Maybe he was just having Festivus with his car...

 

The HI FI stereo sucks eggs!

Other than that, I'm loving it, still.

 

It sure sounds like Festivus. So far:

-We have seen the "Airing of Grievances" against his MINI,

-"Feats of Strength" has been his ability to withstand the withering criticism of his post by the MINIites here.

Now, he should bring his MINI in for service and they will repair or correct all of his problems. THAT WOULD BE A REAL FESTIVUS MIRACLE, wouldn't it!?

 

+1

Agreed, some folks here sound like a walking, talking commercial for MINI. I have two MINIs that I love but I can surely agree that they aren't perfect and I can fully understand the OP's disappointments. I hope that either the MINI's charms grow on you and if not, best of luck in selling it for a different car that may better suite you.

 

I've got my own list of minor complaints (not quite the same as yours), but I don't think they really matter in the end. Every car (or any complex manufactured object, for that matter) is a compromise of design. I just choose to love the good and accept/ignore the not-so-good. (Hopefully, there's no outright "bad".)

Depending on your point of view and expectations, your issues are all valid. But overall, I'd say you have pretty high expectations for a car that costs ~27K. You might be happier in some other vehicles, but I'm not sure you wouldn't have an equivalent list for any other $27K car.

I hope you can get past the faults and love the car what it is.

gl

 

I think I fall in that category of commercial people. It's true, I love my MINI. Would I change some things? Yes. In fact, if I had a different mindset, I could probably write a longer post than the OP. But I don't. It's a car. Not only is it just a car, its a car that only graces $30,000 with every option. This isn't a Rolls Royce. It could do a lot of things better. But those things would come at the cost of either price or speed or safety or something else. It's all just perspective. If I had come out of a SL550 I might think the MINI is cheap. But it's not, has anyone driven an Aveo? I mean give me a break. It's all about perspective. Some people think Lexus is the premier luxury car, just the bees knees. I think a Lexus is a Toyota with cheap wood and cheap cushy oldman leather seats that is rebadged and sold for $20K too much. But they sell by the boatloads. See? Perspective and taste.

 

Ummm... not true...

My MINI is a considerable bit more than that and I didn't get every option. Almost, but not quite.

-However, I do agree with everything else you said!

 

Mine was close to $32,000 but I was rounding. I also wasn't including any JCWs in there, as the one on my dealer's lot was $45,000.

I was shooting for a nicely optioned ride with my point, not a dead full ride.

 

Mine is *a bit more*, not a JCW (nor any JCW options), and not including any non-factory installed items. But, using your expression, mine is "a dead full ride"!

However, I see what you were getting at.

 

OT - "Darth Small" might be the best Mini name I've ever encountered. Kudos!

mb

 

As others have said, this sounds much lower than average. I'm averaging 31-32 on my daily commute, which is primarily stop-and-go on a jammed highway and stop-and-go in the city. I did a mostly highway journey recently and averaged 36.

AC works great for me, even in 90+F temps. Not sure why you don't like the placement of the air vents, they don't bother me.

Well, this is going to vary from dealer to dealer, no matter what car you buy. My dealer is excellent, though the other Mini dealer in my region is awful.

I haven't scratched mine yet, but I agree that it does seem susceptible to this.

Everyone wants more power. Are you saying that a car in this price range should be closer to 200hp? I'm pretty happy with the performance of the turbo - as you say, if I wanted more, I'd have sprung for the JCW, but I thought it was too much money.

If I run it hard, or on a hot day, then the fan will run for a few minutes after shutting the car off, but this is expected. My VWs and Hondas did the same. No other noises that I've heard. It seems to run a little hotter than the supercharged version, but I chalk that up to the turbo. Doesn't seem excessively hot, either.

Yep, this is an issue with the design. Same issue with the hatchback model. I wish it wasn't so, but then they would have had to monkey with the lines of car quite a bit to avoid this.

This would be nice, obviously. I wanted the convenience package anyways, but I suppose if this were the only thing I wanted in that package, it would be annoying.

I don't care for the new cockpit look, either. Except for the radio controls, the cockpit controls are very functional and solid, but they look a bit odd to me. I'm not sure about the cause of the polarization issue, but I've noticed it. Slightly annoying.

I haven't noticed the gauge being that inaccurate. It's not super accurate, to be sure, but I haven't noticed it being as off as you report. It's not an issue with digital vs. analog (all manufacturers are moving to digital), it's the accuracy of the tank sensors.

This is a long-standing complaint about Minis (and BMWs, for that matter). You'll see many posts here and elsewhere bemoaning the run flats and the lack of a spare. A compromise I was willing to make before ordering the car.

Sounds fine to me, but I'm not overly discerning of audio quality in cars.

No problems here for me. Build quality has been very good so far (only 1000+ miles, though). Interior and exterior are solid.

Can't argue or agree with this, I have leather.

Love the sport seats myself. My wife is very picky on this front, and she loves them too. But this is a subjective measure.

Agree with regards to the spaces inside the side and clubman doors. But the glove box, secret box, armrest and under-dash spaces have been very handy.

Yep, a known issue, also discussed at length here and on other forums. I knew this buying the car, and assume that a fix will be forthcoming from Mini.

 

Um, no... I'm not as disappointed with my Mini purchase. Nothing's perfect, and the Mini is just a car. But what a fun car!

 

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]What a great thread. For someone like myself who is just in the “thinking” stage of buying a new Mini, this whole topic has been very insightful. Great post! My thanks to the original poster.[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

yes. a great discussion esp since there has not been mud slinging but rather mutual respect for opinions. as an owner in waiting I find this thread useful for keeping my expectations from going through the roof...anticipation is so high for the wait we have to all go through that one can easily be unrealistic about what the car will be like. thx op.

 

The OP said his biggest disappointment was gas mileage (22/30). That just doesn't seem right to me. I don't think anyone has reported mileage that bad (there are millions of threads). I assume you verified the OBC mileage with your own calculations, right? If so I'd be hounding my dealer about it. You should get minimum 26 city/33 highway. I get 28/34 and I drive pretty fast with AC all the time.

 

Just my 2 cents on my Clubman S-Love this car. It's rather quirky and takes some time to get used to the controls. I have had the car for 10 weeks-3000 miles and am getting 35mpg. The main thing I do not like about the car is all the attention it attracts. There always seems to be somebody commenting or peering thru the windows.
The most fun in the car was smoking a 328i the other night.
Over the next year I hope to get to 210 horses-and new tires and wheels. Do not like the runflats
I would make the same buy again-but maybe spend another $5,000 on MORE options

 

Just an aside here - MINISV, your Border Collie looks great in the driver's seat!

 

Although I've only had my car for 3 days but have 170 miles on it already here is my first impressions. I have the "S" with manual.
My a/c works fine, don't know where you live but I live in the Phoenix area and its been 104 to 105 the last 3 days, in fact after a few minutes I have to turn it down "one click"
Power? Right after leaving the dealer I got on I-10 looked down at the speedo and it was reading 90! Plenty fast and I have several m/c's so I know what fast is, and for a small vehicle this isn't a slug by any means.
I do agree with the rear end getting dirty as well as the wheels however.
I chose the leatherette exactly for the reason you posted.
As far as the pie tin sized speedometer I'm no fan of it either but I kind of noticed it when I test drove the vehicle so no issue with it.
Yes the fan does run for a while after shutting down the engine but so does a Honda Gold Wing I have, however the speedometer on it isn't over sized!

 

its definetelly easy to get 22 city with an S ... i've been averaging the same with my loaner for the last 2 weeks.

"city" driving means very different things depending on your location.

 

This is exactly the types of responses I expected, but some of you seem offended that there is someone out there who doesn’t love the car as much as you do. You guys telling me to sell it must think that I am sitting at home crying about how much I hate my car. I never said anything like that! I honestly don’t think about it that much as I go through my day, but when people ask me how I like my new car, I respond “so-so” with an indifferent shrug. To me, the car has pros and cons. Not everyone loves their car, or has to – but most of us on this forum are very passionate about their cars. I was thinking about how everyone else here loves their car so much so I thought this would make an interesting thread. And this thread has been nothing if not interesting… And thanks for not mud-slinging.

For you Mini-owner’s in waiting, I’m glad this thread helped. After over two months on this board and watching the owners lounge updates as my car SLOWLY got built, I’ll gladly admit my expectations were VERY high. The car just didn’t get there for me. My 6.5 scale wasn't intended to be the scale from school. I know most of us want 10's in life, but lets leave the 10's for Michael Phelps. For me, an 8.5 or 9 is a very good score, and 5 is average.

Many of you think I was being nitpicky. I totally was on a few things (and I acknowledged as much in my original post), but if you want nitpicky, I’ll post at 6 more “cons”:

• It’s too bad you can’t turn off the “illumination package” interior lights. When driving at 2:00am and the family it trying to sleep, the cabin is too illuminated.
• It would have been nice if the horn beeped when locking the car. If I had bought the alarm, it would have, but this is programming people. They had to disable the ability to do this!
• Too bad the doors don’t auto unlock after auto lock when you turn the car off. Again, programming and I know it’s a BMW thing.
• The sun shade on the drive’s door window doesn’t go far back enough to block out the sun from that direction.
• This is the only car I have driven that actually left my shoulder sore from the seat belt on a long drive. And BTW, I’m not that large at 6’, 200lbs.
• Did they make the interior door cubbie insets out of painted styrofoam?

There, that’s being nitpicky! (Before I get flamed… take a joke.) So the car isn’t for everyone. I get that. What is really interesting is that most of what I listed as cons, at least one other person agreed with me on (even if they said it really didn’t bother them.)

Okay, I’m done. To those local to Central Florida, thank you for the time and thoughts in your responses… I’ll probably be contacting you via PM to follow up on your suggestions. And let me go find that phone number for the dealer...

Jon W.

 

Did you take a test drive an notice all these faults before ordering????

 

I know I'm not offended in the least bit. To each his own.

Sorry you don't love your car. As for being "nitpicky", I'm just glad I'm not your wife.

 

Having owned a 2nd gen MINI I knew I would love my clubbie from day one. I pre-ordered mine the day after they announced US release dates. With the exception of a perceived increase in the height of COG, I was immediately gratified by my choice. The clubbie is a much smoother ride than an MCS and essentially handles just as well.

I love all the quirks of my clubbie. I would have chosen the rain-sensing wipers had I known how well they work, but can live with the non-variable intermittent setting. The great big speedo is for my passengers and is my defense when they ask me to slow down: "Hey look, we're not going that fast!"

Every car is a compromise of design, but no car purchase needs to be a compromise from the consumer's standpoint. Unless you can't afford to get out of this car, go find the one you want.

As to MPG, there's nothing wrong with my car but I can't get better than 31 on the highway and I've gotten as low as 25 in mixed. There may be something wrong with my right foot because WOT is my preferred throttle setting. I usually average 28 MPG on my daily rallies to the market. Coming from a Prius I could care less about milage. Fuel economy = boring.

This car is fabulously stable at speed.

Good luck getting used to your new car... If you decide to keep it.

 

Thanks to everyone for their insights... I'm still weighing up the choice between a late model R53 or saving a little longer for the R56 MCS. It's good to learn more about the pros/cons from those who actually own these cars.
Cheers!

 

For the love of God, JWeiss! We all know how much you hate this car. Please dump it and get a Honda or whatever flavor of the day suits you best.

Yes, the car isn't perfect and it is not for everyone. I think your point has been stated ad naseum.

You think we all must be on drugs or something because we actually enjoy owning these cars. I am not offended in the least. Variety is the spice and flavor of life.

You stated your case, you gathered your responses, you fished for whatever else you came looking for, then the time has come for you to move on.

Best of luck.