New MINI Cooper.
For the last week I have been driving a new 2009 Cooper tintop with 3,500 kilometers on the clock, and make the following comments of things I don’t like about it compared to my ONE Cabrio which has Bluefin. My location was Portugal mainland, Lisboa and the Algarve.
1. The starting of the engine which you need to insert the round key fob in the slot, then press the clutch at the same time press the start button. Why? When it is easier just to insert a key and turn it.
2. The wipers have no intermittent setting, just on and then fast.
3. In the 6 speed gearbox I think 5th gear is superfluous. Its easier to change up to 6 from 4 and when changing down, I always seem to slip it into 3rd! Anyway 6th gear in a town is impossible as its far too low if the speed is below 40kph (30mph). In mountainous Madeira 5 and 6 would never be used. The only flat road is the aeroport runway!
4. The steering is too twitchy (I cannot find a suitable English word) a tiny turn of the wheel immediately moves the direction of the car.
5. I was surprised to find it is a noisier car than my Cabrio! Is this due to the runflats? After a long drive it was very tiring and at autoway speeds conversation was at shouting levels.
6. There are no warning lights on the foglamp switched, at least I couldn’t find any when I had to use the lights.
7. That wretched stop-start system where you have to press the clutch to re-start the engine.
8. I also felt that the engine didn’t accelerate as well as the MINI One but that may be because mine has the Bluefin and the ONE has different gearing.
9. The turning indicator stalk was too temperamental, when manually cancelling it, it was too easy to turn the indicator the other way.

On the positive side, there seems to be much more room in the back than my Cabrio. Please note these are personal observations and I would welcome anyone elses findings. But will I buy a new Cooper? Definitley no!

New MINI Cooper.
For the last week I have been driving a new 2009 Cooper tintop with 3,500 kilometers on the clock, and make the following comments of things I don’t like about it compared to my ONE Cabrio which has Bluefin. My location was Portugal mainland, Lisboa and the Algarve.
1. The starting of the engine which you need to insert the round key fob in the slot, then press the clutch at the same time press the start button. Why? When it is easier just to insert a key and turn it.
2. The wipers have no intermittent setting, just on and then fast.
3. In the 6 speed gearbox I think 5th gear is superfluous. Its easier to change up to 6 from 4 and when changing down, I always seem to slip it into 3rd! Anyway 6th gear in a town is impossible as its far too low if the speed is below 40kph (30mph). In mountainous Madeira 5 and 6 would never be used. The only flat road is the aeroport runway!
4. The steering is too twitchy (I cannot find a suitable English word) a tiny turn of the wheel immediately moves the direction of the car.
5. I was surprised to find it is a noisier car than my Cabrio! Is this due to the runflats? After a long drive it was very tiring and at autoway speeds conversation was at shouting levels.
6. There are no warning lights on the foglamp switched, at least I couldn’t find any when I had to use the lights.
7. That wretched stop-start system where you have to press the clutch to re-start the engine.
8. I also felt that the engine didn’t accelerate as well as the MINI One but that may be because mine has the Bluefin and the ONE has different gearing.
9. The turning indicator stalk was too temperamental, when manually cancelling it, it was too easy to turn the indicator the other way.

On the positive side, there seems to be much more room in the back than my Cabrio. Please note these are personal observations and I would welcome anyone elses findings. But will I buy a new Cooper? Definitley no!

1: not really.
2: umm, press the button on the stalk for int-wipe.
3: i only use 5th on the downshift
4: put sport mode on :D
5: runflats do assist in the amount of noise the car makes. bear also in mind that you're sat in a closed environment, so sound reverbs more than the cab.
6: there are warning lights if the fogs are on in the speedo. there's no indication you have your side/dipped/fulls on tho.
7: turn it off via the middle button by the gear stick.
8: moot point, comparing apples to oranges.
9: to cancel it, flick it in the same direction as you used to turn it on.

Two further points I forgot to include.
10. I like to see a proper fuel gauge; the one on the Cooper looks like the petals of a flower, each petal being a little L.E.D.
11 Much more important. I have sports seats on my Cabrio; the Cooper also had sports seats, but these were hard and uncomfortable.

As I said, these are just my personal observations.

Thought I'd give my views on your views (so to speak).

1) Not really, but it doesn't really save any time either. Keyless ignition is the future (and an optional extra). :D
2) Completely counter intuitive, but do as Scrogg says, press the button on the end. Case of "read the manual", but then again, should you really need to do this to use the wipers?
3) Gearing depends on how you drive, often you can find yourself missing several gears.
4) This is surely a good thing? Direct steering feel is what it's all about. If you mean it feels "over assisted" and too light, try the "sport mode" as suggested above.
5) I can only think this is the runflats and/or something isn't quite right with the setup. Wind noise can be quite apparent though, but generally the new car is a quieter place to be than the old. Or at least it should be, especially than a Convertible.
6) You mean on the end of the toggle as on the first gen cars? Sadly this very cool design feature was dropped with the second generation MINI. :(
7) The stop-start is great, you just have to get used to it. When you do, it feels weird NOT to have it.
8) The new car is smoother and I think FEELS slower, even though in reality it is not.
9) It is fiddly, but easy to get used to.
10) Fuel gauge is not exactly a precision instrument I agree!
11) I like the new seats a lot, but "half leather" is more like a quarter.

2) Completely counter intuitive, but do as Scrogg says, press the button on the end. Case of "read the manual", but then again, should you really need to do this to use the wipers?

rec... not Scrogg.

Ooops, sorry! That's what happens when you're doing too many forum things at once. :o