Mini Cooper S

I just can't bring myself to buy a French car!

Also looking at a Fiat 500 and it's running cost. If I take out £1,000 finance to get a Fiat.

MINI vs. Yaris/500

60mpg vs. 25mpg in the mini. Equates to about £300 difference in petrol over 5,000 miles.
£240 vs. £30 in road tax
£1100 vs. £800 in insurance.

That's £800 cheaper per year favour of the 500.

Not the mention the fiat will be a 09 plate so still under warranty with no MOT and no repair bills.

I realise it's slower, the only down side really....
 
The Fiat 500 is very poor value for money, so is the Mini but at least it's been out long enough for you to find one in your price range.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I just can't bring myself to buy a French car!

Also looking at a Fiat 500 and it's running cost. If I take out £1,000 finance to get a Fiat.

MINI vs. Yaris/500

60mpg vs. 25mpg in the mini. Equates to about £300 difference in petrol over 5,000 miles.
£240 vs. £30 in road tax
£1100 vs. £800 in insurance.

That's £800 cheaper per year favour of the 500.

Not the mention the fiat will be a 09 plate so still under warranty with no MOT and no repair bills.

I realise it's slower, the only down side really....
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surely this is somewhat pointing out the obvious though?

of course a mcs will cost more to run, completely diff cars.
 
If you could stretch to £6500 you could get yourself 3-4 year old peugeot 207 gti which is the same engine and power as used in the cooper. It's not a bad looker either.
 
Fusion said:
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.
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Mine is running about 200BHP and I get 38mpg on the motorway (80mph cruise) and 23mpg on my daily commute (cold starts and barely get above 20mph). I don't think that's too bad considering the performance. It's not fair to say that the Mini gets bad mpg for a 1.6, you should be saying that it gets average mpg for 200BHP.

Fuel is the least of your worries though, there's many more ways that the Mini could empty your wallet.
 
Peerzy said:
1.2 Fiat 500 is a fine girls city car, it is no where near as 'fun' as a Mini Cooper S.

I've driven both and a newish Fiat 500 1.2 and a £5k Mini Cooper S are two totally different cars for 2 totally different needs.
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Yes I realise that. If I go the cooper s route then I won't keep it if I get a Z4. If I go the Fiat route then I might very well keep that as they are totally different cars.

The question really is whether I want to have fun in a car now or later.
 
Raymond Lin said:
The question really is whether I want to have fun in a car now or later.
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Ok so you've got your heart set on a Z4 at a later date & that seems to be the the constant in you threads at the moment.

So if you want something fun now why not look at a decent mk2 mx5 (hear me out), something like the 1.8is. It will help you get used to rwd, it's a convertible for the summer. It's Japanese and they're generally know as being very reliable. Also they're great fun and very rewarding to drive. Depreciation will be minimal as it's already taken most of the hit + they hold their value fairly well.

or if you want to delay your "fun" get your yaris that you originally wanted, again a decent reliable car that isn't going to stretch you finances and delay getting the Z4. It's sensible and will give you a chance to build up some more road experience before you get your Z4.

The savings you'd make in these cars over a mini would more than likely pay for your tax & mot's in the time you have them.

Just my thoughts, in reality it doesn't seem like you know what you want at the moment Raymond. Why not sit down and work out what you want from your car (if you've not done it already), be it enjoyment or purely a method of getting from A-B.
 
Aero's suggestion is spot on imo, MX5 seems perfect. It will give you a great taste of what its like to own a 2 seater sports car, give you loads of smiles and get you used to RWD. No matter how old you are, you don't want to be getting into a 3ltr z4 for your first car.

For a hatch back, although slightly biased, in my opinion you can't do better than a clio 182 for 5k. At the end of the day though, and i'll be the first to admit it, its still just a clio with a big engine in it. The mini is more refined, larger inside, better built, and generally a nicer place to be. Basically if you give a crap what people think, get the mini, if you don't, get the 182, they are crazy fun, and despite what people say about french cars, the generally consensus seems they are pretty damn reliable too.

I'm gonna pimp some 182 photos too :D

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