Looking into mini coopers has anyone here ever owned own a mini cooper s?

My son owns a Cooper S. He loves it, it handles like a go cart, think about where you want to go and it goes there. Rid is a bit choppy but the car handles and gets mid 30 mpg on the highway. I suggest you take a spin, let me know what you think. It's not as spirited as the 8 but a lot of bang for the buck.

It handles very nimbly, which is expected from a car that size. Acceleration is decent, a lot of fun to drive. But it seems to have some reliability problems (as do most Euro cars right now). I like it in any case :)

Great car - had one on order when I found my 8 and cancelled the order. Glad I did - my friend that kept his order got a Cooper S, and has had the following problems:

1) Terrible ride on the run-flat tires - rough as hell, noisy, just gets worse.

2) Hard ride shakes the crap out of the interior - at 30K miles, tons of rattles, loose/broken interior bits, etc.

3) Spotty reliability on the electronics

4) Hydrolocked his engine driving through a 2" deep puddle under acceleration - that cold air scoop on the hood going into the intake allowed the engine to inhale a whack of water driving when he hit a 2" deep puddle and allowed the engine to inhale the water - a huge bang later, and he has four broken connecting rods, (all four cylinders managed to take water and the momentum of the car in gear on the clutch allowed the engine to turn long enough to tear it apart internally), 2 rods through the block and all manner of other engine damage that took $11,200 in insurance money to fix. What a bloody mess!

Stew

Used Mini's retain their value better than almost any mass produced car. Unlike my RX8 which resale value is dropping like a friggin stone because of Mazda selling them so cheaply. :wallbash: :wallbash:

Anyways I drove a non-S Mini in CA for a week, its a great little fun car.

Glad mine is a lease! Good news, I won't take the depreciation hit, bad news is, I probably can't dump it early. Oh well.

After what StewC625 said. No Mini for me Bub.

every car will have its problems and if its new its atleast under warranty...

personally i think the minis look pretty nice and would probably pretty fun to drive too. u should at least go test out the cooperS and see for urself, im guessing u might like it.

Great car - had one on order when I found my 8 and cancelled the order. Glad I did - my friend that kept his order got a Cooper S, and has had the following problems:

1) Terrible ride on the run-flat tires - rough as hell, noisy, just gets worse.

2) Hard ride shakes the crap out of the interior - at 30K miles, tons of rattles, loose/broken interior bits, etc.

3) Spotty reliability on the electronics

4) Hydrolocked his engine driving through a 2" deep puddle under acceleration - that cold air scoop on the hood going into the intake allowed the engine to inhale a whack of water driving when he hit a 2" deep puddle and allowed the engine to inhale the water - a huge bang later, and he has four broken connecting rods, (all four cylinders managed to take water and the momentum of the car in gear on the clutch allowed the engine to turn long enough to tear it apart internally), 2 rods through the block and all manner of other engine damage that took $11,200 in insurance money to fix. What a bloody mess!

Stew

2" deep puddle causes so much problems, what about raining heavily?

That sucks that you can't even drive through a puddle. It rains so much here that there are easily deeper puddles than that around entrances to parking lots.

I don't know if I can fit in one. If I can fit in one, I doubt anyone can fit behind me if there's a back seat.

I test drove one, and it was fun, but for all I had read and considered about that car, after I was done test driving the answer was a definitive NO. It was the only car that I was so sure I didn't want. Yes, it was nimble and felt like it'd do fantastic on a slalom course, but the ride was just terrible. Every single bump in the road felt like somebody was punching you. I mean, damn that was one harsh ride.

No, and throw in the rather high price and reliability problems, I'd pass. My '8 is way more fun, AND comfortable!

Oh and why are you going for a Mini now? Going to turn it into a show car, or are you tired of the Elise already? :)

You go through about as many cars as my best friend does.

A couple years ago my stepdad was going through new vehicles every couple months because his son was a car salesman. He'd go visit him after work for dinner and come home with a new vehicle. :)

Oh and why are you going for a Mini now? Going to turn it into a show car, or are you tired of the Elise already? :)

You go through about as many cars as my best friend does.

The elise is really uncomfortable, lol and i plan on building her, i don't want to drive her around everyday. The mini seemed like a good daily driver.

I have one on order.
Test drove it and loved it. The ride is a little hard but personaly I don't mind, I've had cars with harsher rides (had a 88 CRX with full coilover suspension, 3" drop) now that was a harsh ride.
I'm keeping the 8 tho, the MINI is going to be my wife's daily driver.

I don't think the hood scoop was the source for the watter lock problem since it only feeds the intercooler. the air intake is right under the hood scoop protected by the hood, much like the stock intake on our 8's. It still sits pretty low on the car so if he took the puddle fast enogh to cause a wave that ran OVER the hood of the car it might have spilled into the intake. But this would be a problem with any sports car. Driving fast over any puddle is just not smart.