petew

What do people think of these?

I am thinking of getting one mainly for the Wife as a second car, well she think's thats the reason.

Any experience good or bad.....

thanks

Petew

Boost II

iTrader: (1)

If you've not found it mini2 is their Scoobynet type thing, includes a Cooper S forum amongst many others. I am hoping to take delivery of a new Cooper (not S) tomorrow. Cooper S is a cracker but if your wife is not into sporty cars she may not appreciate things like the very stiff sports suspension or the whining noise of the super charger. Boot and rear space is v. small - depends what you want the car for. Is as good fun to drive as it is to look at. Earlier models had some build quality issues - mostly OK now it seems.

petew

Boost II,

thanks for your comments.

i have indeed found mini2, and i have read some of the reports on there but i wanted an unbiased opinion.

Wife has had the pleasurable experience of 2 subaru impreza's over the last 4 years, last one was a Terzo... Very nice but as happens, our daughter arrived a year or so ago and the Terzo was replaced with a Passat TDI 130 Sport. Again nice car but no real thrills or fun to drive, so i thought get her something she likes, the MCS and i can have a bit of fun when she doesnt need the car.. I think its a case of regaining my youth and having some driving fun again!!

cheers

Petew

EvoBarry

Theres two chaps on the evo forum have CooperS' also. Might be worth a post over there?

MN and NicDale. They seem more than happy with theirs, MNs car is quite modded now, putting out more than 200bhp with the Hartge kit fitted.

ProperCharlie

Petew - Can't comment on the Cooper S but I bought a normal cooper for the wife about 18 months ago (before they became common as dog sh*te ). She loves it but I think it's pretty poor. The build quality is way below what I would expect (makes the subaru look not too bad ), reliability has been very poor - got yet another fault on it at the moment. The engine is dull and not very quick and you have to drive like a lunatic to really get much of a kick out of the handling. I am thinking of getting rid of it in the not too distant future.

Oh yeah, and the upgraded stereo (£500) is sh*te as well, and the service at the dealer hacked me off so much that I wrote two letters of complaint within the first few months of ownership. And the steering pump makes a bloody racket.

Sorry if that's a bit *too* unbiased for you.

Charlie

CooperS

I'm slightly biased, but I love mine and would buy it again.

Andy

petew

propercharlie,
it sounds like you had one of the early ones with the build problems i have read about.

i dont mind hearing good ie (coopers) and the bad (propercharlies) its like all things they are personal experiences.

i have had a test drive of the cooper and have made enquiries about an 's' which is two months old on the mini cherished website so maybe td at the weekend with her indoors is required..

thanks guys

petew

Rich B

I had a Cooper S for a while straight after my STI - Loved it.

Obviously nothing like as quick, but quick enough if you rev it and use the gears. But it did have better more accesible handling round slow-medium corners. You can really chuck em round roundabouts. NO understeer, nice bit of lift off oversteer.

Build quality was good, nice leather trim, ecomony quite bad (27mpg) unless your on a decent run (35mpg), boot space bad. General feeling it gives - fookin excellent.

Everybody waves at you and girls luv em, just incase your out in it without the misses....

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

I bought the wife one to keep her out of PTMW! in Sept 01 (so one of the first)

33K miles later, still going strong. OE set of tyres too but they need changing shortly.

Problems, well we had the Boost CD draining battery prob & the ECU prob, its had the fuel-guage repaired (low reading) and and and?

Well that's it

I agree about the steering pump. I find the handling quite entertaining, although not as good as scoob of course - no handling kit u/grades btw. Boot space is non-existant but the car can actually hold quite a bit if you're careful. Seat mechanism can drive you to distraction if you press the wrong lever. OK for a small person (2 yrs old til 4 so far) but not as easy to get in as a 4 dr.

Can't comment on the "S" obviously but the above might help a bit...

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Oh & the fecking washerbottle is a right pita - lasts absolutely no time whatsoever

mnangrybeats

I have a reasonably modified Cooper S

www.angrybeats.co.uk

With some H&R springs & uprated Anti-Roll bar, grippier tyres the handling is fantastic, understeer is all but gone and LOO is quite easy to achive and control albiet at a reasonable speed..

Its a real point and squirt car now and the speeds and speed it can change direction is amazing, a great fun car if not amazingly quick in a straight line...

I'm faster down a timed B road in my Cooper S then I ever was in my Cerbera, inspires confidence in it's ability.

The early cars had quite a few problems, seat mechanism being one of the major ones..

The Cooper S brakes are pretty poor as standard, Mintex 1144's sor them out.

Mine has been fine

This isnt to shabby though is it 0-120mph vid www.bookatrack.com/-PF?angrybeats&1713&13661&video/x-ms-wmv

Got 20 more hp also now..

petew

Thanks Guys,

we bought and took delivery of a 2003 MCS full leather, chilli pack sun roof etc yesterday....

did 250 miles bringing it home and it was great fun except i cant rev it over 3500 rpm yet!

lots of looks seems to be built better than most of the cars i have had in the past but there is plenty of time for the squeaks and rattles to start i guess.

thanks

petew

towzer

I got to drive my wifes Cooper S for the first time yesterday and it was very pleasant. It's only done about 700 miles and it's her new car so I haven't really cained it yet.

Pro's - great build quality, handles very nicely (but not like the Scoob), pulls very well at low revs and it feels more torquey than it actually is

Con's - it's quite expensive for what you get, the windscreen seems to attract more bugs than any other car I've ever driven, we went for white wheels and after three days they are a nightmare to keep clean

Overall we are delighted with it and would buy another one.

Phil

Ps - apparently mini drivers wave at aeach other as well!!!!

chockymonster

towzer,

bit of advise on painted wheels, polish them!
A nice coat of wax or polish makes them so much easier to clean

towzer

Ah ha... much appreciated tip for keeping the wheels clean. I assume somthing like turtle wax is sufficient.

Phil

workshy_fopp

Proper charlie - I'm surprised you don't like the handling (my Mrs has one of the first Coopers) it has many faults as you say, rough engine, underpowered etc, but they DO handle. It's very much like a sorted classic mini, where the only limit is the tyres.

ProperCharlie

workshy - i wasn't saying it doesn't handle. What I meant is cos of the rather soft suspension set up, if you explore the limits of the handling (or anywhere near)your passenger is likely to end up sitting in your lap due to the angle of lean that the car develops. It grips and turns in very well though. I'm sure a firmer set up would sort this out and make the car a bit more driftable; I just thought the amount of roll was rather extravagant as standard...

[Edited by ProperCharlie - 7/26/2003 2:41:49 PM]

ProperCharlie

Just back from a 200 mile round trip in the Cooper and I have to say I've re-assessed it a bit (haven't driven it properly for nearly a year, but my car's in the paint shop )

On empty B roads it was a real gas to drive. It inspires so much confidence - basically you can chuck anything at it and come out the other side smiling. The brakes have a lot more feel than the ones on my STi7, and the gear shift is longer but actually quicker and slicker.

A Cooper S is now back on my shopping list.

So I would now list the pros and cons as:

Pros
Reasonable ride
Can be quick if you absolutely nail it
Communicative brakes and steering
You'd have to be suicidal to really lose it
Make sure you turn off the ASC

Cons
Sh*te stereo
Cheap interior
Engine sounds like a hairdyer
No real urge at the top end

M3 Evo

Sold our S only last week. Fantastic little car and a rear hoot to drive. It was the wifey's car so cant really comment on day to day stuck in traffic driving etc but it never failed to put a smile on my face. Miss it already. The only downside was the crappy BMW dealers!

ProperCharlie

M3 - Don't know how I managed to forget to put the dealership under the CONS list. Never met a more arrogant or unhelpful bunch of tossers in my life. Although I have got one thing to thank them for: if they hadn't been such a complete load of ****holes than I would have bought a BM instead of the scoob .

Ah well, I did get a tiny bit of enjoyment from watching the salewoman's face as i handed back the customer "satisfaction" form

M3 Evo

Lol! Yeah they **** me off sometimes! They've rang three times already trying to get us into a Z4 - perhaps when the M roadster reappears ill be interested.

Whilst i was there offloading the mini i put in an order for the next M5 but to be honest i nearly walked away as the salesman couldnt have been less interested. Supposed he's only arsed about selling cars today instead of bagging one in 18months time worth 70K

Anyway, gone off topic!

petew

guys,

done another couple a hundred miles this weekend in the new machine and its a great little drive.

the engine and supercharger note is addictive and you have to keep pressing the pedal a little harder each time.

i am very pleased i have to say..

its also amazing how many people look at the car. it might be because theres a fella driving a girly car but quite honestly i couldnt give a rats ***. i was just driving around smirking to myself all day. its great.

thanks for all the comments. ive made my own mind up now!

petew

PaulMc

I'm going from a P1 to a MCS with the Hartge pack. Just waiting for conformation of he Mini MY04 and an order will be placed.