Sorry to waste a whole thread on this, and maybe we can create some type of "Impressions" thread after spending some time with our CM's. Anyway, mine is now 2 weeks old, and I will hit 1000 miles today. I haven't even taken a long trip in it (unless you count the first week when I was stuck in traffic for two hours taking my daughter to school).

Here are my overall impressions:

The more I drive this car, the more I love it. I must say at first I regretted my decision. The seats were terribly uncomfortable for me. The mileage sucked (23 miles per gallon on the first tank or something like that).

Now every time I sit in the car, the seats feel better (maybe my back is slowly aligning to the seat!). I found that putting the seat at its lowest position has helped, as the front of the seat bottom offers more thigh support that way. While I miss a little bit of lumbar at the very base of the seat back, things are getting better, and the seat bottom is really comortable.

The car is really responsive and highly stable. I speed a lot in this car unintentionally. I find I am going 80mph on the Baltimore Beltway without realizing it, and I really have to watch my speed on the neighborhood roads. I'm like Garp, where I chase down people speeding in my neighborhood and now I'm one of those speeders unless I am very careful. I actually look forward to exit ramps and even the annoying roundabout in my neighborhood that was idiotically placed in the middle of a four way intersection! I used to go the wrong way on it to make a left turn (think 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock) and now I am tempted to take a few extra turns on it.

Overall, the controls have been fine. The Nav and Connected are the most annoying things about the car, but I wouldn't want to do without them. I will say that the Connected for the most part has been useless. I just don't need to check FaceBook while I drive, but some of the other integration is cool.

A few options I wish I got:

Xenons. The standard lights aren't as tragic as everyone seems to say, but I really would enjoy greater visibility. I didn't realize how much night driving I actually do!

Convenience and auto A/C: I thought it was cool to shove the key into the little slot and hit the button the first few times I did it, but thinking of how many thousands of times I'd do that over the life of the car, being able to just keep my key in my pocket would be awesome. The AC controls with their vertical dials are weird, and I really adjust temps a lot. I think the auto AC would have been much much better.

I'm happy with no sport suspension, etc. I prefer the softer suspension quite honestly. I think because I came from a Honda Element and not a Cooper hardtop, I'm actually into the driving experience and not feeling like it's less responsive. The 17s don't look as sporty, but they are fine. Fortunately, no snow and not missing the All4 at all.

What I wish I got: split rail. The rail is just something I'm not going to use. The standard cupholders don't even hold the Arizona iced tea cans my daughter always has with her. And that rail doesn't let us put guitars and basses in the back footwell area. We have to stash them across the seats, or fold down one seat, as the boot is not wide enough for the cases. This means that all rail accessories need to be pushed up to above the footwell anyway. I really is messing up my useable space for not much utility. It's not driving me crazy or anything, but people really should think hard about how they use the back seats.

Mileage is improving tank after tank. My crusing range continues to increase and now the onboard computer is registering 30.6mpg in mixed driving. Each tank I have gone up 3mpg so far.

My first long trip is tomorrow...4 hours or so to north Jersey and then out to Long Island. We shall see how I feel in a few days.

 

Where in North Jersey?

Yours would be the first CM I see in the wild...assuming you're in my area...lol

 

Teaneck and Tenafly.

 

Sounds like a couple of hip-hop artist. You be careful.

 

So have you seen this awesome garage in Tenafly?

http://www.carguygarage.com/pictures...x=044#moreinfo

http://www.carguygarage.com/pictures...x=044#moreinfo

http://www.carguygarage.com/pictures...x=044#moreinfo

 

Great thread and post! Finally test drove a CM Friday and loved it...... but since it's going to be a little while before one makes its way into my driveway, these types of posts are what I like to see! Thanks!

 

Sounds like you're talking about electric guitars. Do you think an acoustic will fit better in the back?

 

I'm a little farther north...Ramsey.

Still on the lookout for a CM in its natural setting.

 

I assume that we've tried flipping up the well cover and inserting it on a diagonal? I agree that the rail is a gimick, but with no kids and no guitar I'm keeping mine full length. At the one year mark we can all have a Rail Regret party. There should be something after market by then.

 

I don't think acoustic will fit in the back in the footwell with the full rail. Even with the boot cover flipped up, it's hard to fit a bass diagonally. A guitar in a gig bag probably would be okay. I think easiest would be to flip the seat down and put it through the back. Of course that limits you to three occupants.

 

Then you're cramming it in the boot!

That one's for Sealy.

 

You'll note I was staying away from there.

For everyone else - are we making a distinction between the boot cover (the rear shelf that flips up with the hatch) and the well cover (the flat floor that covers where the spare tire should be)? I would think that with the extra depth you might be able to make it work.

On side note to CBC - roads in B'more are related to DC. How's the non-sport suspension on pot holes, bridge seams, and the like? I'm going with the 18" units, but it should give me an idea of what to expect on local roads.

Thanks

 

This is one option I thought I wished I got, however my brother-in-law's vehicle with factory HID lights needs a new ballast outside of warranty. Didn't realize how expensive the ballast is to replace. Anyway, I will probably replace ours with PIAA bulbs if the standard headlights aren't great and see how they work.

 

Just to add my .02....we have the non-sport suspension with 18". I live in Ohio but think the conditions would be somewhat similar to B'more/DC based on my experience in those cities. The CM absorbs potholes and the like quite well. I was very pleased. But one caveat....I replaced the runflats with non-runflats so your experience may be different with runflats.

 

I've had Xenon headlights in my '03 MCS (really delivered end of 2002) and I've never had to do anything with them. Yes they are expensive but MINI uses a pretty high quality light...

 

Really great report, nice to read.

On the rail, I still think the rail could be of a lot of use once third party attachments start to appear. Larger cupholders are one item, but what I plan to do is rig up something that will hold a tripod along the rail so that I can quickly get it in and out of the car and make use of a tripod but still have it firmly held when driving. It seems like you might be able to rig something that ran along the rail to clamp down at least one instrument lengthwise.

 

Agreed. I think most people bought Connected on the promise/expectation for what could be done with it in the future. I think my friends would unfriend me if I started posting the temperature and where I was headed.

For what it's worth, I've been satisfied with the Nav. The display is not as good as what we have in our Lexus, but the voice commands are better.

 

"I think my friends would unfriend me if I started posting the temperature and where I was headed. "

That is hilarious! My MA tried to enter a facebook update for me while he was showing me the car, and I was like, "NO!". He thought it would be fun. I thought the same thing you did about losing your friends. Shoot, I would at least block friends who wrote goofy/perky updates about riding around in their mini all the time. Having said that.....I have a twitter I've had forever. I never tweet, but follow some fun people as well as my daughter and some of her college buddies. I took it to show it to all of them in Spartanburg and they got a kick out of tweeting all the goofy tweets. When you have a location in your nav it will tweet how far you are from wherever you're going. I tweeted so she would see where I was after I left. It said something like, "Terri and her Mini are 41 miles from Road Atlanta". I love it! I was blowing up Twitter by the end of the day! Having said that, I didn't quite understand all of this electronic stuff before, but I do now. I won't be using the connected much either until they get some updates, or maybe if I'm on a long trip and I'm bored.

I'm not a full two weeks in, but here are my few observations so far: I push the auto button on the AC on accident every time I try to put my coffee cup in the holder. I ordered a small coffee mug to use in there that doesn't get wider at the top.

I have all4 with sport suspension and run flats. I LOVE it! It is sooo fun to drive! I was expecting to break teeth when I hit a bump in the road, but it isn't jarring at all! I guess it is all relative, but you folks who think it's rough should have ridden in my 2006 330i. You almost had to come to a stop at speed bumps because it was like hitting a curb-or maybe even a wall! It was horrible!

I need more storage for stuff, so I'm considering getting that overpriced box for the rail. I asked my MA to have one at the dealer for me to check out, but I guess he forgot. Has anyone seen one in person?

I love my mini! The first night I kept going to look at it in the garage. It's so cute!

 

I am very happy with the MINI CM All4. I mounted a large cup holder on the passenger inside post, used my saddlebag from my first MINI and built a flat floor for the dog and stuff. I use the rail for small stuff and tip the arm rest up and back so I am happy and put it down when the wife rides with me. Since I have a Droid I didn't get connected or nav. The droids navagation work quite well and I already had that. Gas mileage; well; that's an issue. The R56 gave me 30 without trying and even driving like my dead grandmother the CM gives me 25 in town 28 highway. I took the racks off to see if I will do better.

Hey - I'm driving a MINI, I like the car and I am enjoying the experience. My mods are posted in my gallery.

Bill

 

I want one of those cup holders! Where did you get it, and how did you mount it? Does it get in the way of the passenger's knees?

 

The original OEM cup holder I got on my 2005 convertible. It is manufactured by MiniFini. They have a new version, but, I don't know if it fits as large a cup.

It does not get in my wifes way and I put it on with velcro tape, but, had to hot glue the tape together for piece of mind. I moved it from my R56 before trading. I used screws on that one and it was just in the way shifting. It fits great on the CM. Check your MINI parts department to see if they still have any.

Bill

 

I'm still waiting for mine, but I haven't seen this addressed anywhere:

Can you write new tweets/Facebook updates, or are you stuck with the canned ones? I would hope that while you may not be able to compose tweets/updates on the road, maybe you can create new ones to be included on a "list" within Connected...

 

All I see are predefined tweets. I don't see anywhere in the Mini Connected app to create your own predefined tweet either.

 

There is no way that I can find in the car to create my own tweets or statuses. :(

 

That's too bad.

It makes the function much less useful.