I'm thinking about getting a Mini Cooper as my daily driver and i was wanting to know if they are good for long commutes to work. I do about 400 miles a week, all highway. Are they durable enough for this?

Thanks,
Nathan

 

My commute has yours beat by about 100 miles, and I just today put down a deposit for my MCS. One of my main reasons was for looking at MINI was that I wanted a car that would make the hour each way feel a bit more fun and feel less like a commute.

As for durability, highway miles are just about the easiest miles you could put on a car. I wouldn't worry about it. If your commute were half as long, but on city streets with the constant stop-and-go of rush hour... that might be different.

 

Thanks for your input. I already have my wife talked into it...

 

City traffic would just favor getting an automatic, the killer commute (for auto long life) would be the >5 miles (never gets the oil warm enough).

 

... you mean < 5 miles, yes?

 

95 miles per day commute for me. I've had the MINI for a year come January and besides the sunroof issue it has been a flawless performer.

One advantage of DDing the MINI, besides the obvious gas savings, is that I now look forward to my 2 a day rides as opposed to dreading them!


Edit: I want to put this out there. The paint that MINI uses is REALLY soft and the highways I take are busy and dirty. The end result is that the front of the car has quite the collection of chipped and pitted paint. I would recommend the clear bra, It kind of sucks that you need to lay the extra cash out for this on a new car. I have had a lot of vehicles and never had one that had such a delicate paint job.

 

I put on an average of 2k per month so about 500 a week or more. I love the car for long commutes! I have had it almost 3 months with almost 7k on it already

 

-great MPGs
-fun to drive
-stylish
-comfortable

What more could you ask for in a commute car ??

 

i have a 160 mile comute oneway , its nothing for me to do about 400 miles in one day. i have about 56000 miles on my 07 . its modded and no problem mon. i just got to work a few minutes ago. i run about 80 most of the way and still get 29 mpg.

 

I drive about 400 miles a week, and its all in the MINI... no car I would rather be stuck in traffic in either haha

 

I absolutly love my car. The only complaint I have about the car is that the seats are not real comfortable. I have an 03 and have thought about changing my seats. I'm going to Charlotte this week and plan on stopping by Hendrick to see if 09 seats feel better to me. Again I love driving my car I'm just saying it aint cause its comfy ......spelling?

 

Yes, thank you for that 'catch'; I meant short commutes of less than 5 miles.

MINI's free-service Computer will even shorten your service intervals, based on this "severe service".

You may find a lot of Comfort (and other) Advantages with an '09 and timing is excellent for buyers.

An improvement for seating comfort was high on my list for modification
and what I did would improve your '03 just as much:

http://www.miniforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18

^^^See above Mini Forum thread for what was done^^^


Click {HERE} or {HERE} for larger or other images.

An eight hour driving day after the modification was less tiring than a three hour drive before.

 

I sold my Jeep of 12 years because it got 17MPG, gas was $4.00, and my commute for the past 5 years has been 50 miles one way (500 per week). I was spending about $450 per month on gas!!!! -so I traded my Jeep in for a 2008 MCS, gas went down to $1.70, and I got a new job that allows me to work from home! -go figure?!!??!! My Mini is 6 months old and only has 1,450 miles on it :( -The only time I get to drive it is on weekends. Plus I have 2 small boys so my time for driving is really limited!!! -they are a little too young to enjoy rides in the country in the Mini ...in a few years I hope all that will change!

 

+1 - I wish that I had included it too. We average about a 1000 miles per week and every time I wash the car I kick myself. The cost is high, but it's way cheaper in the long run compared to getting the chips repaired.

I'd also suggest the heated sport seats- we had a loaner that didn't have them and it was still comfortable, but kicking the heated seats on during a long drive is really nice.

 

I LOVE MY COMMUTE NOW...I GO AT LEAST 2 HOURS BOTH WAYS...AND I LOVE DRIVING THE COOPER!!! COMFORTABLE, EASY TO NEGOTIATE TRAFFIC, AND FINDING PARKING IS EASY AS WELL.

HOWEVER, THE RIDE IS A LITTLE STIFF (WHICH DOESN'T BOTHER ME), SO THAT MAYBE YOUR ONLY CONCERN. MIND YOU I LIVE IN CALI AND THE ROAD CONDITION ARE ON THE POOR SIDE MOST OF THE TIME, AND IT DOESN'T BOTHER ME.

 

I commute about 4k/month. MINI has been great so far.

Go for it.

 

Let me put it this way: I do 110 miles a day, and five months after taking delivery of my Cooper S, I still find myself taking long detours because the roads are twisty.

 

I too commute 110 miles a day to/from work and I have over 100K on my '04. I am looking at a new one for the same commute because I don't think there is a better commuting car out there.

 

agreed to all above - i drive 35 miles each way, but in L.A. traffic it's about an hour and 15 minutes each way. Still very comfortable even with the sport seats in my 07 MC. Gas mileage rocks, too. Went all the way from suburban LA to wine country on just over half a tank, averaging about 90mph all the way. My stepmother (who drives a Mazda RX-8) had tears in her eyes - she had to stop twice for fuel.

 

400/day! Dude that is just nuts!! At 80mph average that's 5 hours a day driving a car! Geez man, I hope you have to go to work only one day a week.

I think the Mini is a great commuter car. It handles and feels like a much larger car than it really is.

 

An option to consider would be a seat upgrade to cloth/leather or just the leather, as to get the lumbar support. A couple of others would include auto-dim mirror and rainsense wipers. The cold weather pkg, MFSW and rear fogs I'm sure are options you've already considered.

 

i do about 4.5K a month and had the car since 10/18. commute is a hoot. the lumbar would have been a nice addition in hind sight. the super tight response or tracking or however you would describe it, takes some getting used to. And she's no slouch on icy roads as i found out this morning.

 

I took a job that was 55 miles away in 2004. I was driving a 1995 Dodge Ram with over 100k miles and it was no fun. So I got my MINI in December 2004. It made the commute not only tolerable, but fun! Unfortunately I racked up 100K miles in 40 months. But I loved every mile! I would not have wanted to drive it in anything else.

Now I am fortunate to be running a business out of our home. Sparky gets to rest up for track days. After all those highway miles he is still a hard charger!

 

I do 70 miles round trip 5 days a week and country-runs on weekends. Got car 23 Feb 08 and have 23,500 so far. Great commuter. Have the bottom line of everything. Pure stock. Seats are OK, but the memory foam mod is something I will be looking into. Also, as the tires have worn down, road noise has increased. I'll be looking for a less sticky, quieter, longer lasting tire. Some folks have taken out the rear seats and upholstery and laid down some anechoic foam. I think it's a great idea if you're going to be doing highway speed, but it hasn't proven necessary in my experience. Seat comfort first. Maybe the sports seats are more comfy, though I really can't complain that the bottom of the line seats are poor; they're fine.

Problems encountered in my 23.5k: None. None, except somewhere around 10k I got comfortable enough with the car to begin to explore its 'spirit' with my inner child. I have to watch it and suppose you will, too. It handles so nicely that it's easy to play with folks on the highway to pass the time.

 

Thanks everybody, sounds great so far. As far as the handling and the seat comfort go, I drive a 1990 Miata. It should be better than that aside from the rwd vs fwd handling. That will be one of the things i'll miss,,, kicking the rear end out a little and having some fun (in a controlled environment). So for the mini I'm thinking chili red with black top, chrome line exterior and sport pkg.... or black body with with white roof, chrome line exterior and sport pkg... ??? So much to choose from....