My wife's previous car (VW New Beetle) had the front end torn up more than once when we pulled up too close to those concrete parking bumpers and/or curbs. It would pull up just fine, but when we backed up it would rip the underside of the front end.

Yes, it was our fault, but these things happen now and then (perfection continues to elude us). Our 2009 MCS is on order. I happened to notice some photos that show an apparently low front end (I know this improves fuel economy and looks cool) on the MCS.

Has damage to the front end been a problem for any of you MCS owners? If so, how bad was the damage dollarwise? Perhaps paying $25k+ and being in love with the car focuses your attention, so that this seldom happens...

 

Part of the joy of owning a MINI is the fact that there is NO need to pull up to the curb or concrete bumpers. You can park your MINI away from the curb and still not stick out.

 

You wont find many small cars that wont get torn up by the concrete barriers. You just have to spot them and stay away, and like mentioned the MINI doesn't even nee to be pulled forward all the way.

 

In fact, I find myself parking so that the nose of the car is nowhere near those barriers so that the back end of my car is visible in the space. My car has a habit of attracting large SUV's to either side of it when I park out in BFE with plenty of space around. If there are two SUVs on either side of the MINI and I park all the way forward, it looks like there's an empty space.

 

Both my Husband and I have scraped the lower faring. He scraped it on a concrete bumper and I scraped it on a concrete street entrance. We both vow to NEVER do it again.

I checked the damage and there wasn't much, I did a visual inspection and well as ran my hand under the car. I only found a small indention in the faring, not much to worry about.

I wouldn't make a decision about a car based on how many times one might scraped the front end. It is way to much FUN just driving the darn little thing to worry about something so trivial.

Just my .02 cents!!

 

On my '04 MCS I had the sports suspension, and the nose WAS angled much lower to the ground...And drove me INSANE just going over speedbumps. I didn't get that on my '07 MCS, and I'm much happier - no real scrape-ups - and it STILL looks supercool...but it's my car, so I MIGHT be a little biased.

I'm with the others - i park waaay far out, I always "combat park" (back end in first, ready to roll!!), and I park towards the front of the space...this is so no one mistakes it for an empty space.

Get a MINI!!!

 

Amen to that... I've been driving an H2 for the last 4 years. I'm just getting used to the fact that I don't have to pull up so far to fit the car in a parking spot.




Just experienced that for the first time today. I was sitting at a pump getting gas and a Chrysler 300 WHIPS in thinking he's going to pull up to my pump.

You should have seen the look on the guy's face when he realized there was a car sitting there....LOL.


As to the original poster's question. I recently lowered my MCS. One of the reasons I used factory JCW springs is because I didn't want to keep scraping the front end. I can't speak for those that have used other springs but they look awfully low.

Point is, even with JCW springs on it (it only lowers the car .5" (and I have the JCW aero kit) it doesn't scrape so you shouldn't have any problems.

Mark

 

(Sorry, I meant RJKimbell).

I'm planning to buy the car regardless of the answers, I just wanted some idea of whether it was a major problem or not. I spent a lot of time and frustration trying to jury rig the front end of the Beetle back together. Yesterday I saw one with duct tape holding the front end together and have seen many others with large splits and cracks...no fun at all.

From the responses so far, it seems that the average MINI driver is smarter than the average New Beetle driver... .

 

That's funny... I've got a customer (who drives a new beetle) and I've had to replace his lower spoiler 4 times in the last year.

You'd think after the first one or two times, you'd pay special attention to that problem...

Mark

 

I scraped over parking berms quite a few times in the 05 MCS, it never seemed to do much harm. The lowest portion of the air dam was that tough plastic its almost impossible to damage. I can't remember ever having done that in the 08, either I'm better at avoiding the berms or the air dam isn't so low.

I just checked the bottom of the air dam on both R56s is a flexible piece of rubber. It wouldn't complain and it wouldn't get damaged going over a berm.