New York Times Tests the Clubman S

Ya know, I get so tired of all these journalists who bother to take the time to complain about the “high” price of MINIs without EVER considering the offset of having the Scheduled Maintenance included. No, it doesn’t make the MINI a low-rung pricer, but it sure is much more competitive than they all make it seem.

For that matter, I’m tired of seeing them try to one-up each other waxing prose about the idiosyncrasies of things like the Speedo, the back seats, the controls, etc. In trying to be creative and different, they all end up coming off the same – coming off as though speedo is so large that it obscures your view of the road and is wholly worthless; coming off as though the rear seat were no more useful than the rear seats in a Corvette.

In other words, they simply come off as though they’re trying to write “better” analogies about the same things that those before them already have. If they were as interested in assessing the cars as they are in just writing, then we might get some decent reads out of these reviews.

I have a “03″ MCS and a “08″ MCS Clumman or would that be MCSC?
Any way I’m 6’5′ and I have no back proplems putting my 38 lbs 2 1/2year old into either.

I agree with Mini2GO. What are these reviews suppose to prove? We love the “03″ and the “08″. In fact we went shopping as a family yesterday, inthe MCS, and my wife commented on how she still likes the MCS.

After reading all the reviews, go and drive the Clubman. Don’t forget to bring $1000 for a the down payment. You’ll need it.

Hmm, I’ve never had any problems with the back seat, even in the R56. It’s not even all that impossible to get in and out.

But in the reviewer’s defense I will say this: there’s only so much you can write about a speedometer the size of a salad plate. And a reviewer would be completely remiss to write an article about the new MINIs and not mention that.

So what’s a poor reviewer left with?

“There is a speedometer. It tells you how fast you are going. You can also fit a salad on it, but it would slide right off into the cupholders because it’s horizontal. I do not recommend this. I also found that the cupholders are easy to clean.”