Hi! New member and never before mini owner. I've test driven several minis and ended up buying a 2015 beetle (lord knows why) and am not happy. I wanted a mini for it's size, drive, looks and mpg. The beetle delivers the looks....somedays......in the right light and angle. Anyways. Before i bought my beetle I had a 98 escort and test drove a 10 r56 but passed on the fear of reliability. I'm trying to get a 2nd job to completely pay for whatever mini I want but am stumped on what I want.
of course a base is the best value but I want to be special and a special car so lean towards the s or jcw. EXCEPT! this past week a test drove a Base and S and saw ZERO difference unless you drive in sport and drive the Shi!t out of it. kinda a waste of 4,000 but w/e paying for the cute name badge. I do however really like a jcw and would feel most happy with it but is the extra 40 BHP and torque make it worth it?
So I suppose you guys be my car salesmen!
Which one will have cheaper parts to maintain and better mpg! 2-5 doesn't kill me but a jcw that gets 20 mpg is out of the question

 

If you don't care about the extra power, get the base. If you want a little extra umph for fun, get the S. The JCW will be about $4k more than the S. You can customize any of the models, so that really shouldn't be a big deal.

 

My Two Cents:

I had a 2006 R50 (automatic) and now own a 2015 F56 One (manual).

I bought the R50 in 2013 (two previous owners, 60,000 kms). After spending way too much money to keep the R50 on the road, I sold it in November with 120,000 kms on it and bought the F56 (one previous owner, 9000 kms).

The F56 (1.2 liter turbo, 102hp) is a little underpowered but the manual almost makes up for it. It also doesn't have many options (I miss the sunroof) but I preferred to spend my money on the newest possible model instead of the horses and luxury. (Fewer gadgets, fewer things that might need fixing.)

Obviously it's not as quick or fast as a Cooper/S in a straight line but who wants to go straight? Minis are made for the corners and it handles just like a Mini should. It also has all the Mini styling and looks. And the manual transmission just adds to the fun.

Good Luck.

 

If you can't tell the difference between an S and a Justa, you need to have your butt dyno recalibrated.

 

Echo that

As an owner of an S who had thought about a JCW (Wife wanted the JCW) but decided against it (for the extra cost); If I could reset the clock, I'd have bought the JCW car

Love my S but would like the extra power from a factory car. JCW also adds better brakes and appearance items, color choices among others. Plus its a John Cooper Works!

Do a search for JCW vs. Cooper S in NAM and there is a thread that lists all the differences between an S and the JCW. The list is pretty extensive and factoring in the costs to add those parts to a MCS, well worth the price of a JCW.

If you can afford it, buy the exact car you want rather than settling. Settling usually results in buyers remorse, especially when you start adding aftermarket items to get the extra performance.

Wish I'd have followed my wife's advice when I bought.

My next MINI will be a JCW. British Green w/ Chili Red top

 

I love my F55 Justa and the gas mileage has been great at times. On my commute, my Forester struggled to get 20 mpg, while my MINI is 28 - 30 mpg. For highway, I'm around 28 mpg with the Forester and I've gotten over 40 mpg with the MINI.

Then I started letting loose a bit more and popping it over to Sport instead of Green. It is, without a doubt the most fun car I've ever driven (and I worked at an Audi / Porsche dealership in college). Still, I've been bitten by the MINI bug. I've never needed more horsepower, but there's been some times when I've really wanted more horsepower. It's probably better that I don't have it, because it's happened multiple times that I was merging onto an interstate and looked down to see I was 20 over before I even merged.

My favorite part of my daily commute though is a road that turns 270 degrees and then merges onto an interstate. The posted yellow warning sign says 35 mph; I take it at 60 mph plus. As rphox2003 said, whether you get a Justa, S, or JCW, it's going to handle like a dream.

 

f55 if you need 4 doos and more room, 4 wheel drive then Countryman, F56 if you like the Gen 3 but just want a hatch, Cooper S or JCW if you want more power. Cooper if you just need less power, its turbo'd so its not that slow or anything like a MINI Diesel ( we dont get here ) .

 

I enjoyed this buyers guide HERE by Jalopnik. Take a look and see if it gives you some insight.

 

I chose the base. The S is less than a second faster to 60, so for that I didn't care to spend the extra money. I gladly take the great gas mileage I get too. Since my other car is a 395 hp hemi snarling V-8 5100 pound truck, gas mileage carries some weight around here. Fun as hell to drive, all the bells and whistles, real decent scoot (as there's a lot of torque!), and the 3 cylinder turbo is one of Ward's 10 best engines this year. But, that was my choice. Get what puts a smile on your face!!

 

 

lol, or just have it looked at.

 

That must be a MINI One, we get 136hp in North America.

Ryan, where are you?

When you test drive the car, try to get the car in some tight turns. If it is too soft, consider the JCW for the suspension, or leave room for an after market suspension.

I would also consider a 2013 R56 or if you want the most fun, a 2014 JCW Roadster.

 

" Current: 2015 Mini One F56 " yep thats it.

 

Save yourself money, find a dealer that has courtesy vehicles that the dealer lends out when people have their Mini being worked on... You'll save money there and enough to get an S, which is very fun. The Justa is a great car but it doesn't compare to my S even in standard mode. Reminds me of my base Countryman I had prior, that thing was slow..

The S model is a very fun car to drive and I just keep on smiling each time I get in mine.

 

+1. I just drove home from dinner at a friends house in my S. The roads where clear, the on ramps and twisties on the way home were a complete blast! I thought about the JCW but ultimately the price point was too high for what I could afford. My 15' MCS is still a great car. And I can always tune it to get more performance if I ever grow out of it. But coming from a 99 Mazda protege, I have a lot of growing room!

 

Love my F56 Base!

 

f56 base.....manual stick. In comparison, they are as quick as the previous stock S models. Have heard the engine designer quoted as saying it was easily capable of handling HP numbers close to 300. In comparison to the 4 cylinder model, it could end up being the engine most impressively "tweaked" with that sort of potential.

 

The base engine is the same motor used in the BMW i8 with the following numbers:

231 PS (170 kW; 228 hp)@5800, 320 N·m (236 lb·ft)@3700

Impressive to say the least and w/ BMW penchant for under-rating their motors, probably delivers a bit more HP & Torque than advertised.

Naturally to get those numbers you may have to dig deep into the base motor to tweak it (pistons, heads Turbo, etc). The MCS 2.0 puts around 189 WHP (although BMW publishes this as their crank HP number) and can hit HP and torque numbers in excess of the the JCW w/ a Burger or NM tuner module added.

All depends on what you want and how much you want to tweak after purchase.

BMW B48 motor

Mini Cooper S 2014– 192 PS (141 kW; 189 hp) @ 4700–6000, 280 N·m (207 lb·ft) @ 1250, Overboost: 221 lb·ft (300 N·m)
Mini Cooper JCW 2014– 234 PS (172 kW; 231 hp), 236 lb·ft (320 N·m)[1]
BMW 225i Active Tourer 2015- 231 PS (170 kW; 228 hp), 258 lb·ft (350 N·m)
BMW 220i Gran Tourer 2015- 192 PS (141 kW; 189 hp), @1250, 207 lb·ft (281 N·m)
BMW 320i LCI 2015- 184 PS (135 kW; 181 hp), @1250–4600, 199 lb·ft (270 N·m)
BMW 330i LCI 2015- 252 PS (185 kW; 249 hp), 258 lb·ft (350 N·m)
BMW 730i/Li 2016- 258 PS (190 kW; 254 hp), 295 lb·ft (400 N·m)

 

Sorry I didn't specify that I have a Mini One (but it is in my signature). I believe the One is offered everywhere BUT the US. In the US you only have the more powerful Cooper, S, and JCW. The One is the "poor" man's Mini.

As I wrote, I would have liked more power but, as my commute to work is spent mostly sitting bumper-to-bumper anyway, I decided to spend my money on the newest possible model. At least on the weekends the roads open up and let me enjoy the drive.

 

" The One is the "poor" man's Mini. " lol , never heard that.

I remember the MINI Diesel being the slowest. We don't have that either or the MINI SD.

 

What is the designation of the MINI One engine, not B38?

How do they get it down to 1.2l, a shorter stroke?

Found on Wikipedia, is B38-something, smaller bore, shorter stroke.

There's also a MINI One First with 75hp?

 

It is more powerful for sure but nothing I'd brag about lol

 

I live in WA and have 3 local mini dealers. I gunned both cars and there is a difference yes but not exactly something I'd brag about. I have not driven a JCW but I bet I'd feel a difference there

 

And thats why I want the jcw! I want the power, the aggressive but cute look and owning a rare car!

 

Sure. I agree with that. After all it's only 53 HP difference. Only a 30+% increase in power shouldn't be noticeable. Yet when the difference between the S and the JCW is is spoken of it's all ooh's and ahah's. That's a 39 HP difference.
I had a 1.3L manual trans loaner for a few days while some work was being done to my S. I put a couple hundred miles on it on the country roads around home so I think I got a pretty good feel for it. It's a nice car with decent power... for a 1.3L. When passing, climbing hills, or accelerating out of a turn, I found myself reaching for another gear. It was fun enough, but I had to thrash it pretty hard to get anything like the same performance. If you want to save that extra grand or so then the 1.3 is probably a good option, but after driving it on a combination of back country roads and interstates I personally would not own one.