Car & Driver Recap Its Longterm MCS

Sections: Uncategorized Oct 14th, 2004 65 Comments

mini

Here's an excerpt:

“The Mini is small, quick, and stylish, plus it proved practical to operate. Our Cooper S suffered a couple of minor quality problems, but these were repaired under warranty at no cost. In fact, the Mini was extremely low maintenance, with only two required, no-cost service stops, a tie for the fewest we've ever had with a long-termer. (By contrast, our long-term 1999 New Beetle GLS 1.8T [C/D, June 2001] drained us of $536 for service and $549 for repairs over 10 stops.)”

We had mixed opinions about whether the Mini's quick handling and nimble size offset its stiff ride, but we all agreed that for lookin' good and feelin' fine, it's tough to beat.

While in general it's a favorable review, I find much of their criticism to be a bit misguided. For instance:

“Which brings us to the sunroof. It's panoramic, for sure, but it has only a mesh “shade” that's not effective on a sunny day. Oddly enough, we could not find an aftermarket shade. …Mini really needs to offer an alternative opaque shade for the sunroof.”

Okay I can understand this argument if you live in Arizona… but Michigan? I spend enough time in Michigan to know that there is no more sun there than Illinois. To have an opinion like that you either really must hate the sun or have nothing else to complain about. Does he not realize how cool the “cabana” effect is?

Here's another from Car and Driver's resident grumpy old man John Philips:

I want so badly for this car to succeed, but it's gonna have to do it on looks alone. Why should this car be so torpid in traffic? The ride is awful. Just miserable. Why are the seats so uncomfortable? Why is it such a huge operation to get into the back seat?

Looks alone? Torpid? Not sure what car he's driving but he may need to learn a bit more about proper manual transmission techniques. If Phillips can't manage an MCS in traffic he might be downright dangerous in a Cooper like mine. And I can't imagine anyone calling me torpid in traffic. Wait I can't imagine anyone using a word like torpid…

You can read then entire article here.

Written By: MF Staff

GSKChicago

Gabe… Any thought on doing a post where readers recommend their favorite car wash and give an address, etc so all others in and around those areas can benefit? If I'm being a dork, sorry.
jarrett

The comments about the sun roof are lame. I survived this summer in Louisiana 93 degree avg temps with 80%+ humidity. The sunroof actually cools the car by letting the excess heat out when
Shazam

Going through these comments I starting asking myself, what's the average age of this bunch, 16? You're not showing much confidence in your choice of automobiles, just like a teenager. I agree with David K., take it easy. The review in C and D was not a bad one by any means, a bad review is when the lead photo shows the subject car in front of a junkyard (don't laugh, said C and D mag. did that once back in the sixties, yes I'm that old). The point is, if you like the car, if it's fun to drive, if you enjoy owning it, who gives two shits if some wag in a car magizine makes a comment that you don't like. I'm going to order an '05 MCS (waiting for the LSD to become availible), and I'm going to be 58 my next b-day. Go motor, enjoy yourself!
TJKonarski

That's a bit hypocritical, Shazam. We responded with personal opinions to what C&D wrote. You responding to what we wrote is the same thing, really.

When something is printed in an international publication for everyone to be exposed to — and what is written is based more on opion than fact — it's bound to have reverberation that goes on and on.

However, the difference here on MotoringFile is that this is a small forum viewed mostly by a select group — The owner's of MINI's. C&D, on the other hand, is an international publication and is read by many more people in several countries and most of their readers probably have never had actual hands-on experience with a MINI.

So my point?… MotoringFile is a forum created for MINI owners by a MINI owner to debate, discuss, share, learn, teach, revel and enjoy. But also, it's a place where we can bitch and complain if we should see fit. It just goes with the territory.
Jerry Bradbury

Shaz: Right arm, citizen!

LSD is the only thing I wish I had. After I bump the kit to 210, the need will be even more urgent. But it won't retrofit on my '04 :-(
Dami

I'm telling ya, that John Philips dude just came off some big-a$$ american sedan with big-a$$ V8 or some other luxury car with lots of low-end torque to say that MINI is torpid and that ride is pathetic. Also, when I was reading articles for my girlfriends new 2004 Toyota Solara V6, some guy just fot off 2004 Audi R6 and (of course) he said that Solara sucked – “bad rebound car”, as he called it. Well of course, comparing a $21K car to whatm $60-70K? Suure it's cheaper made and less power and everything. So I guess it's same here.

We're all MINI fans here, otherwise we wouldn't reed the motoringfile.com, right? :) So we cut some slack for the car. Personally I tell everyone that the ride is too stiff and I hope some of it will go away when I replace tires next spring. Second, all the interior (trunk and back panel especially) scratches way too easy. Other than that, car is perfect.

And, I'm “working” on my economy mode now, shifting up at about 2K RPM, trying to keep 6th gear as long as possible. So far, I'm getting 35.1MPG on OBC right now (probably about 32MPB real) on my 2004 MCS!!
Melanie

Thanks for the comments, guys. I found a good resource to be the Morth American Motoring site, it has a ton of comments from drivers all over the world about “wheels and tyres”. From skimming a number of the posts, it seems that the majority of drivers ended up switching from run-flats to non-run flats, because 1) the ride improved without the stiff sidewalls of the RFs, 2) tire wear was better (tires lasted longer)and 3) non RFs were WAY cheaper to replace and easier to find in a pinch. In lieu of having a spare, many said they carry a can of Fix a Flat (and some even carry a compressor in addition).

Per my order form and website, it states that the 17 inch 5 spoke bullet wheels come with “performance” tires. No mention of them being run-flats. Does anyone know what brand of tires come with these wheels? Are they NON run-flats, as the website implies? If so, I am going to keep the 17 inch and go with them for a while, and if I still can't stand the bumps, change to 16 inch wheels. I have a feeling that the change to non RFs will be sufficient improvement, tho.
Melanie

Sorry, wrong site – the one I meant was the British-based Mini forum, http://www.mini2.com. If you click on “forum” on the bottom of the home page, there are tons of topics to read comments about.
http://www.motoringfile.com/ Gabe

Here are my thoughts on runflats from a year ago: News Flash: Runflats are Harsh.
http://www.motoringfile.com/ Gabe

I really don't see any problem with calling John Philips on these comments. Many of us don't agree with them and we're happy to explain why. How that's childish I don't know.

TJKonarski put it well… “MotoringFile is a forum created for MINI owners by a MINI owner to debate, discuss, share, learn, teach, revel and enjoy. But also, it's a place where we can bitch and complain if we should see fit.”

Of course we also strive to make it a place where opinions are welcome and where the environment is open to different ideas.

Oh and MotoringFile isn't a forum – it's a News site and/or Weblog :) Sorry just my little pet peeve :)

Anyway please carry on with the conversation….
Michael S.

Ack, must we tear John Phillips apart over one comment in the logbook? When you drive a car for 40,000 miles, you're bound to have some bad days and annoyances. Frankly, I find C/D to be one of the 'better' magazines that incorporate driving fun and automotive enthusiasm into their reviews.
michael Boice

HEY! Look at all the attention we're getting!

My basic problem with any car magazine testing vehicles is a lack of real comparison context; I've been thinking about this for a while too. A base line for the best vehicle (a moving target) needs to be established every year. The baseline should include objective and subjective information. Then, there needs to be some way for scaling any car's performance against the benchmark car. Optomistaclly thinking, then, comments and comparisons will be made along side the benchmark car eliminating, hopefully, rogue and untrue comments.
Melanie

Gabe, Thanks for directing me to that archive. Helpful info. Does anyone have any comments on which type of tire is worse with respect to tramlining? run-flats vs. non-RF?

BTW, this is OT – and hopefully not taken as a personal plug for eBay, which it isn't – BUT, if any of you size 10-feet guys want a pair of the Mini Motion driving shoe by PUMA, there were a pair just posted on Ebay for 93 bucks, buy-it-now (search under PUMA MINI COOPER). The same seller sold another pair last night, they got snapped up about an hour after posting!
http://www.motoringfile.com/ Gabe

A few posts were removed due to complaints about language etc.

Let's try to keep it clean gents…
michael

Gabe -

No obsene language was used in any of my posts.

By 'language' I assume a user who goes by 'RB' on this board didn't like the first three letters of the word 'japanese' being used to describe the country of origin for an automobile. So much for freedom of expression. It's a commonly used term and wasn't meant to be slant.

Gimme a break…geez!

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