Anyone got any real life experience of driving one of these?

I have a friend who started ranting about how awful they are, everything sloppy, gearbox, handling etc etc, he is known to get bees in his bonnet about things. His rant about going on a cruise was Kermodian.

Oh and I don’t really care about being labelled a hairdresser or a girl but draw the line at Estate Agent 😆

g/f has a cooper SD – she drove both and really thought the midrange of the diesel was better for overtaking. No real complaints, is 5 years old and it good fun.
If she hadn’t got it I would have.
I have a 1 series bmw, which is based on the same engine.

Depends what age. The early (R53) supercharged versions have known weak points which is part of the reason they can be picked up for peanuts now. I had an early Cooper and in hindsight it was the most rattly and unreliable little metal box on wheels we’ve ever had.

took my colleague’s wife’s car out for a short drive the other day on a pick up run and hated the thing. tramlined on every ridge in the road, daft low profile tyres, super wide tyres on a go-cart wheelbase and wheel track. Engine was “OK” I ‘spose. Not that Id really know what a good one was like.

Im sure you’ll work out your own opinions with some testdrives.

BTW this one had the ridiculous big analogue speedo in the middle of the dash. Bunch of over-designed twaddle.

They have run flat tyres i think which have very stiff sidewalls hence the strange handling. Many people replace them with something more normal which helps no end.

My wife had the R56. Build quality wasn’t great and lot of the plastics inside showed wear very quickly. Engine is direct injection and coked up pretty badly which felt like a misfire. Worst aspect was oil consumption which was terrible and BMW Mini allows something in the region of 1 litre per 500 miles, which equates to 3-4 oil changes between services or up to 20 litres of expensive oil!
It was fun to throw around and handled very well but it is very harsh too. Any kind of distance driving it become tiresome and only car to give me backache. Never again.

Had one for a few years – think 55 till 57 – so last few years of the first generation.

Probably the most fun car we’ve had and nice for town driving. However, we “grew” out of it and couldn’t wait to be rid of it once we’d decided to. Fuel economy was shite.

I’d probably happily have one as a weekend car if I was the type of person that had a “weekend car” but as an everyday car, probably not. They were ahead of lots of cars in their class when they came out, but I think there are plenty of options with better fuel economy and as much fun to drive these days.

I’m finding the image of Stoner trying to get in and out of one quite funny. 😆

I had an R53 Cooper S with the supercharged engine. I had a smaller supercharger pulley put on it for more power.

Engine was great – made an addictive supercharger whine and really encouraged you to spank it everywhere. Interior was ok – you can ignore the huge silly speedo if you have one with a digital speedo above the steering wheel.

I think the R53’s before a certain date had a weakness in the gearbox – Mini forums should advise on this.

Handling was fine on smooth roads by the runflats got really choppy on anything even remotely bumpy. The VX220 I had before the mini handles bumpy roads better, as did the Honda S2000 I replaced the mini with. I imagine ditching the runflats would have made a huge improvement.

The boot was pathetically small – I fitted more in both the vx220 and the S2000.

I’m finding the image of Stoner trying to get in and out of one quite funny.

more “drop and roll”, than fanny-flashing legs akimbo.

Mrs North has a R56 Cooper S convertible.

Good points:
Handling and grip superb – can really fling it about*
170ish bhp turbo engine means plenty of torque in every gear**
Pretty nippy
Fuel economy much better than my naturally aspirated and much slower Mazda
Design*** and build quality very good – electric hood lovely

Bad points
Torque steer – usual problem of FWD, short wheelbase car with plenty of power
Scuttle shake – afflicts so many convertibles, but this should be better than it is
Small boot
Reear seats OK for kids but not much fun for an adult (other than short trips)
Big wheels mean firm ride – but doesn’t have runflat tyres, so much better than previous car

I’d love it if it was a tin-top, but then I’d drive it like a hooligan everywhere. I can imagine a JCW would be just the job for a lot of uses.

Shame she’s just pranged it created a £3.5k bill to repair….

*I appreciate that sort of thing is verboten on here
**This sort of thing is verboten on Pistonheads
***Correct: it doesn’t look like a bland eurobox and I like it all the more for it.

I had an early Cooper and in hindsight it was the most rattly and unreliable little metal box on wheels we’ve ever had.

Sounds like they hit the nail on the head with keeping up the ‘heritage’ 😉

Had an R53, absolutely loved it (after runflats changed, was good before that, great after).

Not the most practical, not the most reliable, not the most economical but so much fun. Would definitely buy one again as a second car if ever I could justify having more than one vehicle in the house.

8 months in with a bought-from-new latest generation F56 3 door Cooper S hatchback – 4 cylinder 2 litre turbo 192 BHP engine with manual gearbox, 17″ normal tyres and optional variable damper control – surprisingly roomy inside, rides well and is great fun to drive. No rattle issues to date. Only annoying niggle is the clunky navigation in the audio system.

We’ve had an 08 Clubman Cooper S since Jan this year, in preference to a eurobox that would have been super dull.

It does 35mpg, goes quick enough, can really press on if required, as you’d expect with 170bhp in a dinky car. Handling seems fine but would echo to ditch the runflats. Plenty of room in the Clubman for two short people and a terrier and the panoramic roof is ace, though can be a bit sticky. Doesn’t use an any oil, maybe we don’t drive it hard enough? It’s on about 90k now and had a rebuild at 70 ish due to the coking that’s common and it had the new chain too.

Great fun on smooth twisty roads, but couldn’t wait to get rid of my wife’s 07 Cooper S. 1L of oil per 1k miles, plus cam belt plus another issue, meant it had to go. Plus I have no fillings left!

We looked at the R56 Cooper S but ended up going for a Cooper due to funds. Google “death rattle” for the R56 turbos though.. this put us off a little but ultimately they were too expensive to buy/run at the time anyway.

Our 1.6 Cooper petrol is on non-RFT 16’s and it is pretty damn firm.. I can’t imagine 17’s on RFT’s. The Cooper goes through a fair bit of oil as noted but otherwise has been extremely reliable for the last 3 years (it’s a 59 plate) – the only things we’ve bought for it have been wear and tear stuff.

There is another thread, lots if posts in that one with positives on the Cooper S

so the question I would have would be why not the diesel>?
not a lot in it power wise? and could be remapped.
if you get a later one it is a bmw n47engine, and gf drives like she stole it and gets 45mpg at worst

I have a Mk2 R53 Cooper S, great fun.
Fuel – 33mpg if driven steady I would say avg is about 30, i’ve had mine down as low as 21 if driving it like a hooligan.
An LSD is a must in my opinion, i think they were not fitted all years.
The MK2 has the Getrac gearbox which is bullet proof the previous Midland one was made of cheese.
Run flat tyres are just awful, totally changes the drive with normal tyres on.
The Gen2 early versions R56 have a real bad rep for engines going bang big time.
Only negative is they are very plastic inside so do pick up rattles but this is easily fixed.

Driven three recently, not sure of the specific model details, but one was a soft-top Cooper S Cabrio, one was a Cooper S saloon diesel, the third was a regular Cooper, and what has been said about the runflats I absolutely agree with, the little Cabrio tramlined like a bastard, and along with the torque steer made it a real handful.
Great fun, but along with the handling foibles, and the amount of noise from the tyres and cloth lid, and little boot space, I could never live with one.
However, if money was abundant, and I could just buy a small, fun car just for the shits’n’giggles, then I might have one.
The bigger diesel S was certainly quieter, although the runflats were still noisy and tramlined, but it was a more practical car, I think.
I’ve driven a number of BMW’s with low-profile runflats, and I hated those as well, a 4-Series was the worst, the bloke I picked it up from agreed, he hated it, couldn’t wait to get rid and collect the Merc C225 he’d signed up for.
Bloody thing was so noisy, and had a very harsh ride.
The caveat here is that I only have the cars for, at most, two or three hundred miles, so this is no long-term review, just an immediate impression, but it’s those first impressions that often count.
Oh, and I really dislike the dash, with that stupid great speedo in the centre of the dash, which is such a bad bit of design, ergonomically speaking.

F55 Cooper SD. Fantastic car!! Just not sure I’ll be able to get the fatty in it!

I have a new cooper as the random runabout and I think its a great car.

Got shot of a Jaguar XF as I never used it much but I wanted something cheapish but interesting to fall back on. Never really thought about a mini until I went to the BMW garage to look at the 1-series then took a 2year old cooper S out.
Fast with a heavy front end and slightly garish to my tastes…so I tried a black older model cooper S that was no where near as quick and rattled like hell…hard suspension, etc…

Ended up buying the new cooper instead of the S as I preferred the comfortable handling of the newer model and the 3 cylinder twin turbo is a lovely motor in that car. A great car, very pleased with it.

ps. I can get my bike in it fine if I take the wheels off…6’2″ with large bikes (road and full susser)