Oh, I'm not in the market for one (just put a deposit on an R60 on Monday), I'm just living vicariously through you and everyone else who picked one up.

Where in the Philly burbs do you live?

 

Well, that makes more sense. The inventory specs on these dealer sites are next to useless then. Thanks!

 

It's a great car, no doubt, but it doesn't have the same desirability that the R53 GP had. There's a purity in the original that, at least to me, seems to be lost with this one. It stems from the platform that it is built on. Rumor has it that MINI is really focused on bringing back the visceral nature of the original in the next generation cars.

The other issue is price. You can get one hell of a car for $40k, so the GP is punching out of it's weight class of performance cars.

That having been said: it is an excellent car.

 

Both are great cars in their own way. Sure, there are the typical R53/R56 differences, but make no mistake the new one definitely lives up to the GP name.