[C&A's Mini]

Picked up our 08 MCS just over 2 weeks ago and took it on a tour from England to Germany and back, learned plenty about the car and thought of sharing the experience with you.

Some of the highlights were the comfort, performance, stereo, Ipod, Blue Tooth, sunroof and high speed driving.

We traveled just under 2000 miles averaging 62 mph at 32 mpg - which was not bad considering we had only traveled 500 miles of careful running in before starting. The first 800 miles were again kept in the running in limits of not more than 100 mph and 4,500 rpm. But that 800 miles consisted of 600 miles of motorway, broken up into 5 equal chunks, a reasonable amount of which were at a fairly steady speed and engine load. The remainder of the trip was on the Autobahns and crawling round city centers, our mini is by the way an auto, so 32 mpg with a new engine and transmission being well pushed was a good result.

As a bit of background, we tried various models before buying the MCS and picked up some good advice from the forum. In the end we plumped for a chili red MCS auto with black roof and chili pack. On top of that we had the stereo upgrade, the sun roof and the new USB/Blue Tooth pack. (This comprised the MFSW with cruise control, USB connector for the Ipod, arm rest and Blue Tooth connector for the mobile phone.

Any way here are the main things we learned:

Comfort - we use to have a 52 reg MC and it was too noisy and uncomfortable for a long journey, so we were not sure how we would fair with the MCS on its 17 inch wheels (standard suspension). And the answer, fantastic , the longest single journey was 4 hours (with a couple of short stops), and the most time spent driving in a day was 6 hours. Driving the car was not tiring and we got out at the end of the day with no aches or pains. Frankly, for 2 people this is probably as comfortable a Grand Tourer as many more expensive luxury cars. Quite an achievement mini, well done.

Performance - certainly part of the comfort was a result of the excellent performance, having plenty of power to deal with any traffic results in a more relaxed drive. Our route out took us across to East Germany, then to Southern Germany and back home through France. Probably 90% of the autobahns we drove on in the south and east of Germany were out of the limits, and by this time the mini was officially run in. Its easy to understand why nobody sits in the outside lane on the autobahns, because there will be an Audi doing 200 kph coming along sooner or later. Most people were driving 80 to 90 mph, mixed up with lorries going along at 56 mph. So being able to easily speed up to over take, or blend in at junctions was pretty important. Well the MCS auto was well up to the job, just look in the mirrors find your spot, press the peddle and you are there. The response was always consistent without hesitation and very confidence inspiring.

Stereo - the upgraded stereo was brilliant , well worth the money. The car is the only place we really sit and listen to music, at home it is usually in the background and you are not in the right position to have the full stereo effect. At one point we were listening to some classic FM movie music, a piece from Harry Potter we had heard many times in our other cars, suddenly there was a strange sound we had never heard before , a ghostly sound - actually a softer element of the score that our previous car stereos had never been able to deliver. Being able to hear that level of subtlety in the car gives some idea of both how good the sound system is and how quiet the mini is.

IPod - which brings us on to the Ipod, the USB connector means that the IPod can be placed in the glove compartment and the cable discretely plugged into the USB connector and run almost out of sight into the glove compartment. This connector both powers the IPod and controls it via the buttons on the central speedo and MFSW. The standard speedo rather than satnav speedo with joy stick is much easier to use (we tried the satnav one during a test drive). With the standard speedo the buttons allow direct selection of artist, genre etc rather than using a joy stick to navigate through the menus. It means it is much easier to make selections and keep your eye on the road. The only problem we have had is it not picking up the playlists.

Blue Tooth - received a number of calls on our travels, and the quality is pretty good. At one point we were traveling at between 100 to 110 mph and held a clear conversation for both parties. Again this gives some idea of how quiet the mini is.

Sun Roof - this was one of the extras we debated over the most. In our previous mini we hardly used the sun roof, it was noisy and drafty when open, and various reports have said that the sunroof in the new mini is noisy even when shut. In fact that was our experience during a test drive. We knew from the test that the changes in pop up deflector had eliminated the draft, and felt that we could live with the noise as we would not be traveling long distances on a regular basis. In fact the sun roof is obviously fitted correctly in our mini as there is no noise coming from it. What noise there is in the car comes from the tyres. With it open there is almost no draft even at 100 mph - but it does get a bit noisy. It makes the mini light inside, and can certainly give you a bit of a tan in the right circumstances. Its not the same as an open toped car, but its not a bad compromise. Driving through the woods you can hear the wild life and enjoy a more connected feeling similar to an open toped car.

High speed driving - coming from the UK we really don't have the experience for this, plus the car was unfamiliar, so it took a while to build up the confidence to relax at a higher driving speed. In the end we settled for between 100 to 110 mph as a comfortable cruising speed. On a few occasions we sat in with the 200 kph traffic, I guess people look at their speedometers and choose that as their cruising speed, because it was very unusual to see anyone driving faster than that - even if they legally could. Of course 125 mph is more than fast enough to chew up the miles. Impressively even at 125 mph the mini still had plenty of acceleration left, a dab on the peddle and we rapidly reached 130 mph. At one point we were in a group of cars whose speed was being varied between 100 and 200 kph because of traffic. During a slow period we were caught by an obviously powerfull bike, but he was clearly happy with the acceleration we had going back up to 200 kph as he choose to sit in behind us, even when we pulled in to let him past. Very impressed with the mini top class.

A couple of other things we found out. The boot appears to have been designed to fit the maximum size of the carry on airline bags. Ours stood upright sideways on (one wheel touching the back of the car, the other the back of the seat), which makes the boot more practical than we expected. The xenon lights can easily be switched between right and left hand driving, through a white toggle in the head lamps. The data display on the rev counter can be selected to show km/h and km distances for continental driving - very handy.

And a final word on heat given up by the turbo charger. I had read about the heat causing the washer jets to leak and heating up the inside of the car. When we first had it and the washer bottle was full this occurred, but after using the washers a few times this has gone away. As for heating up the car, well we were fortunate to have 25 deg C air temperatures and found that the mini remained perfectly comfortable without the AC on even in the sun, and we were certainly putting some work through the turbo!

Build quality seems very good (touch wood) - no rattles, unlike our original 52 reg, which rattled from new.

All in all, very impressed, and looking forward to plenty of fun in the future

So if you are reading this and thinking about buying a mini - don't hesitate, without a doubt the best car for the money we have ever had. And in the real world of the German autobahns it easily travels in the company of Porsches, Merc's, Audi's and BMW's - well it is one after all!

As good a Grand Tourer for 2 as more expensive options, well that's our experience.