A short review with my first R56 Mini

[sammykwan]

My Mini as below spec was picked up on March 1.

Chili Red/White manual with a few additional options
- cloth/leather seat
- lights package
- multi-function 3-spoke steering wheel
- on broad computer
- sport suspension
- rear spoiler
- 16" 5 star blaster with run-flat
- bonnet stripes

I used to drive 93' Honda Accord EX-R 4-speed auto, 97' Volvo S70 T-5 4-speed auto, and 01' Nissan Prairie Highway Star CVT. After 23 days living with the 07' Mini Cooper, I really fall in love with it.

Love about my R56
-ASC+T: In Hong Kong, there are a lot of roundabouts and so many "S" shape mountain roads, but this little lady takes good care of all of them. I can drive into the roundabout at 60km/h without any hesitate.

-Sport suspension: This new suspension is not as hard as the suspension in R53. It has the just right balance between comfort and conering. Both driver and passenger will be please for that.

-Steering hand feel: It give me a very solid feeling about the condition of the road.

-Torque: 80% torque can be output at around 2000rpm, so that I can drive very relax and no need to push hard on it.

-Headroom: The headroom has been improved alot in R56 with comparing to R53. My family has no complain even I ask them to squeeze into the back seats.

-Aux jack: The original stereo set has a aux jack which is very useful. I can easily connect my Cowon A2 for watching movies and listening to MP3.

Disappointment about my R56
-interior light package: The idea of the interior light package is really cool, but it is too dim in Hong Kong because the street light is really bright here. It would be much better if it brighten up a little bit.

-6-speed manual transmission: May be I am not so familiar with driving a manual, I found that the travelling distance of the shift stick is too long. Since the gear ratio of each gear is so closed, I have to make shifting so often. With these long shifting distances, they really slow me down very much.

-multi-function 3-spoke steering wheel: It's very inconvenient that the controls buttons on the steering wheel can not switch amoung radio, CD, and aux.

When comparing it with my other cars, my comments are as follows.

93' Accord was my best buddy when I was in University. It was very reliable. Although it was not a fast car, but it took me for over 300,000 km over 7 years, and never gave me any attitude. I really appreciate it and I hope my R56 can take me for another 300,000 km in my life.

97' S70 was a fast family sedan. Turbo engine, sport tuned suspension with the rigid body, it gave me 100% confidence even running at 170km/h. With my cooper, the sport tuned suspension and the rigid body also give me fullly confidence to take any corners.

01' Nissan Prairie was a mini size 7-seater. It was not a very powerful mini-van, but it was was fair enough that the 2 liter engine with CVT didn't consume a lot of gas neither. So far the combined consumption of my R56 is about 7.5L/100km while the combined consumption of my Prairie consumption was 10L/100km. I was expecting the cooper consumes much less gas since this is a very compact car, but I guess I must change my driving habit first.

[Sowellman]

Nei ho ma, Kwan Sammy.

Thanks for your review. My wife, Donny, is from Hong Kong. I've dreamed of driving over there, but have stayed with the MTR and the buses.

[sammykwan]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sowellman (original)

Nei ho ma, Kwan Sammy.

Thanks for your review. My wife, Donny, is from Hong Kong. I've dreamed of driving over there, but have stayed with the MTR and the buses.

Next time when you and your wife visit Hong Kong, you two can rent a Mini over the weekend. But don't forget to get a GPS with you. The streets are quite complicated here.