you’re asking, then maybe you should wait for the Cooper with the optional automatic and gearless Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). In my view, the 6-speed is one of the best features of this car. Every gear seems to be perfectly spaced between the one above it and below it. The shifts are short, crisp, and as smooth as a fine Merlot. (Didn’t I say the tranny was made in Bordeaux?) I do have a gripe about it, but you’ll have to read about it at the end.
The MINI has a “fly-by-wire” electronic throttle, meaning that there is no mechanical linkage between the accelerator pedal and the engine. Throttle response is therefore “programmed” rather than mechanically dampened. One effect of this is a slower-than-expected drop in rpm when releasing the throttle while upshifting, causing me to slew the clutch a couple of times until I got used to it. (OK, I’m not a professional race car driver. And if you’re not either, maybe you should reconsider that other car.) But on the other hand, downshifting seemed to be smoother, even pleasurable. With a six-speed transmission, optimum driving through open hills and curves means quite a bit of shifting. Again, if this isn’t your bag, opt for the CVT (or better yet, another car).
No matter whether you get the Cooper or Cooper S, you definitely need the optional sport seats (standard on the S), especially if you opt for leather. These seats have lateral support, essential when hard cornering, which the MINI performs without body roll, as your butt tries to follow the centrifugal force vector.
San Diego has notoriously small parking spaces, so I was glad to finally have a small car to shoehorn into those narrow slots in our overcrowded lots. But it turns out that at 5½ feet wide, the MINI is nearly as wide as the average compact. But the tight steering radius makes parking easy, and the short length allows it to parallel park in spaces every other car has to pass up. And if you can get the optional Park Distance Control, you’ll worry less about unseen posts and bumpers.
While interior refinements maintain comfort and quiet, the MINI Cooper S, with its Sports Suspension PLUS, is stiff, if not outright harsh. If you’ve been tooling around town in a Buick, you probably haven’t noticed how bad your city streets and roads are. But with a MINI, you’ll soon be writing angry letters to the city manager. And you’ll be paying extra attention to those Botts Dots.
The small, oval rear-view mirror has received complaints from some reviewers, but the outside mirrors are more than adequate, and overall visibility is superior. (Drivers who use only the inside mirror when changing lanes are freeway hazards anyhow.)
Luxury and Options
The MINI has scads of luxury items never dreamed of in the Mini, both standard (power windows, power mirrors, a/c, central locking, audio, etc., etc.) and optional. You are encouraged to personalize your car, by either selecting options a la carte, or in packages. The popular Premium Package includes climate control, sunroof, multi-function leather steering wheel, cruise control, and a computer. There’s also a Navigation Package (if you’re unsure of where you are or where you’re going and such information really matters in a MINI), a Sport Package (not to be confused with Cooper S standard equipment), and, just for those who have a snowboarding cabin in the San Bernadino Mountains, a Cold Weather Package.
The options are too numerous to list here, so I suggest you refer to the MINI USA website, or call a dealer, or call 1-888-275-MINI and order a brochure. But if luxury is really that important, shouldn’t you be calling a Toyota dealer instead?
Safety
Consider: All-Season Traction Control, consisting of Automatic Stability Control plus Traction (ASC+T) (measures relative wheel speed to adjust torque and brake application to maintain direction if traction is lost) and optional Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) (uses accelerometers to complement ASC under understeer or oversteer conditions). Also, Antilock Brake System (ABS) with Cornering Brake Control (CBC) and Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD). The ABS and electronic throttle are integrated into the traction control systems and flat tire monitor.
Oh yes, the MINI has a Flat Tire Monitor. This is essential on the Cooper S because it rides on run-flat (rigid sidewall) tires. If you get a puncture, you’re allowed to keep on truckin’ -- up to 90 miles at 50mph -- to the nearest run-flat repair specialist. Can’t find one? Not to worry, BMW’s Roadside Assistance Program will help you find one and get there. That’s cool, because the Cooper S carries no spare tire. (Wouldn’t you rather have the cargo space?)
Crash protection? The car has six air bags, including BMW’s exclusive Advanced Head Protection System (AHPS II) for both front and rear passengers. Of course, you don’t have to be Isaac Newton to look at the MINI and conclude that in a collision with a Toyota Sequoia, the Sequoia would win. But the real questions are: (1) How good are MINI drivers in avoiding accidents compared with Sequoia drivers? And (2) How many people buy Sequoias because they have more confidence in the laws of physics than their own driving ability?
Cooper or Cooper S?
Even if you’re hell-bent on getting a MINI, deciding on the model may not be so easy, even if you have the extra cash for the Cooper S. Here you do have to make a comparison, but between MINIs. Lots of Cooper owners think their car looks nicer: it has the classic chrome strips on the bumpers (removed from the more aero S bumpers), a chrome grille, no “ugly” bonnet scoop or rear spoiler, a more “fun” selection of cool body colors, and a much larger selection of interior colors. So if you want a fun car, one that wipes the floor with the New Beetle, and your lifestyle doesn’t include an aggressive driving style, then the Cooper is for you. (Don’t forget, you still get the great handling characteristics and ASC+T standard.) Also, the Cooper has a more compliant suspension than the Cooper S (unless you opt for SS+). I’d still pay extra for the sports seats, though.
The Cooper S, on the other hand, is more performance-oriented (the S stands for S as in “Harry S Truman”), and it looks it. Not like a muscle car, but visually more aggressive (and therefore less adorable) than the Cooper, with its bonnet scoop (a functional one, by the way, for the blower’s intercooler), restyled bumpers (without the chrome), body-colored grille, rocker panel fairing, 16" wheels, distinctive badges, alloy fuel cap, and a roof-mounted rear spoiler. You can get the Cooper S without the optional Sport Package (which includes Xenon lights, fog lights, DSC, and 17” wheels) and benefit only from the 48 extra horses, stiffer Sport Suspension PLUS, and improved 6-speed manual transmission, plus the trim options made standard. The Cooper S has a smaller choice of body colors, two of which are exclusive to the model, and features only the “Alloy Patina” dashboard, a faux-brushed-bare-metal plastic -– a trendy and somewhat campy “looks-cool-unpainted” effect, which you may later wish were painted.
If you like the extra power and drivability in the S but not the styling, then you have a tough choice indeed. If you need or prefer the automatic CVT transmission, then the choice is easy, as it’s only available on the Cooper.
For a complete list of options and costs, see the MINI USA website.
Warranty
The MINI has a 4-year/50,000-mile New Vehicle Limited Warranty and a 6-year/unlimited-mileage warranty against rust and corrosion perforation. And BMW gives you full scheduled maintenance for the car’s first 3 years or 36,000 miles for free, along with the use of their Roadside Assistance Program.
Buying a MINI
Part of owning a MINI is the experience of buying one. It’s my duty to warn you that the experience will cause you to feel like a Havana resident on a waiting list to exchange his 㤾 Chevy for a Lada. And if you’re in Texas, then I have even worse news – read on.
If you’re wanting the Cooper and are flexible about options (translation: you’ll take whatever they’ve got coming in), you may be able to take delivery on a pre-spec Cooper right away, or at least within a few weeks. But if you want the Cooper S (and it seems that most buyers willing to wait are asking for the S), you will need to be more patient. And if you want to custom-spec your car, you could be waiting for months, or until the 2003 models are produced. Most of you who call your nearest dealer will learn that it has already sold its 2002 allocations, but BMW has recently added a third shift to the Oxford plant, so those allocations may have been increased.
But don’t expect a repeat of the PT Cruiser fiasco, when the Chrysler dealers took advantage of the backlog and added a hefty “market value” premium to the MSRP. (Insurance companies refused to insure the car for the price many buyers paid.) Apparently MINI USA is discouraging excessive markups, as their marketing strategy is centered on the “affordability” aspect –- and it wouldn’t look good for the MINI to cost more than the 3 Series, would it? But this hasn’t stopped some sellers (including dealers!) from scalping on eBay Motors, however, where you can expect the reserve price to be several thousand above MSRP.
At the dealerships, MINI and BMW showrooms are strictly segregated. Even the sales staff are separate. (But you may be forced to walk past a long row of unsold Bimmers to the shared finance department to pay for your car.) So why this showroom apartheid? Why were the anointed BMW dealers required to construct separate showrooms and sales offices before accepting delivery?
Some BMW snobs surmise smugly that the more senior Bimmer sales managers didn’t want to see MINIs share showroom space alongside their flagship 7-series saloons and M-series coupes. It wouldn’t look right having entry-level subcompact hatchbacks under the same roof with those sleek icons of success.
Perhaps, but I seriously doubt it. The real reason has to do with those dealers not getting any MINIs, and their lawyers. Many states have franchise laws that require automakers to provide “sufficient quantities” of vehicles to franchised dealers. But if a model is popular, and production is limited, and the dealer network is large, then the manufacturer is forced to “allocate” the available vehicles. But this creates another problem, as situations will arise where dealers are unhappy with their allocation and request intervention by their state regulators.
To avoid this, carmakers have required dealers to establish separate standalone dealerships (i.e., re-franchise) for some new models. Ford started this in the 㣾s when the Lincoln Navigator was introduced. Dealers who didn’t want to make the investment cried foul, and some states revised their franchise laws to prohibit forcing dealers to create a new dealership just to get an allocation of a new model. In Texas, this “reform” was called the “Navigator Bill” in 1997 and was copied by several other states. (You didn’t know car dealers had so much political clout, did you?)
The new law was challenged in Texas when BMW introduced their luxury SUV, the X5. To get an allocation, dealers were required to set up standalone dealerships. This would seem to violate the franchise law as amended by the Navigator Bill, but BMW found a loophole in that it only applied to cars, not light trucks. (Truck dealerships are commonly standalone and not covered by the Texas franchise law.) So BMW called the X5 a light truck, and a judge agreed. (Wait a minute…if the X5 is a truck, then isn’t the Navigator…? Never mind.)
Well, the MINI is definitely not a truck. But according to BMW, it’s not a BMW model either. (Do you see a BMW logo or the letters “BMW” on any of its badges?) So BMW of North America, through its MINI USA division, is requiring its dealers to do exactly what they were required to do to sell the X5, which is to set up new, dedicated MINI dealerships. No vehicles would be delivered nor allocations awarded until a MINI dealer was open for business.
But the Texas law is tough, and the Texas dealers are politically influential. Some of them had applied for MINI franchises without making the required plant investment, And BMW NA was wary of challenging them again. The Texas DOT regulators waited to examine BMW’s license application, first insisting on a final list of franchises, not accepting the list of franchise applicants.
For the first half of 2002, Texas was in a Catch-22 situation, and our second-most-populous state was without a MINI dealership.
Reliability, Quality, and Miscellaneous
The Cooper S is too new to have a quality reputation. But for now, remember that it’s manufactured under BMW standards and oversight, with BMW parts. And it looks and feels rock-solid.
“Don’t buy the first model year of any car.” Sound advice. Better pass up the MINI for now and get that RSX. (Psst: the MINI has been running around happily in Europe since 2001.) Early MINI production models had left-pull, seat, and windshield problems which have since been corrected. A more recent problem has been with the transcable on the 5-speed manual of the Cooper. A recall is in progress and the new Coopers have been corrected.
Since you’ve read this far, you’re entitled to hear my only gripe. It’s about the 6-speed Getrag transmission. Why did they put reverse up instead of down? No matter -- I’m not about to give my car to a parking valet anyhow.
Fuel Economy Update
Many folks have asked me about fuel economy. They look at the car and assume it's a hybrid or econo-car that gets 40mpg. Not so. The MINI is a performance car, not a gas miser. Of course it depends on your style and conditions (I drive in fine weather, commute unhurriedly on freeways, and thrash like a maniac on weekend outings), but I get 23mpg in town and 26mpg on trips to LA and such. Not impressed? I'm told that a software fix will up this a bit at my first service interval (not met yet, at 10,000 miles). So if you really want economy (checked the pump prices for premium lately?), you'd better look elsewhere (or wait for the diesel model).
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 22,750
Condition: New
Model Year: 2002
Model and Options: Cooper S, Premium Package
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Epinions.com ID:
erazo
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Member: Rick Erazo
Location: San Diego, CA
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 9 members
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