Test Drive of a MINI Cooper - What did I think

[adgrimes]

I wasnt even able to test drive a cooper... I test drove a Mini One (auto because of a gammy left ankle) and the guy who took me out in it was not keen on my driving... Still he didnt have any choice as I was behind the wheel
Kept trying to steer me back to the dealership, and I was like "Actually, I just wanted to test it out a bit more" then booted it to the bypass...
Only had a 10 minute drive... Wasnt keen on that guy but then he was the only one available to go out with me in a car...
only got another 250 miles to run in my cooper and then I can really give it some!... Although I have faltered from the straight and narrow once or twice... only up to about 5500 revs and for no more than half a second or so... Hope this is ok...

[Jeep-2-mini]

I had 2 test drives, both unacompanied. First one was about a hour, did some city driving + some fast local A roads, second one was all day (9.30 till 5), did my normal commute (without stopping at work, since I had the day off) the motorway, and a few other routes I do reguarly.

The first drive rearly sold me the car, far better than the 10 mins up a local dual carrage way some other makes dealers gave me, and way preferable to the local Land Rover dealer, who arranged an all day test drive, then went on holiday witout informing anybody dealer put me off before the car did

Mark

[badboyzbadboyz]

That is so good that some of you have had unacompanied test drives. If they done that to me and said come back in about an hour or so I would be so happy coz then I would really drive it hard and test what it can do. In my 2 min drive of the Cooper I didn't exceed 30 mph and because I didn't at any stage get the revs up it felt sluggish. This made me really wanna give it some welly and see what it can do. I'm not looking for a super fast car but I must say the power of the S was very nice. If the Cooper can come anywhere near that I will be happy as a pig in *****.

It is amazing that others of you have too had dealers that take you on a rubbish test drive. Surely that is the most important part of the whole decision of weather you get one.

R1 - Thanks for the link. A great detailed review of what you think. Also makes me feel a bit better as to what I can expect the Cooper to be like.

[TaraBT]

Definitely going out unaccompanied gives you a real chance to have a play, and also get a chance to explore the other bits of the car that you might feel a bit self-conscious of if there's someone looking over your shoulder. If you can get it for at least an hour, you can usually get to most types of road.

The dealer I've ordered mine through has let me go on more test-drives even after I ordered - needed some MINI fixes whilst waiting! (The wait ends next Thursday!)

[MarkW19]

I borrowed two coopers from two different dealers for a whole day each. It's down to the dealer though - if they're "good" they'll let you borrow one for an extended test drive. After all, when you've been in one you won't want to give it back and you'll have to buy one, so it's good business!

[Beester]

Had no problem getting unaccompanied testdrives. Drove a one rather hard took a 30mph turn at 65 mph with screaming tires just in front of the dealer He just laughed!

The cooper was the same story.. it had no asc+t so a quick screaming tires departure was assured. This time I did get comments when returning the car, but nothing serious. Only a :'You drive sporty' comment.

You realy need an unaccompanied drive to realy test it. Not only the kamikaze style driving, but also the other important bits, like how does it drive on the motorway, cruising along, how strong is the windnoise, etc etc...

The testdrive realy sold the car for me! To bad that there are still some dealers around who don't get this.

[adgrimes]

through the twisties, the cooper will keep up with an S... the S' power really only comes out on the straights... but lets face it, motorways in the UK arent autobahns... more like revolving car parks... (well the m25 is anyway...)