Tell me about Mini Coopers !

To the OP - £12k can get you into a Mini GP.

I have driven both the Mini GP and an R56 Cooper S. There is no comparison - the Mini GP is a little pocket rocket and has some serious urgency with an excellent super charger whine which is highly enjoyable.

Have a look at the review on EVO

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarreviews/200468/mini_cooper_s_works.html

Either way - you will end up with a very fun vehicle to drive.
 
S IS a must have, and personally i prefer the later of the supercharged ones.

Perfect spec is around MY54 IIRC as if you go for the Chilli pack you get LSD which is great in a car that already handles brilliantly. Ive been thinking of getting one for a while now to replace my Fiesta ST, just havent found one i like yet.
 
Except it is a completely different engine.

It is a 1.6 litre 4 cylinder turbo. The engine in the Mini is a 1.6 litre 4 cylinder turbo. They are obviously different 1.6 litre 4 cylinder turbos made by different people but the power delivery is not going to be night and day - it's the same concept at the end of the day, after all.

Just like the power delivery between an Audi 3.2 V6 and a Ford 3.0 V6 is, whilst subtly different, hardly like comparing a VTEC with a Supercharged V8.

I can appreciate why you might have found the 207 GTi boring. It is, after all, not a good car. But to assume that the Mini Cooper S, which absolutely is a good car, would be the same just because you've driven something with the same engine is just plain stupid. Would you turn down a 130i because you drove an X5 3.0i and found it dull?

Essentially then when you were claiming that for the money the Corsa VXR was the best car around, you were doing so without having bothered to drive at least one of its most credible rivals. I'd love to say I'm suprised you'd do that, but I'm just not.
 
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You're doing that thing you do again. You ignore the important information being given to you in a discussion and just pick at the rest of it as if the aforementioned information didn't exist. But just to be thorough, the Mini didn't appeal to me before the 207 stuff, the 207 merely added an extra lock to a box that was already sealed.

As for engines, are you really serious? I can make changes to how the engine in the ST is which provides night and day results and that is just the engine map, imagine what would happen with different hardware as well. The Corsa VXR and the PSA 1.6T engines are completely different - the capacity and the fact they are turbocharged are the only things they have in common.

That's like saying the 2.0 in a Clio 182 cannot be night and day different to the 2.0 Duratec from a Mondeo of the same era.
 
LOL

Will you 2 give it up

Robbie G has stepped down from the plate after everybody pointed out how argumentative he was being.

But instead MikeHiow has stepped up to the plate. Its the Fox & MikeHiow show now. Hardly a single large thread goes by without you two having an argument ! and neither of you is willing to conceeed instead trying to proove who is right & wrong and who has the biggest e-peen.

And Fox, you're just as bad, its more often than not your fault for having a go at him at every opportunity ! In this case it was this post that started it all off

[TW]Fox;17582484 said:
Merc S Class.

You must know all about the Mini as you claimed at one point the Corsa VXR was the best car for the money, this wouldnt be a statement you could make without knowing about the Mini, given its position in the market..

Honestly give it a rest ! You dont like him, we get it. Now leave it out.

You're doing that thing you do again.

You can nip that straight in the bud by just not replying to him.
 
Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. And from somebody with the perceived level of knowledge of MikeHiow, asking what cars the Mini Cooper S competes with is a stupid question.
 
That's like saying the 2.0 in a Clio 182 cannot be night and day different to the 2.0 Duratec from a Mondeo of the same era.

They are both different types of engine given that the 182 a VVTI style system yet the Duratec is a conventional normally aspirated petrol engine.

I have driven both the Corsa VXR and the Mini and didn't notice an overwhelming difference in the way each delivered its power.
 
Can't help it can you :/

Neither can you, given on every occasion you are jumping up and down on the sidelines with a whistle like you are some sort of FA Cup referee. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Frankly I think an argument about hot hatch power delivery and whether somebodies opinions on hot hatches are correct are not is far more relevent and useful to this thread than the other main set of comments - insults about hairdressers and being gay.
 
I've observed this is what he does when he is proven wrong or given an argument that he cannot respond to. I guess I'll give it a go :)

If you stopped replying when you were wrong you'd never post here again so that might not be a good way forward :D

Just admit that you've actually got no idea whether the Corsa was the best car for the money as you didnt bother to check the competition out and we can draw a line under that one for ever ;)
 
I drove all of the competition bar the Mini, but then I didn't like the aesthetics, the rear seats were useless and the boot even more so. Plus the internet says it is no longer particularly fun.

Good job I was asking about the old model though.
 
I see. So the Mini was considered, but then dismissed for logical reasons. How odd then that you would need to ask us what the Mini's competition was, when you already knew, as you'd driven them all and dismissed the Mini :confused:

The reason why I've taken issue with the comment in this thread is because its pretty much exactly like me coming out with 'What is the Jaguar XF's competition'? in a thread. People would understandably be completely confused as to why I'd ask a question which, based on previous posts, you'd very much assume I knew the answer to...
 
I used to own a Mini Cooper, if you can get past the torrent of abuse they are awesome cars.

I nearly bought a Cooper S works last year but ended up with a Golf GTI mk5 for the same money and although the Cooper S is pretty awesome, the Golf is the better car in my opinion!
 
Well, picked it up and drove it back from Northampton. Not had a lot of time to play with it but some initial very first impressions..

It feels very solid actually, nice quality feel, no squeaks or rattles, interior is a nice place to be. The sat nav does raise the overall feel of it I think, that big oversized dial would be hard to live with just as a speedo possibly.

Very planted, steering is really direct, changes direction at a twitch and very flat round the corners

Ride on the run flats not as bad as I thought but then again I am comparing it to the MG, you can feel the humps and bumps but not in a bad, jarring, crashy way.

Feels a bigger car than it is I think, certainly not like a go kart, very similar in feel to my focus ST really. Power delivery - smooth and refined, can't say it blew my socks off with how fast it felt until I pressed the sport button which did sharpen everything up and reminded me of the difference the dreamscience map made to the ST.

Controls are a bit of a nightmare tbh, navigating through the menus on both the sat nav and the computer is not very intuitive. The sat nav display is a bit old school but effective enough and the TMC kept me out of trouble a couple of times on the way home. Indicators seem to be bit of a nightmare, cancelling themselves sometimes and not others. Auto wipers didn't seem to be working for some reason but the Cruise control was cool, haven't had that on a car for a while. Gonna sit down tonight and break a habit of a lifetime and read the manual, needs to be done.

On the plus side fantastic service from Dove House Cars, they have some lovely motors in there too, I know where I will start my search for a Cayman when that day arrives. They replaced the rear discs and pads and 2 new tyres at their cost after completing their presale checks. Full tank of petrol and a free Golf umbrella too ;)

On the minus I spotted a couple of parking dings that I missed when I first saw it that need sorting and unfortunately it doesn't have the bluetooth/USB option which looks like it's a very expensive dealer retrofit so am stuck with Aux in for the ipod at the moment.

So all taken in consideration I'm very happy with it so far, really looking forward to getting to know it better and just a few choice upgrades and mods to come, ;) Honest.

Pete
 
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