Lol, you can believe what you want, but why in the holy heck would I lie? That would seem pretty pointless and I'm not an idiot just out to make up wild stories, that seems pretty harsh.

I'm not hating on the S, I think I got that across, but maybe I did not? I drove the normal Cooper first and it was flat out not enough power. The manager brought out the S and said if it didn't impress us to not come back lol! The S looked a lot like what I'd been specing out, orange, black bonnet stripes with black roof and 17 cosmos wheels. Only other items I'd have wanted would be sport suspension and the jcw interior package that's up now, and I would have removed the sunroof and the automatic.

Again, I did not exactly get to truly wring out the car as my wife puked inside of two miles. I should map it on google earth to get a better exact idea I guess. Anyway, she said what made her sick was the suspension feel. I guess I like the harshness of most sport suspensions, the Cooper S was noticeably softer over the bumps and potholes of the access road to the dealership, when leaving in my Abarth it was defiantly a harsher ride for sure.

I'd read that the sport seats were uncomfortable in the S, but I thought those were great myself. They were not even set to being loose and they worked great, I forgot to adjust that until I returned. The power of the S was a vast improvement, and I loved it! I liked many things about it and if I get a Cooper it will be an S no doubt!

The mini does a lot of things better than what I'm driving now, but I'm not sure at this point it's worth roughly 8k more than what I'm driving.

I'm sorry if I upset you and you can think me an idiot, I'm just here to learn and share. I'm not hating on mini, or trying to stir the pot, just sharing my drives and thoughts. If I'm not welcome I can leave, no big deal, but disappointing as it's not what I expected of the community. I'm here because I like the idea of mini, and love driving and figured where better to learn?

 

It depends on where you drive it. The OP only made a couple turns and then his poor wife lost some bad Mexican food right next to the car lol. I've never heard that happening before either. Good thread though. On some cars you can supposedly adjust the dampers. The one I drove didn't have those. As I've said before the sport suspension is mainly about the sway bars not the coilovers. You drive my car (21mm rear ASB) with runflats and that's about all the harshness I want in a ride.

 

"I can tell in the Abarth the front wheels are much closer to the driver as inputs to steering are much quicker"

Thud.

 

Wow. Really. Wow,

 

As in you feel the cars reaction faster, you are closer to the tire resulting in quicker car reaction to the input. The nose feels farther out, like driving a Corvette, it's not a bad handler (duh) but it takes some getting used to as you turn in differently than you would were you right up on the tires. Don't see what's so odd about that? Just describing the differences I noticed. I'm am just describing this off the top of my head on an ipad, not typing up a pro review.

Guess I should have written this up more clearly so as to not get ragged on, just sharing a funny story and my general thoughts.

My wife noticed right off when she drove the Cooper, said woah, it turns way differently and I agreed. Not that ones better than the other, but there is defiantly a difference when driving.

 

I don't understand why you're getting ragged on. I have enjoyed your thoughts, personally. It's nice to hear someone's opinion who isn't totally biased toward MINI :-)
Sent from my iPhone using NAMotoring

 

I don't have a problem with you saying the steering felt different nor that the MINI was slower to react to steering input. I have a major problem believing that you can feel that difference is caused by the driver seat being a foot farther away from the tires.

"Thud" is internet speak for "huh?" It's meant to be humorous, rather than ragging on someone.

The MINI's handling is severly hampered by the runflat tires that BMW insists on making mandatory on cars sold in the US. See post #9.

 

See and I own a MINI and wanted to test the 500 when it came out. I just wish I fit in it :/ That abarth exhaust note is nice.

 

If you had driven an early Ford Econoline,it would probably be more apparent. The front wheels were behind the driver.

 

I checked out an Abarth a few months ago just because of the exhaust sound and the deals. The joke of an experience I had reminded me why after I bought my Wrangler I said I'd never buy another Fiat/Chrysler product(and I wouldn't have bought the Wrangler if anyone made a competing product). My first Mini dealer I went to was terrible too, but then I found a great dealer. Believe it or not, it's worth the extra $10k plus to me to know I have a nicer car and I'll receive FAR better service down the road when it needs to go in for service.

 

My MINI is my only engine-powered transportation mode. I like it a lot. The econbox I had prior to it was a newer car, well same year as my MINI, and around town it felt peppy enough. I could jam the gas pedal to the floor and it was sufficient...until I got on the highway. Pushing 70 the car was absolutely anemic. Add a headwind and Fred Flintstone would have been frustrated. I often wondered how long I could push it before it gave up! Never so happy to relearn what fun a car can be on or off the highway.

 

Run flats aren't mandatory. They come standard on the S but you can order non run flats. Just can't seem to order a spare-which is silly.

 

That's essentially what I would be getting if I was in the market. I priced out my "perfect" F56 and ended up at $23k MSRP with the cloth JCW sport seats, sport suspension, LED headlights, the JCW interior package, standard wheels/tires (will be replacing with lightweight 17" wheels and summer tires), no sunroof, no other fancy stuff. Then as the tunes and stuff come out for it, I would explore the potential for more power and suspension modifications.

 

Mine cornered about the same with the runflats, which had a slightly sharper turn in. The difference is the ride with non RF tires. At equal tire pressures and size the handling won't be that much different assuming the tread design is similar, as it was with my 2 sets.

 

Is this new for the US? It was never possible in the past. Non runflats been available in Europe for the last few years but I haven't heard this for the US. I don't see it in the configurator.

 

When I built mine I was told non run flats were not a option.

 

Only option is to get all seasons rather than performance. Both are run flats... I just use them till they are spent and replace with non

 

According to the MINI spec sheet all season tires are an option over run flats. Not sure if those are all season run flats as it doesn't indicate they are RF.

http://www.miniusa.com/content/dam/m..._And_Specs.pdf

 

I have been told they are but I will know for sure today or tomorrow when my car arrives at the dealership.

 

Let us know. When I ordered mine I made it clear I did not want run flats and the MA wanted to know if I wanted all season tires. But he wasn't up much on the specs and I had to show him on the MINI website where many of my options were. ( I was only on the website about 100 times).

 

When I ordered my f56S, I chose the Performance Package with the Silver Tentacle Spokes. The configurator said then, and still does, "Equipped with 205/45 R17 performance tires. (Run-flat tires are available as a no-cost option with the Hardtop S.)"

When I took delivery two weeks ago, though, my new car had the RFT's on it. I asked my MA, and his reply was, "All MCS's coming into the US are equipped with RFT's."

 

In the US factory-installed Non-runflats are only available in 175/65-15 and only for these base models:

MINI Cooper Hardtop
MINI Cooper Coupe
MINI Cooper Clubman

 

Sport package. It does indeed say that for the silver tentacle option.

On the UK configurator run-flats are a £140 option for the Cooper S and a no-cost option with the 18" cone spoke wheels.

And now back to your regularly scheduled test drive review.

 

Ugh! You are right. Just looked back at the fine print. I ordered the Victory spoke wheels which come standard with runflats. My MA failed me here as he said they would come with non-runflats. Seems MINI failed to educate the MA's at their "training". Not happy.

 

Dude, the car HAS to come with RFs. Why? Because there's no place for a spare tire. Doh! Only the Cooper with like 15" tires has room for a spare. So you don't get a jack, you don't get a spare, and you only can get runflats. Plenty of people have sold their new runflats and sometimes wheels right off the new car. They cost about twice as much as similar non runflats so there's a market for them for sure. They cost about $250/tire new.