Top 10 things that don’t actually happen when you drive a base Cooper:

10. You don’t duck down in embarrassment when you pass an MCS on the road.

9. When your colleagues ask you about your MC, you don’t lie and tell them that it’s a “crap loaner” while your MCS is being fitted with a full JCW kit at the dealer.

8. You aren’t relegated to the slow lane with the RVs and big rigs on mountain highways.

7. The valet doesn’t actually refuse to park your 118hp “toy.”

6. You don’t cite your old age, wicked wife, or criminal past as the reason for “playing it safe” and buying the MC.

5. You don’t feel weight from the extra grocery bag “holding you back, man.”

4. You don’t create a secondary NAM profile where you pretend to own a totally gutted, track-ready GP.

3. Your MA doesn’t secretly laugh at you because your new MC lacks LSD.

2. You don’t actually need to get a running start when headed uphill in the city.

And…

1. You don’t sob quietly every time you drive, wishing desperately that you coughed up a few extra $ for the MCS.


Clearly, I jest and it’s all in good fun! I love my MC, but sometimes the NAM boards appear to be a bit over-crowded with MCS elitist-types.

Let’s hear it for MINIs of all types. Motor on.

 

The base cooper is a MINI one not a MC

 

Nice Top Ten! My first MINI was a 2003 Cooper. In a lot of ways I enjoyed it at least as much (if not more) than my 2006 Cooper S and never felt "marginalized" in any way. (In fact, my next MINI will likely be a non-S!)

 

Nice list, but you forgot one.

1. You don't stop for gas near as often as your MCS owning buddies.

 

 

that is good!

 

Or you own both like i do.

 

You DON'T cough up as much money for insurance as your MCS brethren.

I've said it before but I'll say it again here... I have an Ultra-fun MCS Convertible but I still prefer to drive my Cooper. And if I had to give one of them up, the Convertible would be gone, gone, gone.

 

I don't hate MC's I just hate yours.

 

Blasphemy!

 

Didn't say I didn't LOOOOOOOOVE my MCS Convertible !!

Just saying, I love my MINI Cooper more. Maybe because it was my first-born. Or maybe because I like that I feel like I'm really driving in that car and not just operating a motor vehicle.

 

The elitist MCS owners shall rule the road.

 

Nice Top 10 list... You dont happen to be one of those striking Writer's Guild guys, are you? If so, would explain a lot.

 

fbox - that was great!!!

Donna

 

Just ordered my MC. Heap your 'sugar' on me. Won't change the smile on my face.

 

Nice list...it used to be that most MCS owners truly did not understand the attraction of the Cooper. I'm very glad that situation has turned around for the most part. Coopers have super-powers that are easily overlooked!!!

 

Haven't seen or heard much from SDMike since he got his r56 on these boards. After all the posts in anticipation of getting the new car, I just wondered if all was well in r56 land?

p.s. Not looking to spark a r53 vs r56 debate,
just curious.

 

True. Or get as many speeding tickets as us MCS owners.

 

Speeding tickets are as much due to the nature of the driver as they are the number of horses under the bonnet. I mean, geez, my first speeding ticket was in my Dad's 1972 Ford Pinto.

 

This is what kept me from getting a Cooper S, I'm only 20 and the insurance was through the roof for it. The regular Cooper is more manageable but I still pay about a $1000 per year for it.

 

Strangely enough, the insurance on my MCS is actually LESS (by about $15 a month) than it would have been on an MC.

My insurance company claims it's because more "young people" drive the MC because it is more affordable and parents don't want to give their kids a car with a turbo, thus a higher accident percentage in the MC than the MCS.

 

$500 every 6 months is not bad for a 20-year old male driver, Joey (assuming you are a male).

Are you getting some discounts on that policy ?

And you are carrying more than the State minimums for liablity coverage, right ?

 

... Is right. That statement goes against the laws of mathematics. The accident rate isn't dependent on the number of youthful drivers in MC compared to MCS, it's the percentage of drivers in each that are involved in accidents.

Besides, individual insurance companies do not assign IRG's (that's the factor that contains the data we're talking about) to vehicles. That number is determined by an independent data collection agency and applies to all drivers in all insurance companies.

 

+1, that really isn't bad!

I'm paying almost double that ($913 every 6 months) for my MCS, and that's with the good student discount (reduces my premium by something like 25%). I'm a 20 year old male also. However I only got my American driver license a couple weeks before taking out the policy and I have no credit whatsoever in the country. Well other than my cell phone. Also my coverage is pretty high - 100/300/100 with $500/$500 deductibles.

 

Couldn't tell ya what the deal is, but that's what they quoted me. It was the final deciding factor to get the MCS instead of the MC.