I'm hoping to get some feedback from softtop MINI owners in cold climates. While I love my clubman, I am really missing being able to drop the top during the summer months.
Now here is the problem. I live in Winnipeg Manitoba where it can get extremely cold in the middle of winter (close to -40) While I know that you can get heated seats (I love mine in my clubman) I have a 3 year old who rides in the back, so heated seats won't work for her.

So how's the heat output, can you get warm in your convertible when its really cold out? There aren't any local cars that I can easily check out right now either, so that option doesn't work.

 

I used to have an R57 convertible and I don't know if the 2nd gen heater was more or less powerful than in the 1st gen, but I wouldn't count mine as very powerful. I found that most noticeable when trying to drive top down in marginal conditions - for everyday use, the Mini hood is so well made that I don't believe there will be a big difference between the hardtop and convertible, when the convert's roof is up.

 

anyone else have some experience with keeping warm in nice cold winter weather with the top up?

 

I have a 2006 convertible and I live in Ohio so it can get quite cold. My car has heated front seat(s) but the driver side one doesn't work :( so I have to rely on the heater and the car, being pretty small, it does not take long to get all the air in it warm. From my experiences the heater is good. Another good feature is out of the four front facing "jets" the two closest to the driver and be aimed directly at your hands on the wheel.

 

I had an 07 Hardtop and now an 08 Convertible. With the top up, it seals so great that I can't tell any difference in how long it takes to heat up in the cabin. No air loss at all that I can tell, the top is made great!

 

Truth be told at -40 any car will have a tough time keeping warm. Maybe if you cardboard the front of the radiator that will help. -40 is really, really cold. Freeway driving at speed will make it even harder to keep warm at -40.

I was in North Dakota once driving a 1 ton truck loaded with diesel engine parts and I froze my buns off. I was driving down the freeway at 65 mph and that truck would not warm up. It was about 25 below. So -40 has to be even harder.

 

Minus 40 is a rarity, maybe once or twice each winter if we are unlucky, but minus 25 will happen a good 10 or 15 times at least each winter. To be honest though, if you are dressed properly its not that bad, and my clubman can get quite toasty inside, at least in the city anyways, at those temps.

 

I know Wet Okole sells heated seats in their seat covers. Maybe they have some for the back seat--they just plug into your power point. They work really well.

 

I live at 1,200 foot elevation on the Northern New Jersey border and it can get really cold up here but, admittedly, we are not in Winnipeg's league. We have about two feet of snow right now and it was 14 degrees when I woke up this morning. And it gets colder than that at times (we might get the occassional week of -10 to -15 degree temps).

This is my first winter in my 2006 R52 and I was wondering how it would do this morning. The heated seats are great because I hate that couple of miles of waiting for an engine to warm up. But as somone else stated above, the top is really well designed to be pretty much as air-tight as a hard top. Also, small engines heat up fast and the small cabin doesn't take long to fill up with warm air. I was quite comfortable. I usually turn the seat heater off after maybe 5 minutes. Once the cabin air is warm, it's not needed anymore. But -25 to -40?? Yeah, I think some kind of wind blocker for your radiator is in order for WHATEVER you drive!

BTW, I am also impressed with how the car handles in the snow. Everyone told me it wouldn't do well but I had no problem on either wet snow or the powdery stuff we just got a few days ago.

 

-40 with the top down???

I'd be wearing one of those full-body, goose down suits that trekkers use when climbing Mt. Everest. I know, I know... we SoCal'ers are wimps crying foul when the mercury goes below 60*F.

 

I have an '06 cab here in the Silicon Valley. Granted, we don't see temps much below 25F and even then not that often, with the top up I can get it heated up in the cabin very, very fast and need to turn the heater way down to keep from getting cooked. And I can imagine that it would work similarly in much, much lower temperatures.

With the top down, it's a different story, of course. No convertible is going to keep you warm in really cold weather. Period. The wind simply pulls the heated air out of the cockpit too fast. You must do other things. The top on my Mini is down every time I drive it, even in below freezing temps. Only when it rains do I put it up. To keep warm I do/have the following:

Run the heater on high with only the floor vents and the dash vents on and aimed at me.

The seat heater is on high.

I wear an expedition weight jacket from North Face.

I wear some nice, light to medium weight cold weather gloves from REI.

I also wear a nice wool knit cap. Keeping your head warm is important.

Sometimes it takes a few miles to warm myself up so I'm really comfortable, but before too long, I'm nice and cozy.

If it were to get colder, I'd wear ski pants. Or, since I have heated jacket and pants liners for my motorcycling, I've thought of wearing those. With a heated jacket liner and some good pants, I could likely be comfortable in even -40 weather.

 

ok I just want to clear up that I'm not completely insane, there is no way on earth that I'd think about driving at -40 with the top down. Truth be told when I owned my miatas I rarely had the top lowered if the temperature was around or below freezing.

As for the -40, it really never reaches that temperature except when they factor in the windshield. We will see some nights of -30, but those still are few and far in between.

Why I was asking this question was for my 2 1/2yr old daughter. I didn't want to be putting her in the back and have her fingers and toes freeze. Seat heaters work great for the front passengers, not so much for people in car seats though.

While I truly love r52s I have a sneaky suspicion I will still be in my clubman come this time next year. Between the extra room in the back for my daughter, the roof rack for my bike and the cargo room for camping gear the clubman is hard to beat.

Now if I could just convince my wife to allow me to have to MINIs, now that would be perfect.

Thank you everyone for all of the great feedback too!