[topcomer]

I bought my cvt mini cooper in spring 2003 in italy. I must say I'm impressed there are so many good opinions out here about this car. I was a kart driver competing in the italian national championship, so I have some experience with sport driving, though I never tried a non-cvt mini cooper.

Whilst being quite quick in shifting for being a sort of automatic shifter, the car gives me little or no feeling at all at the point not to trust it while I'm braking! I frequently lock my tyres both at low and midspeed, and suffer of a painful understeer. I don't know if I have to blame the cvt for this, since I also feel that the front springs are far too stiff and the car cannot transfer its weight to the front.

Once I almost crashed in wet conditions at 50kmh because of a totally lack of traction during a corner, which I don't know if caused by the cvt or the stiff front suspension. I only know that my father just travelled for 600 km with my car and told me it is the most dangerous car he has ever tried (he was the onwer of a celica and an audi 90 v5 and he is not a slow driver). Has anyone had similar experiences?

[jaxky]

i drive a 2005 MC cvt, i also haven't tried the manual but i never got the feeling of the mini being an unsafe car, i always feel very in control of the car even at high speeds. to me it just seems that you need a new set of tires... but im just a noob haha just my thoughts

[d16rry]

I drive at high sppeds in my auto feels nailed to the floor and gives me plenty of feeling

[Sejanus]

I must say your problem sounds pretty unique. I've got 83,000 miles on my CVT and have never experienced any traction problems of the sort you describe.