2007 Mini Cooper

2007 Mini Cooper

The Mini Cooper has to be the weirdest car that’s currently available in the US market. The car is British by badge, German owned, available only at BMW dealerships, and has a French engine (well mostly). I was able to drive the first generation new Mini back when it first came out and I thought it was the coolest car on the road. It grabbed everyone’s attention and the car had a real charm to it. It is now many years later, and I think that coolness the Mini has is starting to fade, since they’re now everywhere, although I still think it’s there. The Mini has been a sales phenomenon thanks to the styling. I personally feel that if the Mini were just a re-bodied Geo Metro it still would have flew out of the dealership, but thankfully the car beneath the styling offered up quite a good drive.

Changes from the old one: Supposedly, the car has been restyled… but when I first saw the new (new) Mini I thought it was the old (new) Mini (This new Mini business they’ve been marketing does get a bit tricky now). Only if you really concentrate will you ever notice the subtle differences between the new and old (new) Mini. Another change to the car does cause a bit of a contradiction; the new car is a bit larger than the old one, which makes it slightly less mini than the name suggests. The most important change that has been made, as I have mentioned in the previous paragraph, is the engine. The old iron block Chrysler mill has been tossed for a new aluminum engine that's been jointly developed by BMW and Peugeot. The new engine is much smoother, more powerful, and more efficient than the old one, making it worth it to buy a new (new) Mini, than a used one.

Positives: This car is tremendously good fun to drive. The handling and grip is so good in fact, that some people even classify the Mini as a sports car. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a sports car but I can definitely see why some people would. Every time I had to take a right hand turn at a green light, I wouldn’t even step on the brakes. I also loved taking this car on tight winding highway onramps at high speeds simply because it could. This car is not only very “chuckable” on the dynamic level, but the feel of the car and the feedback given to you by the steering wheel gives you the confidence to actually stick it into a bend as fast as you can. I’ve driven some Lexus’s (or Lexi, or whatever the plural of Lexus is) where I’m sure they can corner quickly, but you wouldn’t because the car does not communicate confidence to the driver. If anything it’s the confidence this car gives you to thrash it around some turns that makes it so fun. I would recommend that you get the sport seats though. The standard seats that were in my test car were too flat and I did slide out of my seat in the corners.

Now if you’re not into driving fast around corners, there is still quite a lot to like about this car. The automatic gearbox in the car I drove was incredibly smooth, and it had SIX GEARS! Most cars have four or five speed automatics; six is a rarity below the 40k mark for cars, making the Mini quite impressive in this department. The manual mode gives reasonably quick shifts adding to the fun, but I wish the paddle shifters were programmed for left pull= down and right pull = up instead of Pull (either paddle) = Up Push = Down. To add to the nice things list the ride feels solid, the car is reasonably quiet at a motorway cruise, and this car’s fuel consumption is low enough to make any environmentalist happy. So, ultimately you get a sporty little car with excellent gas mileage. This car isn’t the quickest car on a sprint, but it still has enough power where you won’t feel nervous overtaking the car in front of you; and if you do try to overtake the car in front of you, you’ll be in for a treat that only a small car like this can offer. Changing lanes is tremendously easy; if there is even a small gap between the cars to your side, you can get in. The smallness of the car and the fantastic handling characteristics means there will never be any trouble weaving through traffic, unless of course there’s a jam.

Negatives: The negatives are few, but quite wordy. To start off, this car is rubbish in daily life. The Mini is a fine car if you pretend it’s a weekend car, i.e. a two seater sports car. Sure, unlike a Miata, which is a two seater sports car around this price range, it has back seats; however, they are there only for decorative purposes. The larger size of the new (new) Mini was implemented to help alleviate the problem of not being able to fit anyone in the back seats, but they’ve failed. I’m only five foot six, and unless the person in the front seat is so short that they can drive with the seat all the way forward, I have no place to put my legs in the back. Even then, my knees will be stabbed into the back of the driver. In fact the space behind the back seats is equally useless. Usually small hatches are surprisingly spacious on the inside and can carry more than you think possible. This is not the case when you drive a Mini Cooper. I had two medium sized duffle bags in the back, which would only fit if you folded the rear seats down. The proper trunk space with the seats folded up is non existent. My usual trunk practicality test is to see if I can squeeze myself in there, and I could only fit one leg in the trunk of the Mini. This means that you should always have the back seats folded down and just use the entire back area as a trunk if you want to carry anything at all. You can’t even make an argument for the Mini saying this rubbish trunk space and back seat space is because it’s small. I have been in the Honda Fit, the Toyota Yaris, and the Chevy Aveo, which are about the same size and these issues… well aren’t issues in those cars.

There are a lot of quirky design features in the Mini, some of them are neat, such as the key blob and starter button as opposed to the standard key, but one in particular is quite annoying. The speedometer is still in the center of the dashboard, and to check how fast you are going means taking your eyes completely off the road. If you play with the tiny display on the tachometer, which is where it should be on a car, you can get a digital readout of your speed; but, that means to get rid of the speedometer issue you have to forgo all the other neat things that can come up on the display (like outside temperature, current fuel consumption etc.).

The Final complaint about the car is the price. Unless you want a stripped out car, the cheapest Mini Cooper you can get away with is over 20k, and that’s a lot for a small car. If you want the Cooper S that will be a minimum of 25k for a car with just the options you need. Also, since these cars are still in high demand, haggling the price down is not really an option. For 25k you can get a lot of nice cars, including the VW GTI which will fit people in the back seat, fit luggage in the trunk, and have more kit as well.

Conclusion: The Mini is a great little car, but the price really breaks the deal for me. You can ignore the practicality short falls if you treat the car as a sports car, but in my opinion you should get a sports car instead, especially since the Mini is so pricy. There is only one reason you should ever get one of these cars. It stems from the fact that this car is socially neutral; anyone can look good in a Mini, it doesn’t matter if you’re a billionaire or a guy struggling to make payments on the car, so no one will hate you for driving one. Also, the Mini is still a very cool car and very fashionable. So the only reason why you would buy a Mini over something else is because you care about appearances. If you genuinely care that much about your image get a Mini, if not I would recommend a GTI.

Summary

The Good: It can out corner a slot car

The Bad: It’s about as practical as a slot car

Verdict: Get one if you just want to be cool

Random Stats:

Engine: 1.6 Liter I4, 118 hp, 114 lb-ft torque

EPA mileage estimate: 32/40