Mini Cooper S

Aero · 20 May 2011 at 13:52

TomO said:
My 2p on your situation:

Buy the Yaris for your first car. Its may not set the world on fire, but it is a decent, reliable car and you are not stretching yourself to buy it and run it. As and when you get more experience as a driver you will no doubt get bored of it, but by that point you will (hopefully) have a much clearer idea of what care you want as its replacement. Rather than picking something now that may be a bag of nails or you may decide is unnecessary, too expensive to run, too fast, too slow, too big, too small etc..

Double that to make it up to 4p. Sound advice.

CrispyWombat · 20 May 2011 at 15:00

Terrible, overpriced junk.

Highest average mpg we ever saw was 31mpg which was a good mix of motorway and urban. Tax is expensive as has already been said.

Worst of all I wouldn't really rate them as a quick car, nor do they inspire a massive amount of confidence in the corners either.

The early cars had massive problems/recalls, by about 2004 they had ironed out a lot of the quirks, my girlfriend ran a 2003 Cooper from 50k to 100k miles and a 2004 Mini Cooper S from 29k to 40k.

I replaced the engine bay wiring loom, throttle body, radiator on the Cooper and an engine mount on the Cooper S, not really your usual service parts but not too bad/expensive for 60k of motoring.

I would strongly advise against the Cooper S, my girlfriend loved hers, but found it increasingly harder to justify the running costs over her old Cooper.

Hopefully my ramblings are of some use.

West · 20 May 2011 at 15:10

Raymond Lin said:
How much is a new Clutch on a Mini Cooper S cost?

Circa £400-£500

And you will not insure one for any less than £1,800. My first year on mine at 19 was that much.

West · 20 May 2011 at 15:11

eatcustard said:
Power steering pump fail at high miles (and some at low miles)

Only on earlier models

Aero · 20 May 2011 at 15:18

West said:
Circa £400-£500

And you will not insure one for any less than £1,800. My first year on mine at 19 was that much.

I think he's a little bit older than you were

Disco Boy · 20 May 2011 at 15:18

Fusion said:
Don't forget that tax is £260/year, they aren't great on fuel and run flat tyres aren't cheap either.

And they lack practicality, whine like a strangled cat and the interior is made by Fisher Price.

Batf1nk · 20 May 2011 at 15:19

West said:
And you will not insure one for any less than £1,800. My first year on mine at 19 was that much.

He's been quoted £1100 for a cooper s.

Relentless81 · 20 May 2011 at 15:23

I expected these to be a fair bit quicker, are they 170BHP standard? I've had a couple of run ins with them now and left them behind fairly easily which I was surprised at really

Raymond Lin · 20 May 2011 at 15:23

West said:
Circa £400-£500

And you will not insure one for any less than £1,800. My first year on mine at 19 was that much.

Funny, I can insure on the Z4 for less

I'd happy to pay £1800 to insure a car, if I get to be 19 again.

West · 20 May 2011 at 15:29

alx said:
RFT are expensive, something like £150 each!! But you can change to normal tyres can't you?

Also is there fuel consumption that bad for a car that can do 0-60 in 7.2-7.4 secs? Don't forget Raymond would only be doing ~5K miles a year so a few mpg here and won't make a massive difference.

Also what are the running/servicing costs like? I imagine a little on the expensive side considering they are basically a small BMW.

RFs can be removed though

Servicing can be pre paid at MINI for like £300 for and Inspection, Oil and Brake Service with all parts and labour inc.

Relentless81 said:
I expected these to be a fair bit quicker, are they 170BHP standard? I've had a couple of run ins with them now and left them behind fairly easily which I was surprised at really

The Facelift is ~170bhp, the first version was only 163bhp, the newer Turbo versions are around the 175bhp mark, i've known some people getting a fair whack more out of them

Raymond Lin said:
Funny, I can insure on the Z4 for less

I'd happy to pay £1800 to insure a car, if I get to be 19 again.

Well i'm nearlly 23 now and still paying £800

Good luck though, I still wouldn't have one as a first car as they can be expensive as others have said, but people say that about most cars now days. Mines on 83k and still only just needing it's clutch changing

Barks · 20 May 2011 at 16:04

The 'real world' MPG of the R53 Cooper S is horrendous for what it is.

The R56 is in a completely different league in this respect. I wonder how much you can get a decent one for now? They're fun to drive without the associated running costs of something far superior.

West · 20 May 2011 at 16:16

scott212 said:
The 'real world' MPG of the R53 Cooper S is horrendous for what it is.

The R56 is in a completely different league in this respect. I wonder how much you can get a decent one for now? They're fun to drive without the associated running costs of something far superior.

Early R56's can be had for sub 9k now.

And tbh, I think the R56 is far less a 'driving' car than the 53.. I like the R56 Tubs but something has been lost through that facelift.

Raymond Lin · 20 May 2011 at 16:19

That is my impression too, for a 1.6L engine, it's MPG is REALLY bad. From what i read online, the z4 i was looking at can manage better MPG and that has a 3.0L engine in it!

West · 20 May 2011 at 16:21

Raymond Lin said:
That is my impression too, for a 1.6L engine, it's MPG is REALLY bad. From what i read online, the z4 i was looking at can manage better MPG and that has a 3.0L engine in it!

You have to appriciate that theres a Supercharger in there on the R53..

Barks · 20 May 2011 at 16:23

West said:
Early R56's can be had for sub 9k now.

And tbh, I think the R56 is far less a 'driving' car than the 53.. I like the R56 Tubs but something has been lost through that facelift.

My housemate last year had an R53 Cooper S running at - he claims - 230bhp. It certainly had character, felt 'raw' if that makes sense. It was a little bit crazy.

An R56 by comparison is refined so I understand your point about something being lost in translation.

I personally wouldn't be willing to incur all the running costs associated with the R53, given what it is. I'm not by any means saying it's a bad car though.

nas · 20 May 2011 at 16:25

Raymond Lin said:
That is my impression too, for a 1.6L engine, it's MPG is REALLY bad. From what i read online, the z4 i was looking at can manage better MPG and that has a 3.0L engine in it!

its charged though

Fusion · 20 May 2011 at 16:28

scott212 said:
The 'real world' MPG of the R53 Cooper S is horrendous for what it is.

Aye. The real world figure is a fair bit lower than the book figures. My mate had a Cooper S Works (210bhp) which on paper had a similar fuel consumption figure to the standard S, in reality it liked to drink. I remember on a long mostly motorway drive to the Lake District from Nottinghamshire it got 33.6mpg and it wasn't being caned. Probably at 75mph for a lot of it.

Cold start, short journies would be much worse- you could quite easily get well below 20mpg if you used the performance (less than 15 if you really booted it), which for a 1.6L hatchback is terrible. The turbo engine is much, much better on fuel and emissions, but is obviously more expensive to buy.

Gustov · 20 May 2011 at 16:32

Hey Raymond,

I always wanted a Cooper S but went for a clio 182 in the end.

I got mine for £3,300 - It was £1,400 to insure (21, 0 NCB)

Still loving it! Be warned though, you're likely to change the exhaust, wheels and lower the car to an extent

Can get 40MPG on the motorway using cruise control at 75mph

If you need any convincing with regards to the car's looks, scarysquirrels looks about 50x better than mine.

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Barks · 20 May 2011 at 16:47

Agree with Gustov that is where my money would go.

Relentless81 · 20 May 2011 at 16:49

Love the plate font on that, what is it and how are they held on? Very clean looking