Thanks Mark. Yeah it was a great car. I had the Apexi Intake, Aspec cat-back exhaust, Blitz throttle controller, DC5 sidemarkers, Tanabe strut bars, sway bars, Spoon suspension, Mugen short shifter and all sorts of fun bits and pieces. Excuse me for my JDM-ness. LOL.

This is kind of off topic but I can almost guarantee that once I get the Mini, I will catch the mod bug and will want to start spending money on it. What are some reputable performance brands when it comes to European vehicles? I've lived in the JDM world for way too long. Although a set of BBS mesh wheels is for certain. :)

Hi guys! So I picked up a 2008 Cooper S, 6MT yesterday and I'm loving it! The whistle of the turbo sounds awesome. This is my first time owning a car with factory boost =].

My first impression of the car is that it feels very solid. You can really feel the build quality, especially by the weight of the doors, especially coming from a history of Japanese cars.

The steering feels a bit more stiff compared to my Honda but I'm not sure if that's due to increased responsiveness. The Cooper handles quite well but I haven't had a chance to do any "spirited" driving yet so I can't compare the Cooper S' stock suspension to the modified suspension in my Honda.

Also, the reason that I haven't done any "Spirited" driving yet is because the height of the brake pedal and accelerator feel a bit awkward. The brake pedal is higher(or sticks up more) than the accelerator(which is closer down to the floor). This makes it hard to heel-toe. In my Honda, the accelerator and brake were at the same height, making it easy to heel-toe. Is this just my Cooper?

The only issue that I have, and maybe someone can chime in about it whether it is an actual issue, or just the way the Cooper is built, but to me the shifting/gear box feels quite sloppy and soft. The shifting on the Honda felt very solid and crisp with little to no wiggle of the shifter while it was in gear. On the Cooper, the shifting feels very soft and the shifter is able to wiggle and has some give to it when its in gear. Due to this, I'm not always sure if the shifter is completely in gear or if it needs to be pushed in further. Maybe this is due to the much longer shifter? My Honda had a short shifter. Maybe the longer shifter in the Mini has some flex and give, resulting in this? Does anyone else feel this way?

Picked up an 06 s coupe saturday. Pretty impressed over all. Handles like a go kart. Very quick for what it is.(i'm an old muscle car guy). It is the only one that i have seen with tach & speedo centered in front of steering wheel. Why? Any body have experiance in snow? I am going to avoid it, but a live in upstate ny. Looking for extra rims w/snows. Are there tpms sensors in my rims? Thanks for your input.

Glad you're enjoying the car Hangman! I am as well! The 08 has the tach in the middle and you can choose for the digital speedo to show in that little screen in the tach. Is that what you meant?

It has the tach & speedo in front of the steering wheel. Centered in the dash is the fuel ,water temp,oil pressure, oil temp.

Tough to compare most manual boxes out there to Honda's box....they make great shifting transmissions as you know. Could be the rubber surrounding the spherical ends of the shift cables where they attach to the trans, they tend to wear and cause a sloppy feeling when shifting:

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com...bles-79176.jpg

You can read further about it here. But again, tough to compare the trans you have now and the Fit trans - they're very different.

But I'm sure you'll have just as much fun driving the MINI!

Mark/Pelican Parts

Congrats Hangman!