Hi, this is my first post on the site.

I have been driving a 2007 Mini Cooper S for the last 3 years, it was a lease. First off, the leasing company DID NOT want me to extend that lease, they quoted me a figure of over $700 a month to do so. Since I prefer to lease, I went to the dealer with a design I did online, and I got what I think is a good deal. So I get my new car just built at the factory, and I am suffering a few annoying differences.

First, the brakes. When I got my 2007, the brakes were so tight I might have went through the windshield if I did not have the seat belt on. Well close, anyway. After a few days, it loosened up, and became perfection. The 2010 model brakes are in a word, weak. It was quite an adjustment, I am used to the thing just stopping right away, if you pushed the brake past a certain level. This one doesn't seem to have such a point. It stops, but you have to give it a bit more distance. Annoying.

The 2007 model handling was amazing, cornering was effortless, without any centrifugal "slosh". The 2010, just a bit of slosh, enough to be annoying with what I am used to.

The 2007 was a hard ride, which I have come to love. I like to feel the road now. The 2010 has less hard ride, I feel quite disconnected from the road. Could it be the DSC?

The 2007 seemed (to me) to have almost no turbo lag. Which helped getting on I-80 BTW. The 2010 has some, it takes a noticeable amount of additional time to get up to speed. If I really push it in lower gears, I can get moving nicely, but I don't prefer to do that.

I am no gear-head, I hope I have described this so you get what I mean. Do I need some kind of a tune-up (factory setup being poor), or are these just genuine differences?

 

I have a 2009 MC and yes the brakes were pretty touchy for the first 500 miles but have now settled in nicely and are plenty strong. I have a hard ride made harder by the Hotchkis rear competition sway bar and track tires, don't have turbo so nothing to compare with, sorry.