Doesn’t time fly! Some of you might remember this thread, about the hunt for a quick replacement for a SEAT Ibiza that was written off after just 10 weeks.
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=25783
It’s now just over a year since the replacement was delivered, so I thought I’d jot down my thoughts so far. Initially the replacement ordered was a MINI Cooper 3 door auto, which with a few options and after discount was £23kish. The order was then tweaked, and what was delivered at the beginning of August last year was a MINI Cooper S Clubman with a 7 speed DSG ‘box.
First things first, these are not particularly cheap cars, or rather, they can be but by the time you’ve plundered the options list they’re not... List price of a Cooper S Clubman was a not unreasonable £23,000. Colour and interior trim options added around £2k to that. The CHILI pack was £3,300, the DSG ‘box £1,800 and the Navigation plus pack £1,300. Over £31k now. Throw in a sunroof, adaptive dampers and a few other bits and pieces and the list price ended up at a frankly ludicrous £33,560. A decent discount / deposit contribution brought it down to a fraction over £29k, but even so it was more expensive than I initially planned. But, you know what, it feels as if it’s worth every penny. A combination of design, quality of materials, build and finish means it feels like a quality piece of kit. I don’t regret spending the money, though I imagine some of it was residual value suicide...
There’s only one option that I regret specifying, and that’s the £100 option of black instead of silver wheels. I chose them as the car’s melting silver (silvery beige colour) with a black roof / mirrors and privacy glass at the back. But, shortly after delivery I swapped the wheels for a set of 19” John Cooper Works style 526 silver/black wheels that look far better! It’s also had a set of sports stripes fitted to the bonnet and boot, again in black.
To drive it feels like a MINI; small, chunky, go-kart like. 19” wheels, run flat tyres and dampers in ‘sport’ does the ride no favours, but configure ‘sport’ as drivetrain only and leave dampers in comfort and it’s fine. You have to have drivetrain in ‘sport’ or it’s far too reluctant to change down. Large potholes can still send a bang through the car though even when the dampers are in comfort. With hindsight, standard (non adaptive) dampers and 18” wheels with non run flat tyres and an optional space saver spare might be the optimum set-up. That’d have saved a bit of money.
It’s got 187 bhp and apparently gets to 60 in 7.2 seconds, so it feels brisk rather than quick. It must have the aerodynamics of a brick as the top speed is listed at just 140 mph though. I haven’t got anywhere near that. Damp roads, 19” wheels, run flat tyres and a ‘T’ junction can lead to the most almighty torque steer mind you. Wind noise is well suppressed, despite the upright windscreen. It’s pretty economical, and will easily average high 40s to the gallon. It never dips below 35mpg, though the tank is rather small.
The interior is light and airy - the sunroof is huge and has a moveable glass panel over the front and a fixed glass panel over the rear. Ours has got a light leather interior, which looks as good as it did when delivered, and black carpets / door trims. No rattles, as you’d expect for such a low mileage car. Comfortable seats, though they suffer from a BMW style adjustments in some but not all directions. Standard lumbar support though, unlike the BMW. Plenty of room for rear seat passenger, and the boots a decent size. This’ll be tested in anger in a couple of weeks as it’ll be four up on a long weekend to Épernay...
Irritatingly the media system, while very similar to the Professional nav in my BMW is not quite the same. Yes, it’s the later touch screen (which I never use) version, but as an example of the irritation if you want to skip forward tracks on Spotify using the steering wheel controls, in the BMW you scroll up, and in the MINI down. Minor, but major at the same time! Likewise the BMW will show me the weather widget in the smaller part of the split screen. The MINI won’t.
In summary, very pleased with the car. Most of the time a 3 door would have been fine, but the rear has been used enough times that I’m pleased we went for the larger one. And I do like the way the Clubman looks, compared to the 5 door MINI. It’s larger too, Golf sized rather than super mini, but doesn’t really look it. Melting silver is a nice colour, reminiscent of the cubanite silver of one of my favourite cars, the S211 E class. I really wanted to order the MINI with the rather nice blue leather interior that’s available, but don’t like any of the colours it might go with outside. So, sadly, if ordering again I’d order the same. Except I can’t, because MINI has simplified its range and now offers Sport or Exclusive as trim levels for the Cooper S. But, there is a Cooper S Clubman JCW with 306 bhp, four wheel drive and an 8 speed auto now...
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MINI - MINI Cooper S Clubman. new
MINI - MINI Cooper S Clubman new