How is it for carrying rear seat passengers and cargo? Is it pretty good for a daily driver, or do you often find yourself wishing you had something roomier?

 

It's not practical for back seat passengers, fold the seats down and it's excellent for cargo (better than most passenger cars).

It's very fun as a daily driver. At this point I don't think I have found anything more fun than the MINI.

I have two kids (boys) ages 9 and 13 and they can climb in the back because they are young. They complain of leg room a little but I just smack them around and tell them to buy their own car if they don't like it.

 

The rear seats fold down if you want more cargo space.

Leg room behind the driver's seat depends on how tall you are

 

Rear passengers room is minimal depends on the height of the occupants it's great for a daily. As for cargo space you can fit quite a lot with no one in the rear seats.

 

Ya my kids are 8 and 10...we had to stop feeding them after I got the mini so they dont grow anymore.

 

I've got the Countryman and sometimes wish I had the smaller car. With the CM you would not have leg room issues and with the right tweaking you can get pretty close to a fun drive. In my case I can just use the wifes Golf and throw it around corners.

 

I should have taken a photo of mine with six 8' 4x4 posts coming out of the sunroof opening...

 

Hmm. Duly noted. Thank you.



Almost no rear legroom, but headroom is pretty nice. I'm told the MINI's back seat is more comfortable than the back seat of the Infiniti G37 Convertible we have in the family.

Cargo space is fantastic if you fold the rear seats down. The other day I got a pretty sizable guitar amp, two guitars, and bass guitar, and some other odds/ends into the car easily. The front passenger seat had to be folded forward to accomodate the length of the bass, though, the bass in the case is probably 3/4 the length of the car...

This weekend we will attempt to put 3 amps, 2 guitars, some other small bits, and two musicians into the car.


This stuff is also easier to load/unload from the mini than with the 4 door Versa I drove previously.

 

That reminds me, I need to do a dry run wiht my drum hardware case to see if I can take the MINI to gigs. Usually I just use my girl's RAV4 for gigs, because my last car was a Miata. I'm not good at buying drummer cars anymore...

 

That may be a pretty tight squeeze. I'd figure the bass drum and floor tom in the boot, probably can fit the cymbals there as well. The rest in the passenger seat and footwell. That's gonna be a tough one though.
Good luck!


Do you have any music out? I'd like to have a listen!

 

Musicians with working cars? Pretty rare indeed!

 

I do more as a producer and engineer these days. A band I'm playing bass with just sent 6 songs to mastering.

I just checked, my other band's Myspace page still exists. Don't believe the genre listing, that was someone being silly, it's about a million miles from Black Metal.
https://myspace.com/wiplot/music/songs
We gotta get to the gig!

 

The MINI front seats are surprisingly roomy, able to fit tall passengers with ease. I routinely had my 6'7" coworker in my old R53.

I always considered my MINI a 3 seater, while a shorter person can move the passenger seat forward making room for a single rider behind them, there is no way anyone with legs can sit comfortably behind most drivers.

A MINI has been my daily driver since 2007, first my 2006 R53 Checkmate and now my R59S roadster.

Weekly trips to Costco were no issues with the R53, of course we had to leave the teenage/adult kids at home. Usually I didn't even need to put the rear seats down, occasionally one seat for that big package of toilet paper.

I even carried a queen size mattress on the roof. I did use my Saris Bones RS bike rack to extend the roof line and provide rear bracing (rotated the arms up to keep mattress from sliding off the rear).

Here is the rack I used, the only Saris trunk rack recommended for the MINI.
Saris Bones RS 3-Bike Car Rack

And here are some photos of the mattress on the car.

 

I'd say not I've worked and produced music for years and just signed with my first major label a couple months ago..
And I still wrench on my car...

Yeah I can pay anyone to do it...
But musicians are creative...sometimes that translates to other parts of life

 

Another musician and producer. Awesome.

 

First of all to the OP
I run an air ride setup...and I have there daughters
All I can say is these dont add up for practicality on the MINIs behalf. But for a family with no kids or one just starting it's perfect. The rear space is limited but I have had two adults (in laws) state the rear seats were more comfortable than their four seater crossover.
I guess it boils down to how nice your passengers are.

To Drumsound
Haha good to know there are fellow musicians on here!

 

Anytime I think about practicality, I think about this great video.

 

 

Isn't it great?

 

I'm still talking about it....so yes...

I can't believe that Dane fit....sort of...

 

it is not good for rear passengers unless they have no legs. If you want more room the rear seats go down and you can easly fit 4+ suitcases depending on how you put them in. No i dont wish i had something bigger if you want more room or more than 1 other person is going to be in the car than dont get a mini. But if you dont have kids than have a blast
Good wishs josh from SC

 

I LOVE it!

 

Glad you enjoyed it too! Definitely puts a smile on my face!

 

Recently fit a 48"x33" dog crate folded up, and my cane corso in my r53,my knees were in my face but it fit.

 

Here's what I use for hauling in my R53 ...





NOTE: The bottom 16" measurement should read 26"