Just a note on reliability. I have a 2005 s convertible. Except for getting tires when I was in Alabama, I haven't had much trouble at all. Certainly nothing that prevented me from going. I get 27 in town and 35 on the highway. I know the Smart and Fit get more, but then again I have the supercharge version. If you can, test all you can.

Also, from what I hear, you can get pretty good deals (relative to MINI terms) on this and last years models if the dealer has them in stock.

 

based on everything you've said here....

and here...

i totally agree with this:

and this:

the MINI can fit four people, sure. you might want to consider this, tho: my boyfriend is 5'8". my mom is 5'2". my boyfriend's mom is 5'. i'm 4'10". the best configuration for all of us to be comfortable is for the two shortest to be in the back, and there isn't much legroom once my sweetie adjusts the driver's seat.

with a Fit, however, you'll feel a little more comfortable (more head and legroom, if i understand correctly), esp given a city where parking is at a premium and when you'll probably want to have friends along for the ride. the only thing someone like you might find better about a MINI versus a Fit is the fun-to-drive thing plus the fact the car isn't as common as, well...a honda. the honda will be reliable, parts will be cheaper and easier to find, and honestly, for what it is, it does great and is kinda cute.

ask me if i'd buy a Fit over my MINI and i'd tell you heck no. but my needs are different from yours.

 

When I got out of grad school and was looking at buying my first car, all I wanted was a MINI. I remember the first time I saw one. It was a my first year of school. There was a red MINI in my apartment's parking lot. I decided then that I wanted one. When buying my first car, I figured I deserved it after driving a 1995 Hyundai Accent for over ten years. Anyway, I say get what you want. You want a Smart car?...get a Smart car. If you want a MINI? Get a MINI. Just make sure you get what you want...cars are expensive for good grief! And as far as reliability goes...MINIs aren't too bad...especially if you get a just-a-cooper.

 

Jalopnik did a review on the Fit sport and they liked it quite a bit. I have seen a Fit win H-stock at an AutoX, so to say that they are completely unsporting isnt quite true (this echos jalopnik).

05-06 Just-A-Cooper will be pretty reliable in my opinion, maybe not honda like, but pretty good. They have less... stuff, going on than on the S so less stuff to break.

 

you haven't driven much japanese cars to make a statement like that.
or you think corolla's are all japanese cars.

actually the Fit Sport is pretty fun to drive if you get a MT. the AT is
pretty boring...but that's pretty much the same on all regular folk cars.
i talk from experience and that is my conclusion.

 

Yes, I have driven, and owned, a few Japanese cars, namely Toyotas, Hondas, and Datsuns. And I know people that own and drive them. And, anecdotally, which is what so much of this board is, they are, for the most part, dead-nuts reliable, which I cannot say for our beloved MINI Coopers, based on my own car, and what is read here day after day. Things go wrong with them that just shouldnt. Strut towers? Leaky engine mounts (for examples)? Ridiculous.

Personally, if I were looking for a car today, based on reliability, yes, I would consider first a Toyota Corolla, and then a Honda Civic, but definitely the Corolla first. They are not the most soul-stirring cars out there, but I have rarely, if ever, met anyone who has had anything bad to say about them from a reliabilty standpoint.

 

Datsuns i take it you have much long experience driving cars.

sounds fair to me.

 

one more note: i'm very much in the minority apparently, but i think the nissan cubes are far from ugly. if i wanted a larger van-like but not quite mini-van vehicle, i'd consider the cube. for what it is and what it's trying to be, i think it does it decently. at least it's not a MINI-wannabe like the ford flex. if the MINI was angelina jolie, then the ford flex is octomom. to run the analogy further, the nissan cube could be....america ferrera, maybe? where there are so many cars that have been chromed up excessively and given slanty-aggressive headlights, the cube is a refreshing option.

in any case, the OP should buy what s/he feels fits his/her needs best and if a cube is what s/he fancies, i certainly won't be among those who'll say s/he has an ugly car.

 

The only thing the Ford Flex has in common with the Mini is the contrasting roof, absolutely nothing else. Not sure where the real comparison between the two is.

As for the Cube, well one man's trash is another man's treasure. I'm sure there are tons of MINI haters out there.

 

I am a paramedic and have worked a couple Smart car accidents...no thanks! If they did not go up against 3 ton trucks they would be fine but they dont. The results have been pretty ugly.

If I was looking for a basic commuting car I would get a Ford Focus. We use them in our courier business and we run them for 4 years and they usually have 250k to 300k miles on them when we sell them. Rarely have an issue with them and we can get them for around 12k.

 

yeah, i wouldn't have drawn the comparo on my own. unfortunately, there have been a few people who've asked me about the 'big MINI." initially, i thought they were talking about the clubman, but it turned out they were referring to the ford flex.

apparently, the several who've said that to me aren't the only ones who think that way. google "ford flex MINI" and i see more than a few references of the flex being 'like" the MINI than i care for. this one was most annoying, since i'm a sometime-watcher of "overhauled":

 

WTH...I stand corrected. A big MINI Cooper, unbelievable.

 

I have had Honda for eons - '78 Civic, '87 Integra and still have my '98 Prelude but the Mini Clubman has replaced it. I also have a '99 Odyssey.

For daily commuting to work, etc, I am the only one in the car 90-95% of the time and I prefer small cars. My criteria when I was considering replacing my Prelude for my daily driving was to get a car that had decent horsepower for getting on and driving highway speeds, no longer than my Prelude and somewhat upscale from a small basic car. i also have to stay with an automatice because my wife never got the hang of driving a manual and after driving the Prelude with the selectric manual shifting, I also wanted the new car to have a similar feature.

Most of the cars you mentioned are more or less basic cars and I wanted something a bit more upscale. I became tired waiting for Honda or Acura to offer a 2 door that met above criteria and was no larger than my Prelude. Even the Civic these days is larger than a Prelude (178") and I already had a Civic. I wanted something m,ore upscale. I narrowed my selection down to the Mini Copper S Clubman and the Volvo C30. The Volvo C30 will get you from A to B faster than a MINI and is more comfortable to drive but it is not that responsive or fun to drive. It is actually quite bland the front half of the car which looks similar to other Volvos. The rear is newly designed but not to all's liking. The rear hatch is too open for my liking and the manual shift mode of the auto is very slow in response. The car likes to be driven slow while the MINIs are like hotrods - fun to drive. I bought the MINI !

I went with the Clubman loaded with options and now have over 4000 miles on it with no issues. Love the car. I went with the Clubman because I wind up working on a lot of projects and need the extra trunk space which allows the seats to be put down if more space is needed. I wind up also carrying a bunch of stuff every so often for when I work on my sailboat and so the Clubman worked best for me.

My first choice would be a Honda. I believe in them. Their reliability is tops (overall). Still having some grief over eventually selling my Prelude and procrastinating on really trying to sell it...lowering the cost so it does sell. But like I said, since Honda did not have a car with decent horsepower, 2 Door and same length or shorter than my Prelude, I decided not to wait any longer and started looking to buy other cars. Personally, looking at the Smart car and seeing it on the road, I do not see how that is suitable for highway driving. But I never road tested one...so maybe it is okay.

When you are looking for your first car and it is mostly only you driving....some of the cars you mentioned may be fine choices. It is really an individual thing. One thing to also consider is insurance and maintenance costs. MINI with it's relationship with BMW has pricey maintenance for anything not covered by their warranty. Hondas will have less pricey maintenance. If you have read postings elsewhere on this Forum, oil changes for example will probably be quite a bit more in cost compared toi a Honda but Honda has no free maintenance and so you pay from the start. Still...many do not wait to the free MINI oil change at 15K miles and so....if sooner expect to shell out some dough...and that is just for asn oil change. Watch out for other mtn as that is likely to also be quite a bit more expensive than a Honda.

The MINI does put a smile on my face ! Hard to put a price tag on that....and I just turned 60 and still capable of smiling !

 

Holy cow, it looks like everyone jumped all over this thread. I think what it comes down to is preference. I think a lot of people have had some bad experiences with the reliability of a mini. For me I have a MCS and commute about 5-10 miles so its not that big a deal. It gets good gas mileage, is comfortable and fun to drive.

And no offense to anyone but that Nissan thing is the ugliest car I've ever seen. It looks like someone took a camper and put it in a trash compactor, just leaving the rest of the bits that stuck out hanging there.

 

I totally agree... put ambient lighting on the interir of any ugly car and it seems like people will want to buy it. (except for the MINI ambient lighting that is. )

 

My wife's Suzuki SX4 crossover is parking friendly.
And I just started a 100 mile commute and I can
tell you it is much more comfortable than the mini.

 

if we're gonna talk about ugly cars, my vote would be for the pontiac aztek. next to it, the cube is absolutely adorable.

but back on-topic: if suzchen wants something that will be reliable, easy to park, has relatively low cost of ownership and can easily carry four people and stuff in the trunk, of the four choices she mentioned specifically--cube, MINI, smartcar, honda fit--the fit will probably be best. if more cargo/people room is wanted, cube might be a better choice.

it's not being much helpful if we dismiss one of the options she named completely out of hand just bcs we don't like its aesthetics. i mean, clearly, suzchen thinks it looks good, otherwise it wouldn't have been one of the cars specifically named. decrying one of the choices as being ugly is just going to turn her off from any other, more useful advice you might have...that is, if you've actually gone beyond cyber-urking about the cube and said something meaningful.

 

Does anyone know what she ended up with?

It's funny, I just read a comparison of the Cube, xB, and Soul on cars.com today. They ended up recommending the xB, but also made the Soul sound appealing. The Cube finished last in comparing those 3.

And as far as looks, I'd take any of those over the stupidcar any day!

 

What is the 'stupidcar?'

 

The inappropriately named Smart fortwo.

 

If you are gonna get a automatic go with the Honda Fit or even a Toyota Yaris hatch back.

 

Check out the Crash Tests on these and you'll be thinking twice about getting anything but the MINI!!

 

Suz,

In my opinion, your primary concern regarding the need for a small car should be safety.
I've owned an '05 Civic Si, 6sp, and the excelleration and handling were very nice. However, when the necessity arose to push the pedal into the 3 digits it became light and somewhat uneasy. Although it had brake assistance and stability control, it didn't have the independent ABS nor the independent desceleration. It had the air bags, but not the high collision ratings as the Mini.
Now with my '09 BRG, I've had her since Sept. 15th and have driven her approx. 3,650 miles already. The solid feel of the car and the drive is definitely there. Even when reaching 3 digits, there is no lightness or uneasiness; a solid ride. The excelleration and quick response is there when needed, and you'll definitely feel the Mini's various handling enhancements during your busy and hectic city driving. Along with these enhancements, are the air bags that'll surround the enire interior. The frame is contructed as solid as other very expensive cars, and designed to drop the engine down, rather than through the dash. Hopefully, and we hope and pray that this will never be necassary, but safety should be first and foremost. And a solid feel and drive enhances this safety. Notwithstanding, the fun and excitment to drive the Mini will bring a smile to your face on your commute home, after a long day of Social Working. Believe me, it works!!!
Happy Motoring.

 

Not sure if Suzchen wants auto or standard, if standard I would suggest MINI Cooper. But if Suzchen wants auto I still go with Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris, which has pretty good crash test results. Or go with what you really want a Smart car.

 

It might be a bit more humane to let him out a bit more, or let someone else adopt him.