[DITCH]

A couple weeks ago I had posted the question whether the Cooper was underpowered. I took a test drive at Tom Bush MINI in Jacksonville and decided to post my first impressions.

Background
Just to give you a background of where I'm coming from: I've been looking at cars for the SO for after we get married in Sept. Needed something with 4 seats to supplement the Miata. I had been leaning towards the Protege5 before starting to take the Cooper seriously.

Power
I was happy with the power. I didn't drive an S, as I thought I might like it too much. I drove it on city streets and a bit on the highway. It was capable in all respects.

Handling
The handling was great, especially for a wrong-wheel-drive car. I didn't want to push it, being new to the car and all, but the salesman took a couple of twisties at autocross speeds and it was very grippy. I bet it will be the hot ticket in H stock.

The SS was more than adequate. I had thought of getting the SS+, and am rethinking that now. An SS cooper went to the local autocross and made some respectable times. I'm looking forward to driving an SS+ car to compare the differences in handling.

The car felt very solid. Chassis flex is nonexistant. (AI quoted torsional rigidity at 27,000 N-m/degree. )

Interior/Exterior
There was a bit of wind noise from the windshield area at high speed, augmented by the fact that the winshield is so close to the driver.

The Sport seats were a little wide for my tastes. The regular seats somehow felt more supportive.

The row of switches had a lot of blank spaces. Wonder if you could buy extra switches, even if they were non-functional?

Build quality looked good. Fit and finish, panel spacing and interior fit were all excellent.


In all, I liked the Cooper. I hope the waiting list and the asociated dealer markup dies down as more people decide to go with the S. Tom Bush MINI was charging $1700 over MSRP. While the Cooper is a great car, I don't see myself paying more than MSRP, especially when the Protege5 would be selling at a discount.

Hope this review helps anyone who's considering purchasing a Cooper.

Ditch