i'm thinking about purchasing a mini... actually the clubman whenever it comes out in the states... i was curious about comfort on long road trips. i travel quite often back and forth to school and just want to see what current owners have to say about it.

 

I have had my Mini for 14 months and have driven it 20,000 miles. I have made several trips in excess of 1000 miles, and have driven 500 miles a day in my Mini several times; so I would assume that I qualify to comment on long distance trips.

Overall, I love it. To be more specific; the car is easy to drive, the suspension is excellent, it handles and corners like no other car I have ever had, the power is adequate for all reasonable driving situations (even in my standard Mini), the seat comfort is excellent (could use a bit more adjustability)... leg, arm and head room is surprisingly adequate, road noise is minimal, radio quality is excellent, visibility is good, heating and cooling system is a little weird to get used to setting, but works quite well, the controls and instrumentation are odd but easy to use once you get used to them, gas milage is excellent, handling on the ice and snow is OK (not as good as my wife's Honda CRV), the brakes are pretty good, and the reliability has been flawless to date. All in all, I really look forward to long road trips in this car. It is a blast to drive. It feels like a comfortable sports car with lots of little nice-ities.

Be prepared to recieve a lot of attention. You will frequently have strangers approach you to ask questions about the car, and to tell you they would just love to have one. (One day a lady, a total stranger, approached me in a shopping center saying she loved the car and wanted to get one for her daughter. After we talked a while, I ended up offering to let her take it for a short spin! She was thrilled to death by the offer). Also be prepared to wave at other Mini drivers that wave at you.

Some of the downsides; the car is hard to work on yourself. You are forced to take it to a dealer more than I would like. Things like tire sizes and oil filters are wierd and not commonly available everywhere. The cup holder is a real piece of $*#&. The rear seat is only good for small kids (supposidly changed in the clubman), the luggage room is marginal. The doors lock themselves an irritating amount (The dealer will fix that for free). Also, beware of denting the hood (excuse me, bonnet) if you try to push down on it to finish closing it. The lack of ground clearance is something to keep in mind. Be carefull taking it through some types of car washes because of the lack of ground clearance. Sometimes a stop light is hard to see without leaning uncomfortably forward while stopped at a stop light. The windshield isn't quite tall enough. The glove box is too small and always seems to get stuff stuck in the hinge area.

While it doesn't affect drivability; the car holds it's value incredibly well. That makes updating it every few years a far less costly consideration.

All in all, I can't think of many cars I would rather drive.

 

I've done a couple 3,000 mile trips with up to 1700 miles in a day in a very stiff MINI and have 0 complaints.

 

Everything cougsfan is spot on! everything!!!!!!!

 

Well, there's a couple things...

- If you're a mechanical minded person it's not bad to work on.
- Tire size isn't a problem, you can go 10mm wider or narrower stock.
- The dealer won't reprogram your locks for free unless you just bought the car from them.
- Take out the worthless back seats and you'll have enough luggage room to move in.
- If you have an R53 (supercharged Cooper S) your gas mileage won't be excellent.
- Don't put your MINI through a car wash, it deserves a microfiber cloth and lots of petting and soap.[8D]

Other than those, he's pretty spot on.

 

OK......OK.......

 

Amg,
We are obviously in slightly different paradyms, which is great. Diversity makes the world the wonderful place it is.
My car is basically a commuter car to me, while your car seems to be item to passion to you (sort of like my motorcycle is to me). I will clean and pamper my bike.. but my Mini is going through a car wash. Even at that, I still do love my little commuter car though. But I use it primarily to get from point A to B; Not as an object that I care to spend my Saturday afternoons cleaning though. (I can easily understand and appreciate how someone could enjoy spending their time doing that)
You very well could be right about working on it being easy. I fortunately never had to work on mine, but it sure looks intimidating how that engine is crammed in there. That is quite probably my inaccurate first impression that it is mechanically difficult to access things. I actually hope I never have an opportunity to find out how easy it is to work on. However, it seems like a lot of things (such as the door locks) are controlled by an inaccessable (to the average Joe) computer than they are on most cars.
You are right that optional tire sizes can be safely used. I will be finding that out soon as it looks like the stock Conti tires will probably only last 25k miles or so.
I actually do carry kids in the back seat frequently, So the back seats need to stay. They do fold down to give semi adequate storage space. But gotta leave the kids home.
I'd love to have the additional power from the supercharger, but gas milage is far more important to me.
Because of our different attitudes towards our Mini's, I think we can both be right.

 

Yeah no doubt. I was just giving the other side of the story.

And you're right, stuff is generally hard to get to in the engine bay but it just takes a little extra time. It's more fun that way.

 

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