BMW came to my work today to advertise there cars. They bought a MINI Cooper S with them but no MINI Cooper. I test drove the Cooper S for about 45 mins. The BMW salesman was such a nice guy telling me to "give it some welly" and was quite happy for me to drive the car quite hard. It was a great car, so fast and so much fun but there was things I didn't like about it, mainly the gear box.
I got out the car and thought, that was great fun can't wait to see what the Cooper is like. I went home and immediately rang my local dealer and ordered a test drive. I got there and after about 10 mins of talking we got in the car. The salesman drove out the forecourt and stopped for us to swap over. I got in the car, all excited - this is the moment I have been waiting for for months. The salesman took me on a route along 30mph roads and no joke I was driving the car for about 2-3 mins. I was gutted. I have been waiting for this moment for ages and this salesman ruined it by not letting me drive the car properly. Then to sum things up when I pulled up into the forecourt thinking "no way was that a test drive" he then said "so what do you think". HAHA. What a tit. I replied by saying I had a 45 min test drive in a MINI Cooper S this morning and loved that car but I didnt know what to think of the Cooper as I havn't driven it yet, well not what I would consider driving it. Well that was it. I got my stuff together and left the garage, I shall never return. I have just got off the phone to my next nearest dealer and I have a test drive next wednesday. I have explained to them that if they give me a 2 min drive I will buy the car elsewhere. I want a proper drive. Is that unreasonable ? I'm about to spend £14,000 on a MINI and the tit salesman in the other garage couldn't even be bothered to show me what the car can do. I should of asked him exactly what his job description says !
I really wanna know what to expect in comparision to the "S". I wanna know how the Cooper accelerates. I tried flooring the Cooper on my 2 min drive but i dont think i got about 3000 rpm. I felt a bit slow though but then again so did the "S" on low revs. I REALLY wanted to open it up and see how it revs. The first salesman (when I was driving the "S") was telling me that the Cooper also has great performance and a sweet engine. Shame I couldn't find out for myself.
Sorry about the long rant. Just annoys me so much.
Go to a different dealer and get a decent test drive - it's the only way you can 'feel' what the Cooper is like vs. the 'S'.
My dealer was great - got a Cooper for me to test, and positively encouraged me to revs the tits off it; even navigated me across to the south side of London (that I don't know very well) to a stretch of road to get it up to speed, told me where the speed cameras were, and didn't flinch when I took it, ahem, close to the speed limit...
Yea I have booked another one for next week. I think they will be better because I have (and will again) tell them about how ***** the other dealer was so they will feel they want to impress me. So what did you pick ? Cooper or Cooper S ? Whats the Cooper like in comparison ?
Typically the Cooper will be faster from 0-30 MPH because it has a bit more torque down low. I think the Cooper is a mighty fast car in stock form. Where the S shines is in "Hyperspace" speeds (50-100+ MPH).
'02 MINI Cooper CVT
On Order: 2004 MCS (Est production date: 9/5/03)
My salesman just tossed me the keys and said to, "keep it above 3000RPMs" and when passing on the highway not to bother downshifting from 5th to 4th, "go down to 3rd," he said. "Don't bounce it off the rev limited too many times."
The Cooper needs to be revved to get good performance out of it. It is a small engine but it revs high and keeps pouring on the power as you go higher. 3000RPMs is for good gas mileage. You'll want to shift above 5000RPMs for good performance and over 6000 for great performance.
Harry
MINI Cooper Cabrio: now the car with go cart handling really feels like an open go cart! "... the only man that can come home at 3 am in the morning without getting into trouble with his spouse is the owner of a British sports car!" -- Phil Bailey
Last edited by HarryHBMCC; Jul 17th, 2003 at 04:41 PM.
Yea that is good to know that I didn't reach the performance. I just feel gutted coz so many people drive it for the first time and say WOW I WANT THAT CAR. Whereas for me that tit salesman ruined it. Hopefully the next one will be more like yours was HarryIndiBlue
It never ceases to amaze me how some car salesmen fail to grasp the simple concept:
DECENT TEST DRIVE = MORE CHANCE OF SELLING CAR.
Not rocket science.
You should be able to get more joy from another dealer. On my 3 test drives I was able to drive the cars 'properly' on 2 of them.
On the third occasion, there were no comments from the test driver as he sat in the back while I threw it round corners. I think my wife in the passenger seat was more worried.
Yep, totally agree that you need a decent test drive. Even though I'm a female of the species, I still wanted to get an idea of what to expect from the car. Test drove a One D first (not bad, comfortable and not too noisy), then a Cooper with the standard sports suspension (yes, nice) and then another Cooper with Sport Suspension Plus (oh yes!). That sold it for me - and it happened to be the same spec as the car in the showroom that was available to buy within two weeks...
Have actually only had my lovely Mini for just over a week now, so still getting used to everything. I find the gearbox in particular takes a bit of getting used to. But.. absolutely love it.
You do need a decent drive. The car really does shine over 4000rpm (the running in threshold )
Compared to an S? Well it is slower, but you still won't be disappointed by the Cooper. The way they take corners is exactly the same. SS+ Cooper is pretty much the same as the S set up. They all love the twists.
Take a friend with you when you go. I've only had a salesman come with me on a test drive once, and that was the only time I went by myself, every time my husband went with me (okay, most of those times he wasn't my husband, but you know what I mean) they just copied my driver's license and tossed me the keys (a few of them even gave me suggested routes to get the most out of the drive).
We drove all three options, the CVT, the manual Cooper and the S. The CVT was pretty fun until we drove the manual Cooper and then it was no contest. The S was definitely faster than the Cooper, but a bit rougher of a ride (particularly since the Cooper we drove had 15" wheels). We ordered a Cooper because we decided we couldn't afford the tickets hubby would probably get driving the S. (the Cooper also had the Pepper White in it's favor )
My dealer lent me an "S" for a test drive for a whole 24 hours!! Picked it up on a Thursday evening, did 220 miles around Wales on the Friday and took it back Friday evening!!
I paid £7 to have it insured for myself for a day, which I thought was fair!
Read my post here on what I thought of it compaired to my Cooper:
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Gone August '06
Arrrived November '08 
