[punxworm]

Hey everyone,
I just signed up for the forums, I'm absolutely dying to get a Mini cooper, but my parents aren't fantastically keen on the decision. I've basically debunked anything negative they can say about it so far except for ground clearance. They've questioned safety and driving in weather constantly, but I've been able to tell them otherwise on both of those issues.

Is there anything anyone can tell me about ground clearance? Is it really a problem or not? Going over speed bumps is a concern of mine, does everyone clear speed bumps without a problem? If you have even a little extra weight in the back I feel like you'll be scraping along.

Any help that anyone has to offer would be great, thanks guys

[justbob]

I've got 20,000 miles on my MCS, and my wife is in the teens in hers. We've driven all over the eastern half of the U.S., in all sorts of weather. We've been on gravel, dirt, and paved roads. We've been lost. We've been in downtown D.C. and Chicago, and out in the middle of Iowa and Kansas.

We've only had two seperate instances of problems with ground clearances. Both lasted only a few minutes.

The easiest problem with ground clearance is snow. If there is more than 4-5 inches of UNPLOWED snow on the ground, the MINI can become a bit of a "snow plow," due to ground clearance. Otherwise, it is the best car I've ever driven in the snow. Period. No question about it. I regular pass SUVs in 2-4 inches of snow (with my fog lights on, of course).

The second problem with ground clearance is more due to...driver error...in a way. My wife and I were driving our MINIs across a golf course one night (don't ask, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and was a short cut to our driveway) when she took an inadvertant U-turn off the path and clipped over a small rock outcropping. Lots of sudden ripping and dragging sounds, and tear.

Luckily, she had only ripped the front lower air dam off. It appears it was designed to take this kind of abuse and break away on impact (think parking lot cement barriers). Three minutes with a flashlight and a Swiss Army knife, and I had it re-attached and we were on our way!

So, ground clearance? I never worry about it, except when I'm parking in a lot that has those obnoxious cement blocks at the end of every space--just don't pull all the way into the space.

(And just a quick note--I've never had a problem with speed bumps either--use good judgement.)

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

Quote: Originally Posted by punxworm

Hey everyone,
I just signed up for the forums, I'm absolutely dying to get a Mini cooper, but my parents aren't fantastically keen on the decision. I've basically debunked anything negative they can say about it so far except for ground clearance. They've questioned safety and driving in weather constantly, but I've been able to tell them otherwise on both of those issues.

Is there anything anyone can tell me about ground clearance? Is it really a problem or not? Going over speed bumps is a concern of mine, does everyone clear speed bumps without a problem? If you have even a little extra weight in the back I feel like you'll be scraping along.

Any help that anyone has to offer would be great, thanks guys

If they really are concerned about safety on the MINI (pretty needlessly, I might add), why not call in at your local motorcycle dealers and bring home a few brochures and start pretending to be interested... That should do the trick

Tigger.

[punxworm]

many thanks to both of you, i'll prepare myself for battle again.
I like the motorcycle idea...

[MiniBrum]

Sounds like an excuse to have 18 inch wheels to your option list (surely this must lift it off the ground higher!)

Seriously though, I have a brand new cooper with 16 inch wheels and sports plus suspension and I have already encountered a small clearence problem!
Speed bumps and normal driving doesn't seem a problem. However, when I drive onto my driveway there is this small Kerb (that only sticks up one inch) that I have to drive over. Immediately after the kerb the drive slopes downwards (not a steep slope). Anyway if I drive onto the drive too quickly there is a bang! On further investigation I found it was these rubber things that are attached to the floor panel immediately behind the front wheels (I guess something to do with Jacking the car up!)

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

Never had a ground clearance problem on my Cooper with 15" wheels. The lack of any kind of overhang, particulaly at the front, helps to make sure it's never been an issue. I've loaded this car pretty heavily and have been over those vicious new speed bumps (the one that are specifically designed to damage your sump ) and never had an issue.

However, the Volvo V70 (that I use for work) scrapes the towing eye on the bottom of the front bumper along the ground about once a month. Come to think of it if your parents are concerned about safety, particularly in bad weather, the V70 is probably the sort of car that they would like you to be driving. I can tell you that if the weather is bad the MINI is easier to control and feels more secure to drive; the Volvo has very little feedback through the steering in comparison and it is almost impossible to tell when you've lost traction and / or steering control. The MINI, on the other hand, feels much safer.

As far as crash safety is concerned, have you seen the shocking results of crash testing on the MINI and the Ford F150? If you haven't, let me know and I'll give you the link. This could make all of the difference.

Hope this helps. Please let us know how you get on.

Tigger.

[punxworm]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tigger, Eeyore & Roo

Never had a ground clearance problem on my Cooper with 15" wheels. The lack of any kind of overhang, particulaly at the front, helps to make sure it's never been an issue. I've loaded this car pretty heavily and have been over those vicious new speed bumps (the one that are specifically designed to damage your sump ) and never had an issue.

However, the Volvo V70 (that I use for work) scrapes the towing eye on the bottom of the front bumper along the ground about once a month. Come to think of it if your parents are concerned about safety, particularly in bad weather, the V70 is probably the sort of car that they would like you to be driving. I can tell you that if the weather is bad the MINI is easier to control and feels more secure to drive; the Volvo has very little feedback through the steering in comparison and it is almost impossible to tell when you've lost traction and / or steering control. The MINI, on the other hand, feels much safer.

As far as crash safety is concerned, have you seen the shocking results of crash testing on the MINI and the Ford F150? If you haven't, let me know and I'll give you the link. This could make all of the difference.

Hope this helps. Please let us know how you get on.

Tigger.

Funny and extremely appropriate that you compare a Volvo in terms of weather safety, I currently drive an '87 Volvo 240DL, and my dad is nuts about safety in Volvo's. That crash test link would be fantastic, also.
To possibly take the thread in a slightly different direction, what about reliability? I read an article in Consumer Reports tonight that said Mini's were generally below average in terms of reliability.

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

The link that you need is:

http://www.bridger.us/2002/12/16/Cra...NICooperVsFord F150

Let us know what their reaction to that is !

With forums such as this you will find people complaining of problems, no matter what the car is. As far as reliability and general build quality is concerned there is very very little difference between the Volvo and the MINI. Yes, really! In fact, if anything, the MINI is slightly better built!

Tigger.

[punxworm]

Wow, the irony keeps on rolling in.

My dad drives a Ford F-150.
This is both frightening and very good for my situation...

He wont be happy with me when I throw this at him.

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

Wow, this is getting ironic, isn't it?!

My family have had Volvos, on and off, for years and we used to have a series of 240's and 260's in the '70s and early 80's as well along with, more recently, an 850 and my series of two V70's. Against this background of Volvo use I can tell you that the quality of the MINI is in exactly the same league as the Volvo and way above that of other small cars. As far as crashworthyness is concerned, I'm very happy for my own family to travel in the MINI.

Looking forward to seeing how you get on.

Tigger.

[OLY]

I have had no particular problem with ground clearance. Those parking lot things scrape all cars.

There are some steep parking lot exits around here (San Jose) that cause my air dam to scrape lightly - but my VW Vanagon scrapes it's air dam in exactly the same places - and that's not usually considered a "low clearance" vehicle.

[Lawrothegreat]

I've never had a problem with my cooper - i drive it over speed bumps every day and usually at speed. Theres a few near where i work and the car rides over them absolutely fine; unlike a 2001 VW Passat I once knew.........

In terms of safety - here's the argument:

Lets assume accidents are statistically random in that a car/driver will cause an accident in 1 out of 50,000 car journeys. Now if we assume that car suddenly veered off course at an angle and became a projectile along the ground into the path of another car, then its obvious the smaller the car you drive - the less you are going to get hit!

[MHALEY57]

My driveway apron is exetremely steep, about 7 inches in 30" of width, but i never hit the air dam unless i banzai into or out of the drive. Clearance has never been a prob with my MC, unless of course you're in the deep unplowed snow mentioned earlier, then it doesn't really matter what you're in.