My Cooper S Experience

[Viscount Charles]

Too early to post anything really definative as we've only done 150 miles so far. Picked it up yesterday. Flawless handover procedure from the dealership (Godfrey Hall, Coventry), including a test drive.

The beast is an Electric Blue Cooper S with white roof, stripes and wheels. Option-wise I took the Chili pack (1/2 leather, 17" wheels, xenons and aircon), upgraded to climate control and added DSC. Oh, and the useless ISOFIX brackets (more later).

On the way home from collecting it, I noticed a light clunk or heavy rattle when I engaged gear a bit heavily, or accelerated/braked a bit sharply. A little bit worrying. then I remembered stowing the locking wheel-nut in the ashtray - move it somewhere else, and hey presto, the rattle disappears!

Note on the ashtray vs the non-smoker's option - take the standard ashtray and fag lighter every time. The ashtray is just a lidded pot, and can be taken out leaving you with an extra cupholder. If you tell your dealer you want the non-smoker's option, they just remove the ashtray and the lighter and bin them - better to keep both and pass them on when you resell the car. I noticed a 12v socket in the boot, too - neat touch.

17" wheel debate? Well, I'm very very worried about kerbing the wheels - there is no overlap of tyre to protect the wheels at all. They look good (and easy to clean, I hope), but the ride IS stiff, particularly with everything being so new. And I'm coming from a classic Mini Cooper with racing shocks and stiffened springs. The big wheels smooth out big speedbumps and the like, but you can feel every imperfection in the tarmac. Still undecided as to whether 16" wheels are a better choice.

Currently keeping the revs betwen 2000 and 3500rpm, extending to 4000rpm when the load is light, moving it between gears to avoid sitting at one rev speed for more that a couple of miles. As we get beyond the 600-mile point, I'll push the revs up a bit more. Managed to stall it just the once (best avoided with a new car, but the clutch is a little heavy at the moment).

Problems? None at all. Well, there's a noticeable blemish on the driver's seat in the middle of the cloth - and the dealer's attempts to shift it have made it worse. But I'm sure that will be sorted. The car tracks dead straight - although it is VERY sensitive to camber. There is almost no noticeable castor - the steering wheel shows no inclination to return to centre if you let go of it, which doesn't really suit me after spending 6 years driving a car with enough castor to require the forearm strength of Popeye to hold through a bend ...

Love the climate control. Who cares about fuel consumption in weather like this? I'd always thought that air-conditioning meant winding down a window and driving faster.

I also love the foglight switches - dinky little LEDs on the end of the switches which light up when they're on. Nice touch.

And the gearbox - really sweet. Nice positive change into each gear, nice short throw, nice cool knob on the gearstick. This is a great gearbox. Others have said that the gearing is over-tall, and this was one of my worries. Well they're wrong (IMHO, of course). Unlike every other car I've driven, first is tall enough to be useable as more than just a get-you-moving gear. And the rest of the ratios seem pretty close to me. Now I haven't been doing any Grand Prix starts yet, and it's possible that a tall first gear is going to hamper this, but I'd say for general driving the 'box seems pretty much perfect as it is.

Hate the obvious plastic mould lines around the edge of the dashboard by the way, and the sprue point on the clear rear lamp cluster cover - I know why it's there, but with a bit more thought I think both are aesthetic mistakes which could have been avoided. And don't get me started on those little black flaps in the rear wheel-arches ....

I said I'd return to the ISOFIX brackets. Well it seems that the child seats ARE now available in ISOFIX configuration, but not the 0-9mths baby carrier. So they're not a lot of use to me at the moment.

I spent the morning looking for a suitable car seat/pushchair/pram thingy. No easy task, that - wit the cancellation of the BMW baby carrier and buggy, you have to look in Mothercare, Toy R Us etc. But beware the size of the MINI's boot. Virtually everything sold is too darned big for the boot, even when completely folded up and disassembled.

The ONLY items we found that would fit were Graeco branded travel systems - a travel system being a pushchair/lightweight pram onto which a car seat suitable for babies up to 9 months (baby carrier) will attach.

The Graeco Mirage Travel System (approx £130) & the Toys R Us branded Graeco Bruin Travel System (similar price - I suspect they are one and the same) were a tight fit lengthways in the boot but left enough space for a smallish bag in the boot in front of it, and the Graeco Metrolight/Metrosport Travel System (the Metrolight is a Mothercare exclusive - but they are the same product) also fitted in the back for around £270 - but that leaves about enough room in the boot for a packet of crisps. We struck lucky, and were undercharged for the Metrosport by about £100

The Metro comes with a "docking station" for the car, which can be left on the rear seat permanently, and the baby carrier then clips into the docking station with the minimum of fuss. The Mirage used a very similar baby carrier, but had no docking station. This meant feeding the rear passenger seatbelt through the baby carrier itself - not that tricky, but with the limited access to the rear of the car too tricky for me to do every time we go out. The docking station is available separately for people that buy the Mirage, BTW. Who says the MINI is too small t cart around a baby?

Graeco, I charge commission of 5% on every sale as a result of this shameless plug

Overall I love this car - and I haven't gone looking for any performance yet.

[ELISEBOY]

VC - great news, glad you are enjoying it and found the report very good.

By the time you get it up to Silverstone it should be run in nicely!!

See you there

[spanky2k]

Cool! Nice one!! Enjoy!! Nice report too.

[AidenL]

Good luck with the car, and enjoy it !!

[QQQ]

Thank you VC, very nice report Glad you like it and couldn't agree more with your comments on the gearbox.

Enjoy!

[LMB]

Have fun

[noahe]

Quote:

Originally posted by Viscount Charles
And don't get me started on those little black flaps in the rear wheel-arches ....

Take 'em off. The North American cars do not have these. My Canadian MCS has 17" rims, and no little filler thing. Obviously, they are not really needed, except some silly law, that won't likely be enforced? Or will it?

[ELISEBOY]

Quote:

Originally posted by noahe
except some silly law, that won't likely be enforced? Or will it?

Sods law thought, that when they are removed you will be pulled for it!!!

[An_S_4_Me]

Nice one mate, just you wait until you get her run in, dropping into 4th at 70 and blasting past people is infectious!

Andy

[EBMCS03]

NICE report... Thanks for sharing! Enjoy your car... while I ejnoy my wait...

[Viscount Charles]

400 miles on the clock, and the engine is definately getting looser. It no longer requires real effort to get the revs climbing - instead, the car seems almost eager to rev higher.

Still pushing it no higher than 4,000rpm at the moment - will extend this as we pick up more miles - and moving it around a lot between 2,000 and 4,000. Not noticed any change in the gearbox (which is good - I like the positive feel as you slot it into gear), although the clutch is getting smoother.

Still tracks dead straight - but very sensitive steering, and no sign of ever wanting to return to centre.

Found another rattle - again, a clunking noise heard form the rear when a gear change does not go smoothly, or the road is rough. It's the rear seatbelt knocking on the plastic side trim

Getting just over 30mpg while running it in, which is acceptable.

Main problem now is it needs a wash - particularly the once-white alloy wheels

[fred-guido]

The wheel shouldn't get as dirty after the initial brake in or settling of the brakes, but good luck with those! I foresee you spending a lot of weekend hours keeping those rims looking white!

[Boo]

cool reports, have fun... hopefully will join you in that happy driving in about 8 weeks

[dinger]

Quote:

Originally posted by Viscount Charles
Main problem now is it needs a wash - particularly the once-white alloy wheels

When we got the cooper the wife wanted white alloys so like a good hubby I agreed,on the understanding that she cleaned them 3 guesses who ended up cleaning them ALL the time.

Still we've ordered white wheels again on our S,so am I a glutton for punshiment or what,or is it a case of where theres a wheel theres a way.

[AidenL]

Quote:

Originally posted by dinger


When we got the cooper the wife wanted white alloys so like a good hubby I agreed,on the understanding that she cleaned them 3 guesses who ended up cleaning them ALL the time.

Still we've ordered white wheels again on our S,so am I a glutton for punshiment or what,or is it a case of where theres a wheel theres a way.

I know that feeling dinger......my wife said she would wash our black MINI regularly.......did she ???.......Two chances !!

Imaging how much cleaning time a black car with white wheels would need !!!