To recap my situation in a nutshell…. I'm shopping around to replace my old and fuel thirsty daily driver. The Mazda 2 and Honda Fit were front runners. My wife's daily car is an '08 Fit and we couldn't be happier with it. My criteria for a car are fun, fuel efficient, every day use practical and reliable. The Mini seems to satisfy all those things…with the possible exception of reliability in the MCS. When I mentioned the Mini as an idea to my wife, her eyes lit up. I'm one of those lucky guys who has a wife that's into cars. She's not a "stereotypical" SUV driving while on her cell phone kind of gals, and I'm eternally thankful for that. So we've agreed that if we get a Mini, we'll share it (fight over it?? ) and the Fit. My wife had never been in a Mini and I had only driven one once many years ago. So off to the dealer we went on Saturday. Our budget is right around $15k, so we're looking at used cars.

We each test drove the MCS and a Justa. I went into it with the mindset that I'd probably drive the MCS and not even want to look at a Justa again. After all, before my kids were born and my weekend toy budget went bye-bye, I had some seriously high hp cars. There's no doubt the MCS has a much stronger sense of urgency when you get on the gas, it can really hustle. I made sure to press the Sport button in both cars by the way. But once I had the Justa up to speed, it felt a lot like the MCS. Am I nuts for saying that?? In fact, I prefered the clutch of the Justa to that of the MCS. Since both cars were used, that could have been a function of age/wear, but the MCS clutch seemed needlessly heavy to me. I like a firm clutch, but this one seemed too heavy. Yeah, the Justa seemed a tad slow, but not horribly so. My wife, even though she loves cars, isn't one to beat on them, so she said she'd be happy with a Justa.

We looked at the Clubman and the convertible, didn't test drive either, as I assume they'll drive similar. We love the extra room of the Clubman, but my wife didn't like the stretched look. Having 3 kids, none of them could carry all of our family anyway, so the extra space doesn't mean much for us. We like the convertible, but it's not a must have.

So, while no decision is final, I'm very surprised to find myself saying that if I get a Mini (which I think we will) I may go with the Justa. It'll be cheaper to buy, better mpg, I can use 89 octane (as per the dealer) instead of 93, should be more reliable and just as fun once it gets up to speed. Don't get me wrong, I love the MCS, who doesn't like more power?? If the right deal comes along on one, I'll grab it. But the Justa may be the right ticket for us. We're in no hurry, my daily is running fine, so we'll wait for the right car at the right price. I just didn't expect to feel the way I do, I almost wondered what was wrong with me. Again, it's no slight to the MCS, it was a blast to drive. But I enjoyed the Justa more than I thought I would. I really think I could be very happy with either one. Beyond the acceleration, I found the driving experience very similar between the two.

 

My Justa replaced a Fit so I know a little about both cars. The Fit is far more practical, but the Cooper is more fun to drive - so I ended up with the Cooper :-)

I considered both the "S" and base models. Here's what I posted in a recent thread, explaining why I picked the base:




Hope that helps. Good luck ...

 

When you get your MINI, just say it's your's. Why fight about something if you can avoid it . Doesn't matter which one you get, you'll be happy either way. Good luck.

 

You're not imagining things. The Justa is much more of a momentum car than the S, but there isn't any severe lack of power in the Justa to begin with, honestly. It has enough power--nowhere near the S off the line or for passing maneuvers, but once you're going, the Justa can be just as engaging.

I "downgraded" recently and am kind of wishing I had bought a Justa in the first place, I would have saved myself a fair amount of coin 4 years ago. I left my lead foot behind a long time ago.

Judging by your post I think we're in the same boat, but as with anything YMMV.

 

Yeah, the Fit is the "play it safe" bet in that it's ultra practical, ultra reliable and is a great get to work and back car. It's actually a lot more fun to drive than you'd think. It's really nice, has an incredibly slick 5spd. I can't say anything bad about it. You can't go wrong buying one. But it's just missing that intangible that the Mini has in spades. I love a car with lots of personality that's unique and fun. The Fit, no matter how nice, just can't match the driving fun you seem to get in a Mini.

I noticed the difference in power between the MCS and Justa as soon as I left the dealer parking lot. But the Justa had enough to get out of it's own way, so I don't see having an issue keeping up with traffic. I don't have a really heavy right foot on the street. Racing has always been a passion of mine, but I was out of the game for a while. This year I joined up with a 24 Hours of LeMons team and ran my first race a few weeks back. So I can get my lead foot racing kicks on the track with them. As I mentioned, if an MCS falls in my lap for the right price, yeeehaaaa, but if not, no biggie.

Another thing that's attracting us to the Mini is having an active ownership group. We'd be part of PhillyMini. We don't have a lot of free time, so we probably wouldn't make a lot of events. But even if we only do one or two, we'd enjoy it. We used to do a lot of car club stuff years ago, even put our own shows on. The Mini community seems great.

 

The Justa is also supposed to have 91+ octane per the gas cap recommendations (at least per my 2008).

 

I agree with all of this.

My Justa is fairly modified so it's not a fair comparison to a stock S, but with the suspension upgrades, etc, it feels very tight and quick. That said, even stock, the fun is in winding it up to wring the power out of it. To paraphrase James May, it's better because you can spend more time on the ragged edge where things are interesting, without being at insane speeds.

 

yep - and the dealer told him lower octane is OK - what OK means in this case is that the computer's anti-knock sensors will compensate for the lower octane and de-tune the engine to prevent the (possibly damaging) knock. In the olden days we did this by changing the timing. You avoid knock but loose power - not a lot - but some. The computer just does the same thing . . .

In the early-mid 70's when unleaded gas took over, octane dropped and high compression engines were on the way out - changing the timing was a way to trick your big block big carb V8 into semi-happiness. Mine was a 350 w/ 4 barrel in a 75 Cutlass. even by then the compression was way down .... now our 69 Pontiac Catalina with a high compression 400 ci . . . WOW the power but low octane - forgetaboutit

 

I find very little difference between 89 and 91 in my 2010 base Cooper. MINIUSA said via email you can go as low as 87 without damage to the engine, but 91 is "required" via an EPA mandated sticker in the gas cap. The manual says 91 is highly recommended but 89 and 87 are acceptable.

 

Welcome to the "I was planning on buying an MCS and ended up with a Justa Hardtop Club".

I was surprised also with how much I liked the Justa for everyday driving. I went in assuming that I wouldn't like the Justa and drove it just to see how 'bad' it was - as compared to an MCS. Of course, there's nothing bad about a Justa and if anything - I liked the Justa more than the MCS. I assume that if I was looking for a track car - then I would want an MCS. But, a Justa with the sport package was fine and cheaper than an MCS. Plus, it should be a little more reliable than the MCS.

 

Welcome to the forums! I also picked up a justa back in Dec. No complaints here, and I came from a 230HP 128i. PhillyMini is a fun group, as are most clubs. See you motoring around soon!

Al.

 

Biased as a justa owner, but the R56 S's aren't that much quicker and you take a reliability, price, and mpg hit for it.

The only time I really want for power is mid speed (35-50mph) acceleration in higher gears, and even then acceleration is just 2 quick downshifts away. Well, that and ProSolo launches...

I actually think its really engaging to have to actually drive the car and I row the gears constantly just because its fun and makes you feel like you're driving harder while doing legal speeds. They are much more competitive in stock class autox than MCS's if you are looking for some weekend fun.

 

as a mcs daily driver, id say for just daily driving the justa is more than enough. i was loaned one from the dealership for about two weeks and i didnt really notice a difference driving to and from work. but when i decide to have some fun and put the pedal down, theres a pretty stark difference in acceleration. a mcs will get you to illegal speeds quicker, and will pull harder out of corners than a justa. and i think based on just the base mcs and justa options, the tires, suspension, brakes will be slightly more performance oriented. that being said if i could do it again, id probably just get a justa. it was fun enough driving it and the "potential" problems with the mcs (i have '12 model, not enough many 11s and 12s with enough miles on them to lump them in with older r56s) isnt really worth it.

 

With a used car sometimes the individual car can make a huge difference in how it feels to drive it. I would visit the dealer one more time and spend a little bit of time driving a few more examples to see what they felt like, both from a power and a clutch standpoint. That way you can be assured that your decision was not based upon a less than perfect example. Nothing wrong with driving what you like. I have the JCW but I can understand the attraction of the Justa and your musings.