Hello all-

I've been lurking here for about 3 years, and am seriously considering a mini cabrio. My wife and I test drove an S hardtop in '03, with the intent to order one. But, I really wanted a convertable and the mini wasn't available as a cabrio at that time. So, we got side tracked with a Jeep Rubicon instead. Now that gas prices are so high, the Jeep at 14-16 mpg is losing it's luster. Now, three years later, I've got the hots for a cabrio, and especially since the design is changing for '07.

Mini of Murray, near Salt Lake City, UT, is the closest dealer, at about 5 hours away from where we live in Idaho. I've been trying to work a deal on this S Cabrio:



It has the cold weather and premium packages, dynamic stability control, and cloth seats.

It is the policy of Mini of Murray to sell at MSRP, but they said they would "work with me" on the price. That means about $2-300 under MSRP and maybe a set of mats included. Curious what your thoughts are on the price, considering it's the end of top down weather here, new design coming in the future, etc.

Also, the biggest question for us is the practicality of the Cabrio for a daily driver. I would be going from my Jeep Rubicon to the mini, with two kids (5 and 8), and sometimes a dog... in heavy snow country... The jeep isn't much bigger inside, but my dog fits nicely in the back of the Jeep. Not sure if he'll fit in the boot of a cabrio if necessary. Does the package tray come out?

There aren't many days that the roads are too bad for a mini, they are usually plowed by the time I leave for work in the morning. There are quite a few minis around here too. I've driven many small cars over the years in the snow, so I'm not too worried about it. I would like to hear from owners that drive cabrios daily in the snow though, driving impressions, how deep can the car get through, etc. How is the heater and defrost? Will it keep up with a huge downfall of snow or will the wipers and glass ice up? The beauty of where I live is that we have four distinct seasons, and winter is only one of the four. The other three are perfect mostly sunny days for top down driving, which I'm used to in my Jeep.

That's it for now, hoping to put a deal together soon... before the temps are too cold for the top down.

And, thanks for your thoughts...

Pete

 

Pete, The Cabrio will be the same for 07 as it is now, so no extra dealing on that stage. In fact I'd expect that this time next year we see some loaded Cabrio ala the GP as MINI tries to end the current model with a Premium car and clear out their parts bin.

Yes the rear parcel tray comes out although you can't in theory retract the top past the sunroof (unless you tape the safety switch down).

I'd seriously look at/for an 06 with Limited Slip. Mine doesn't have it, but I wish it did, of course I got mine used and at $25K I couldn't pass it up.

I have not been though a snow season yet, so I'll leave that to some one else to comment, but my wife and I do love my Cabrio.

 

Hiya and welcome, as I see this is your first post.

I'm not sure what your exact "wants" are but if you aren't dead set on a brand new Cabrio, I just put mine up for sale. Here is the thread with all the specs.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=81235

Feel free to PM me if interested or if you have any questions.

When we lived back in VA - we had the same situation as you - 4 distinct weather seasons. I didn't let that keep me away from having a rag top..

Donna

 

Pete, This is basically my car too and the blue/blue/blue is very good looking combo. Unless you are into the new car thing or want to customize, used is the way to go! Michael

 

The cabrio pictured is dark silver with a black top, hard to tell in the photos. Back in '03 we were going to order an S hardtop in DS, and I think I still like it best, with the exception of maybe black.




Donna-
The msrp for this one is $28,600, so for the extra $2,600 I'd rather have new with no miles. The car isn't fully loaded, but I prefer cloth to leather in the hot sun and sub zero temps. I'm not all that excited about the wheels, but if I buy the car, they will become winter wheels and I'll find something I like better for the other seasons.

Pete

 

This is a pretty typical snow day here, I want to make sure the defrost can handle constant heavy snowfall. The roads are usually cleared or packed down during or after a dump of snow, so I'm not too worried about clearance issues.

Pete

 

First, Welcome Pete

Here's my take on it... we get pretty good snowfall here in Chicagoland. Not quite like you, but enough to give an opinion. I've had no problems in the snow. In fact, I look forward to it sometimes. I drove through a really good storm before Xmas last year. With the heat and defroster on, my windows stayed clear. I felt confident driving the Cabrio on unplowed streets. SUV's had more trouble from what I could see. I park in a garage when at home so the only time the top is exposed to the elements is when I go to work.

I have one child (6 yo) and a dog (elkhund) my daughter loves riding with the top down. The booster seat fits ok in the back. I take her to school every morning. I don't take the dog because he has too much hair. It's not comfortable for him either. Might be ok for a smaller breed.

Good luck with your MINI adventure

 

My cabrio should be arriving next week, and is "Cool Blue" with a blue top and Dark Blue leather as well. The only thing I don't know is what colour the carpet will be. Can you tell me if your carpet is black or grey? I'm looking at some coco floormats, and can't figure out from the MINI site what colour carpet you get with Dark Blue leather.

Thanks,
Scott

 

I picked up my MINI last February and saw a little bit of snow - including that massive four foot New Jersey storm (the day after I picked it up). Right from the start I planned on owning two sets of wheels - the 17 inch sport rims that came with it on which I put a set of dedicated snow tires and my summer 18 inch JCW rims.

With dedicated snow tires, the MINI is basically a tank in the snow - I was transitioning from a Ford Explorer and have always felt much safer in the MINI - even when four-wheel drive was on in the SUV.

The only thing to worry about in winter is the clearance for the air dam on the MINI S - it represents about four inches of road clearance so you need be careful in unplowed snow (or you will be doing the plowing).

Good luck with it !!

Jersey Bill

 

My carpet is blue It's purrrty!

Donna

 

The tray does come out, and will have to for the dog to go in the boot, unless your dog can tolerate a small, completely enclosed dark space. With the tray in, the boot would be like a travel crate with no openings. You need to take your dog down to the dealer to check it out.

The rear seat has limited leg room even for small kids (I have a 7 year old). That's because the rear seat was moved forward (compared to the hardtop) to make room for the folded roof. The rear legroom is not too bad if the driver and front passenger slide their seats forward (at the expense of their legroom).

Overall, the MINI cabrio is not the best practical choice as a daily family car, but if the family enjoys it then you learn to adjust to accomodate it. In my case, we have a large greyhound, and we are resigned to renting a larger car when we need to take the family and the dog somewhere together (happens rarely).

 

Thanks! Do you also have the carpeted floormats? When I was selecting the floormats on the "Build Your Own" website, blue wasn't an option - just black, grey and beige.

Scott

 

Bavarian Autosport (www.bavauto.com) has more choices in carpeted mats for the MINI if that's what you're looking for. I pickup my Cool Blue / Blue Top / Blue Leather / Blue carpeted baby on Monday - and have the (free) carpet swatches from BavAuto to see if I can get a good match - But I'm also getting the OEM rubber mats and boot mat (probably gray, maybe black...).

I'll post Monday when I see how the BavAuto swatches match up...

 

my Dark Silver 2006 Cabrio is my daily driver. I love it, but then again I live in Florida . Our second car is a Mini-van. If I had two kids and dog and my Mini was the only car I had, I think twice about it. But if you have a second auto that's larger, then go it

 

Thanks for the tip. If I buy aftermarket floor mats, they're probably going to be coco-fiber mats, though.

I just can't understand why MINI doesn't offer blue mats if the carpet in my car is going to be blue. I ordered the black mats because the only choices were black, grey and beige, and neither beige nor grey made sense with blue leather seats, so I assumed the carpets would be black.

If the car shows up with blue carpets and black mats, I guess I'll just be getting the coco mats a little sooner than I had planned.

Scott

 

My 06 Cabrio is my daily driver in Chicago. The MINI is great (read "fun!!") in the snow, and with heated seats I've had the top down on some December and January days. Also, our son (who is 5' 6") likes to ride in the back, as long as his mother puts her seat up to give him enough leg room. We did a Chicago - St. Louis - Indy - Chicago 3 day road trip for MINI Takes the States in August and didn't feel cramped.

I would not hesitate for one minute to make a MINI Cabrio your daily driver. The only pain in the winter is finding a way to keep it clean, as I won't take it through a car wash.

Mark S

 

Like in the info. just above, other sites have more selection of colors. Mine came with the standard floor mats (grey) and I removed those and bought the OEM rubber mats - easy to clean - they've worked great for me...

Donna

 

Hey Mark... have we met??? are you coming out for the Starved Rock Run on 10/29 with CMMC??? I was at Indy also, but just for the day. I hope it's not too cold so I can go top down that day

 

My DS/B Cabrio MCS is only one month old but so far I have really enjoyed driving it. Compared to other convertibles that I've owned, the top goes up and down with just the push of a button. I also like the "sun roof" function of the top.

 

I don't think we have. I'd like to get involved with the CMMC, but I work Sundays so it makes it tough to do things like the Starved Rock Run. I keep watching the event calendar and one of these days I'll get a chance to show up.

Mark S

 

I'll second this - my last convertible before the MINI was a 1972 MGB. Of course, the top was completely manual, and you had to fold it juuuuust riiiiiight, origami-style, to get it to fold down into place and not crease/crack the plastic rear windows in the convertible top.

By comparison, the electric roof mechanism on the MINI Cabrio feels almost decadent - it's like cheating.

Scott

 

Thanks for all the replies about winter practicality everyone.

Couple more questions...

How much narrower is the rear seat in the cabrio as compared to the hard top? I've been studying all the photos I can find on the net, and it looks to be maybe 8 to 10 inches narrower?

Also, I read somewhere that the rear seat is farther forward in the cabrio than the hard top, but by how much?

As for my dog, he is a german wire haired pointer. He's a bit small for his breed, and has been crate trained. He perfers to hang out in his "cave" (the crate) and the space in the back of my Jeep is about the same as the hard top mini. I don't think he will mind being in there back and forth to work, even if it is dark. That's why I wanted to know if the package tray came out, he would have a bit more had room in there if so. With the soft top down on my Jeep, the space is about the same as the cabrio with the package tray in place, as the top on the jeep encloses the space at the top, and he doesn't mind it at all. It actually stays cooler in there when the top is down on the Jeep. Getting him in and out of the cabrio might be more difficult though, and I'm wondering how the plastic finish on the tail gate would fair over time...

Thanks again for your input-

Pete

 

I would say a big huge to the cabrio if you plan on having 4 people & your dog in the Mini. The rear area, even with the parcel shelf removed, is no where near large enough for your dog plus there is no air circulation back there for him. Plus I don't even want to think of what would happen if you did cram him in there & then you got rear-ended.

 

I would agree 100%.

The Cabrio is fun - but not fun if you are trying to cram everybody and everything in - everytime you go somewhere. It will be more frustrating than fun I'm afraid.

Donna

 

The mini wouldn't be our only car, we also have a Tahoe, and my other fun cars, a '50 Plymouth and '53 Chevy truck. The likelyhood of needing to get 4 people and the dog in the car at once is pretty slim. And if it did happen, it would only be for a 12 mile ride from my office or kids school, to home. I put myself, two kids, and the dog in my truck regularly, and it's less than half the size of the mini. Most of the time, it would be one of my kids, and the dog, and one of the seats could be down to give the dog some room.

Also, I've been doing quite a bit of reading on collision safety in the mini, and statistically speaking, only about 3-4 percent of fatalities for all cars are from rear end collisions. You are more likely to get hit from the side, and there's even less crush zone there than the rear. I'm obviously much more worried about my kids in the car than the dog, I don't think I'd be too worried about having the dog in the boot for a short ride.

Pete