We are going to be ordering a Countryman soon and I had a quick question on roof color.

Has anyone bothered measuring the inside temp in summer and seeing if there was actually a difference between a white or black roofed Mini?

There might be a difference depending on where you live. The number of days it gets real hot around here is negligible and I like the look of a black roof, so that's what I got.

Dave

Get what you want in color don't even worry about the temp and then just tint the windows and that will help with the inside temp.

+1!!

My roof is white, with sunroof (tinted). My car still gets 120+ in the sun here. Don't think it will make a noticable difference. I'll tell you if it does this summer, as I'm going to have my roof wrapped in 3m Dinoc CF.

One of ours has a white roof, one of ours has a black roof. I've never noticed any difference in how they heat up in the sun.

A few seasons back (Episode 38), the Mythbusters on Discovery tested the interior temperatures inside a pair of cars that were identical other than one was white and one was black. The black car did get about ten degrees F hotter inside than the white one.

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode38

They were testing cars that were solid-color, so their results are probably similar to what would happen with a white vs black roof Mini, but the difference in a Mini might not be so great. Anybody at a dealer got access to identical cars with white and black roofs to verify this?

If you have the sunroof, I think there is very little roof that's either white or black.

Yes scientfically the black roof will be hotter than the white, is there enough difference to make it a major choice factor, maybe depending where you live.

I have turned two different cars from black to white in the past.
I did not scientifically measure it.
But I did notice the big difference was how you felt once you got going
on a really hot day. For example, black, AC on recirculate, would only
get to cold cold on a long trip (as opposed to normal running around).
Same car, same climate, same season, etc etc, right after turning it
to white, it would get to cold cold cold in 20 minutes.

One was a V8 one was a 4. Identical results.

I think the white roof makes a big difference in temperature.

The different between my white-roofed MINI (w/ sunroof & perforated decal) compared to my metallic champagne colored honda civic is night and day in the summer. I had to drive the honda one day in the summer and the chapstick that I always keep in the car completely melted. Leaked out of the container melted all over the place. It was a mess, i dont think there was any left in the tube. The same chapstick had been in my MINI many summer days and was always melted-soft but NEVER melted to the point of liquid leaking out.

+2 ........ Went black roof with sunroof - blends in the sunroof and isn't as girlie a color choice....... And it's the wife's car and opinion!

on a MINI with a lot of insulation up there .... and possibly with the sun/moon roof I suspect there isn't much difference 'tween white and black

BUT I can tell you that the black roof on my 79 is KILLER in the central Florida summer. The car becomes a convection oven. The day I bought it I got in Orlando traffic in July trying to get home. 2 hours of stop and go in high temp & high humidity. I felt like a fried egg.