Well after selling my beloved EVO and getting into a pick up, gas it just starting to add up quickly. Much worse then I thought it would, big mistake on my part.

I was looking at a 2005 Mini Cooper S for gas mileage. Is it a FAST sports car, HELL NO! Does it handle good yes, does it brake good yes. I was wondering if anyone has one on these forums as a daily driver and could give me some feedback on them.

The interior space is alot more then it looks on the outside. I am also concerned with a baby seat and carrying a stroler.

Thanks for the help EVOM!

 

Baby seat and stroller should fit fine, especially if you don't have a passenger in the other seat (since you could fold it down). I can fit a baby seat and a stroller (if it folds/collapses) in my car, and last I checked the mini had a bigger back seat and trunk.

It isn't as fast as the Evo, but it certainly isn't a slow sports car either... I almost picked up an '08 (one of the turbo'd ones), it had so much power it would spin the tires in first and second gear. I drove about 3 different older year Ses, one with the full John Cooper Works package, it was very nice, and plenty quick. All 3 of them were pretty nice, probably mostly because they were decently quick, handled well, and felt completely different than the Evo.

 

I was worried about having the other seat folded down and a baby next to it. I don't think a stroller would fit unless the back seat is folded down.

 

i have a friend with a mini s and he has had some odd reliability problems. search the web and you'll see alot of people complaining. why not an '06 or '07 wrx wagon instead? maybe not as nice looking, but with an access port you can run the fuel economy map when you're doing alot of driving and switch to the performance map when you want to go fast. plus, everything will fit in the back with ease without folding any of the seats. you can probably find one for the same $ as the minis you're looking at without much searching.

 

Contact Edwin or evofunk on this forum. They both have/had cooper S moded. Without opening my car magazine collection and going by memory they change a couple of things on the 05 making it performance worthy.

The supercharger was changed(same as the one on the John cooper) and the gearing was revised.

From reading at mini2 and miniforums people claim and swear that the two changes alone feels like 40hp increase. Road test proves that shortening the gearing plus the newer supercharger made the Mini quicker.

If you pitch in a bit more money then you can get the turbo engine which was designed and build in conjuction with Peugeot. It is semi forged internally and they can take a good amount of boost.

Carlos

 

look into the mini clubman if you have kids and whatnot. its small but big at the same time

 

When Im buying it..




3 months later..




I bought this for my sis. she loves it very much at 1st, but I guess not now, coz got bord of it wanna M3 now well..whatever!
I drive it sometime to Mt some time it keep up very well with Evos and STis intwon.
Heandle very well~
Pickup speed pretty good!
Stock brake not very well~
I own it for over a year now, I love it so far!
I think its good buy, just my sis want a different car now~

 

^^Edwin , your car was a lot of fun!! Thanks for letting me drive it that day. It looks very nice in person.

Carlos

 

I had an 06 Cooper S & I loved it. They are a lot of fun to drive. I needed something with 4 doors so I traded it in on the EVO. They dont get more than 240WHP (SC pulley, exhaust, intake, head, tune) without twincharging them, but the 176 I had to the wheels on mine was lots of fun. The one thing I miss is the SC whine with the pulley upgrade & intake. It sounded so good. As far as baby stuff, just take it with you to test fit before purchase.

 

I actually had the chance to drive a 175whp(dynojet) from Evofunk with the same mods and it was fun however here at the Tucson International raceway(3100ft) the car wouldn't trap over 91mph.

Yes, they are a blast to drive specially with a set of KW V3

Carlos