I’m turning in my Honda Pilot, which I absolutely love; DVD player and all, but I’m looking at the Mini Cooper’s now. I like to play. Ha!

Anyway, I’ve been reading all of your advice and am still having trouble with which one to get. And which year. Can someone break it down in layman’s terms? I drive mostly city, but living close to L.A. I also drive freeway. I like the convertibles but I’m seeing that some of you are choosing the sun roof instead.

I’m reading about the tires and all, but what “really” about the flip and roll on these cars? I do take my grandkids around sometimes.

Thank you so much.

But let me begin with the history of the original MINI itself. The original MINI came of age in the era of Minimalism, and I am convinced even the name of the car had as much to do with it’s minimalist design elements as it did it’s minimal size.

Which immediately brings us to the differences in body style of the current models, especially the hood of the cars. The MC simply looks a lot better and conveys a much more minimalist look than the MCS. Ditto the simpler exhaust on the MC.

And I think this same concept extends to all of the available exterior accessories as well, -for the most part they clutter up the look of a terrific automobile. I will be the first to admit that some of roof designs availble do look pretty cool, my favorite being the St. Andrew’s Cross on a silver roof with hyper blue body, –and of course the rally lights do looks kind of cool so long as you can block the vision in your mind of vandals one day ripping them off the car.

But as for the rest, especially all the chrome available, it just leaves the car looking, –well–,, looking kind of pimpish. This is especially true of the chrome line bumber treatment that is available, it looks vastly inferior to the plane body color trim and leaves the car looking like a PT Cruiser knock-off.

The interior of the MC and MCS are essentially identicle, so no gripe there. Both are vastly superior to the new 2007, especially the instrumentation the 2007 will sport. The handling is similar, and unless the driver plans on racing the cars there is little incentive to deviate from the base MC for this reason alone.

Which leaves 2 items, performance and cost. The MC is already so much fun to drive that the added HP in the MCS is a negligble reason for spending $3,500 more for the super charger. Personally, I found spending that additional $3,500 on upgrades to be a vastly better investment. Better seats, premium package including sunroof. And in my own case, additional guages in the auxilliary instrument panel installed above the cup holder, fog lights front and back, and a fully populated toggle switch panel. And of course the John Cooper sound package that includes stainless exhaust etc.

No extra chrome, no bonnet stripes, no checked boards on the fenders, no ridiculously low profile tires, none of that non-sense(!)

Probably sounds a wee bit to humble for many Mini enthusiasts, but it works for me.

This is my favourite car to date, I’ve owned it for over 3 years and have done over 80,000 miles in it and it still brings a smile to my face every time I drive it.

The only car that came close was a Mini Cooper S that I drove 3 years ago for 1 whole day. Came close was an understatement, I was amazed that there was a new car still manufactured like the GTi6. The performance of both cars is virtually identical and the handling is sublime on both cars. The only fault I had with the Mini was the lack of grip from stationary, even in the dry. With the Traction Control ON the car just bogged down and with the Traction Control OFF it was virtually impossible to pull away without wheelspin. I couldn’t live with that.

The GTi6 pulls away without wheelspinning even in very wet conditions without having to resort to Traction Control. On grass, when pulling away fast it leaves two equal length wheelspin marks despite not having a LSD (Limited Slip Differential).

I drive the GTi6 very hard and it is a a match performance wise for some very fast cars such as the Porsche Boxster and BMW 330i. It’s handling is more than a match for almost everything I have come across on the road including Subaru Impreza Turbo’s.

I hope this gets printed as I just want to say that the Mini Cooper S is the best current Saloon Car out there.

I was a little worried it would buzz the engine to up the available power when accellerating, but the electronics are amazingly good at picking the right ratio all the time. The main sensation is one of smoothness and power available on-demand.

It feels like nothing else. There is no “kick down” as with a conventional automatic, and there are no “shift points.”

What I had to get used to was expecting to either have to shift, or to to feel a shift point. Speed and gear ratio adjust continuously, so there is this odd sensation of being in the “right” gear waaaaay longer than is possible. You keep moving faster, but the engine note stays the same – adding to the sensation of smoothness.

Having said that however, I find the constant supercharger whining and the nicely tuned popping exhaust sound to be highly intoxicating in the MCS :)

Power wise and acceleration the MCS has it all over the Cooper.

Our ‘02 MC CVT has a pretty loud stock exhaust. You can hear the car from a mile away! Very nice.

The manual MCS is definitely more high-spirited, even high-strung. I wouldn’t want to face a long, daily bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go commute in an MCS. Still-and-all, when you come down to, “I’ve had enough of this crap!”, and need to pass an annoying driver and “put him safely behind”, ;) the grunt and quickness of the MCS is most welcome and its sound is lovely. The standard SS+ makes the “S” stick to the road and gives you a very sure feeling but it does bounce you a bit. Still, it has the “toy” car thing in spades.

So it’s all good. You just have to decide what you are looking for.

2nd MINI

And before all you CVT owners write in to tell me to stop bashing the CVT Cooper… please read my previous review of the car ;)

[ motoringfile.com/2003/09/10/TheCVTRevisited-AFullReview ]

I think it’s all what you get used to and what your looking for when comparing the MC to the MCS.

I have an MCSC which I brought to Patrick Mini 3 weeks ago for the JCW upgrade. Brought it down on a Wednesday and picked it up on Saturday. Patrick gave me a loaner MCCa to drive for those days. In all, drove about 400 miles (Madison to Chicago).

I don’t know how to say this nicely…I hated the MCC. It was the same around corners, but after that, it felt to me like driving an electric car. Keep in mind, I was so used to my MCSC, the only Mini I’ve ever driven before.

Now with JCW, a “standard” MCSC would probably feel like an electric car. If my first Mini was a MCC, I would love it. But like I said, it’s what you get used to.

I’m hope I’m not making anyone mad, just my impressions.