True. As I sort through the online stuff, I start thinking, "here's one with this...but not that... maybe I don't really need that".
I have a hunch that eventually I'll certainly wish I had it!

Glad to hear your order happened to fast. 5 weeks sounds quick! Yesssss!
(fingers crossed).

Thanks again for the feedback!

 

mini usa, dealer locater

 

Sorry dude, but Prius have got to be the most ugly new car to be made (save for the Tata Nano). They look like big cocaroaches (yes the new ones too). No offense to anyone. Clubman FTW

 

Toyota Prius...$26K...Yawn

MINI COOPER CLUBMAN...$27K...Fun

"LUSTING"...Priceless!

 

Sketch- Ummmm...did you "Dude" me?!
When my husband calls me "dude", he has to buy me dinner!
I'm sure no Prius owners were insulted by your cockaroach comment

ricbow- Yes, the dealer locater is great! I emailed my configuration to all of the regional dealers, but no matches. There's one non S that's close... but not quite close enough to being my dream Mini.

inimini- Viva la "LUSTING"!

 

Umm I think the choice for the clubman is a pretty easy one (at least from my perspective).. Its a much more fun car, even in the base model. My mechanic recently told me a whole background on the prius, apparently they have had a few cases of explosions in the car and toyota tries to cover it up. Also after 5 years you have to replace all the batteries which costs several thousand dollars. I vote for the Clubman

 

Your mechanic doesn't exactly have his facts straight. First, the battery pack in the Prius is warranted for 8 years / 100,000 miles, so you can go at least that long without having to worry about the cost of replacement batteries.

Also, from 2000 to 2007, no Prius has required a replacement battery pack due to the original pack wearing out - all of the replacements have been for cars involved in accidents. This may still be true today, but 2007 is the last year that I know for certain this was the case.

The only examples I could find about Prius explosions were in cars that had been retrofitted with an aftermarket lithium-ion battery pack and charging system. Either those are the cars your mechanic heard about, or Toyota is doing a *really* good job of covering up explosions in the stock Prius.

 

hazardous waste !!!!!!!! the cost of disposing one prius batterys,at the end of there life. give me a mini!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Having just bought my Mini, being that I like the Prius and having been a life long (though I'm still pretty young) Camry owner, here are my two cents:

-The Prius is a cool car. The current model also looks good. It is good design. I don't understand how people rip on the design. It's one of the best designs out there IMHO. I didn't even look at one though since I've had my heart set on a Mini for ages. Why? Well despite not hating the Prius design, I wanted a car that I thought would look "timeless" for a long time. So I got my Mini.
-I also didn't get a Prius because it doesn't sound as fun to drive. My Camrys were fun enough, but nothing to get excited over.
-The Prius gets better mileage, but with the second gen Mini's having improved here I was fine with what I considered a small enough difference considering the trade-offs. ALSO, the Prius didn't stay electric long enough for me since it turns off at like the 12mph mark and I accelerate really quickly and am usually in a hurry.
-The Prius is a cleaner car (and I'm big on being green), but the Mini is also a clean car because along with improving MPG with the 2nd gens it also improved emissions.
-I think my Mini will handle MUCH better than the Prius in all sorts of ways.
-The Mini suits my driving style much more: fast/quick, but safe/alert.
-The price of the Prius was right up there with a Mini Clubman S and I could have got a base Clubman for less than a Prius.
-The Mini holds it's value better. I don't know how much better, but a used 09 Clubman (NOT an S) with 3500 miles I found was still $25,000 after negotiating when I could have ordered a new with about the same for only $1000 more. I looked at a ton of cars to find a deal, and it was tough even in this economy to find a deal on a Mini.

*Here was the one thing that bothered me about the difference between the two cars. The Prius, unlike the Mini, doesn't need premium fuel. No matter how long this lasts, gas prices will rise in the near enough future. IMO $3-$4 per gallon is right around the corner. So I don't like that I'll now have to buy premium fuel. However the difference per gallon is about 20 cents. Per tank that's going to be about $3. Since I only fill up about 26 times per year, that's only about $75 more per year in gas based on price difference (and not including MPG difference). Worth it for the car I love.

At the end of the day I don't think you could go wrong. IMHO you're looking at two the best cars in the World.

 

Two words - Clubmans rock.

 

BLAUGRANA: FYI - many folk, self included, do not use premium fuel in the 'S' cars. My 09 R55 runs fine in everyday driving on a top tier, low octane, fuel. Unless you desire to use Premium fuel on principle, you could probably take that issue off of your list.

 

Really? OK, so this will sound stupid, but...

So when you go to the gas station, or at least every one I go to, they have regular, mid-grade and premium. For the purposes of this discussion, I'll say low, middle and high. For my last car, 96 Camry, I only every used regular/low fuel. SO, are you saying that with my Clubman S I can use the middle grade fuel instead of the premium???

 

From the Owner's Manual, 91 AKI is the recommended fuel grade, but 87 AKI is the minimum grade. The manual also states that using 87 won't affect engine life.

Different octane grades can give different fuel economy results, and there are countless discussions about which grade of gasoline is best from a "cents per mile" standpoint, but to answer your question - yes, you can used midgrade unleaded (and probably even regular unleaded) without harming your engine.

 

I believe Toyota hired the ex-designers from GM.

My picks for the two best cars in the world: McClaren F1 and Ferrari Enzo. I believe "LUSTING" is a sin when you mention these two cars.

I'll have to settle for my wife's cars...07 MCSa PW/BLK Hatch, 08 LB Clubman, and a 07 Red VW Beetle Convertible.

 

Not this again!
Yea I know. you know more about the mini then the "engineers" who invented and built the car
read the owners manual. it calls for 91 or better. Why? Simple. If you want the max performance from your mini, (which i asume is of interest to you in at least a minor way) after all you bought the "S" not "just a cooper".
What you are doing by using less then 91 octain, is making the computer retard (approit word here ) the timing to avoid it from pinging. Um yes, that is a very bad thing for a motor to do since it can eventually burn a hole in the pistons!
But go ahead and save you wopping $2.50 per fill up by using the cheap gas that way when your engine needs to be rebuilt because of your stupidity youll have all that change left over to rebuilt it.
You may want to add water to your tank as well. that should save you at least another $1. per fill up. After all a rebuilt mini motor is only about $8K

Some people just don't get it

 

Jeez - take a deep breath and a Valium, why don't you?

Then, re-read the owner's manual. 91 AKI is a recommendation, not a requirement. As long as you're using 87 AKI or above, the octane rating won't affect engine life. And that's straight from the horse's mouth.

True, the peak power will be lower, but he's not going to hole a piston or grenade his engine.

 

we had an 06 MINI. that was a great ride, and the best coasting car i have ever driven, 5sp std. but only marginally practical. whopping amounts of fun, though. with daughter now in college (she passed her road test with the std trans. coupe) and son in midst of a growth spurt, the clubman started to look like it could be the go-to vehicle in our household. more practical. nearly same fun. as a tall guy, I really love the barn doors instead of banging my head and hurting my back loading under a low hatchback, and the cargo area is useful in the clubman. really like the under floor area. Holds a weeks groceries with the seat still up. I like the better rear seats and better rear headoom and better rear seat access. but the 6 sp is not as visceral as the 5 sp was in our 06 (both coupe and our clubbie are/were the base models) the stereo is far worse for intuitive eyes-off use. Hated the feel of the stock shift **** in the clubbie.

but the clubbie is a bunch of great added value. DSC is now stock, telescoping steering wheel adj STD, the stretched wheelbase makes the highway driving a far more enjoyable experience, and cloverleafs are still theme park G-force stunt courses. the sport leatherette seats in our clubbie are more comfortable than the 06- possibly the best adjustable and comfortable driving position I have owned. the ipod functionality is vastly improved (no more MINI titled playlists req'd), and the phone prep for hands free is vastly cheaper than in the 06 voice dialing works great. the seat heater controls no longer mistakenly hit when grabbing the shifter below the ****. etc, etc.
so how does this compare to a hybrid? well, mainly by saying that a few quibbles aside, the clubbie is a serious step up in the practicality scale from the gen 1 cars. improved road comfort, improved utility, still pretty great to look at. still way fun to drive, still vastly customizable (ask me about by whalen cue ball shift **** yumm) pretty great mileage. 40mpg highway drives under 70mph 30 mpg in town small town east coast san francisco wannabe-no endless traffic jams, but serious elevation changes. Knowing I am in the top 10% of current mfg cars for efficiency is good enough for me.
and every 20 yrs or so you should get the car you want instead of the car you need. before our 06 MINI the last one i wanted was a motorcycle.
(I may need to rethink this principle in my life, so I dont let MINIs sneak out of my garage)

before the economy tanked our coupe's residual value was very good, so our 06 at 5yr financing and only the min down was a par for trade on the similarly optioned clubbie. 0 cash due at delivery, same mo. payment, reset clock on the warranty, cheaper to insure. how much more practical can you get?

 

actually, in time, it can and in a few cases does.

 

Oh, so now you're the one that "knows more about the MINI than the engineers who invented and built the car?" Isn't that exactly what you were chastising BLAUGRANA for just a few posts ago?

If you have any solid proof that a steady diet of 87 AKI gas will damage a stock MINI engine, post it here - you'll be the first person in almost seven years of NAM "octane threads" that's been able to.

 

No. I'm just the one that takes advise from the engineers that built the car
oh by the way, look at the third piston from "to low octain" usehttp://www.theultralightplace.com/pistons.htm sorry it's not a mini, but a mini engine is still an internal comustion engine. Unless you know something I don't.

 

Well, I know that the MINI engineers specify 87 AKI as the minimum octane, and claim that using it won't adversely affect engine life.

And posting pictures of damaged pistons doesn't prove your point. No one is arguing that detonation from too-low octane can damage engines. But according to MINI themselves, 87 AKI isn't too low.

 

No one is arguing that detonation from too-low octane can damage engines.

hmmmm

OK scott. You asked for proof and I showed it. From an engine builder. If you don't want to accept it as "good enough proof for you" thats fine.
Have a great day. My work here is done.

 

went to the gas station today... here were my choices:

1. Reg Octane for 1.88/gal
2. Mid Octane for 2.03/gal
3. Premium Octane for 2.18/gal

for a 13 gallon fillup:

1. $24.44
2. $26.39
3. $28.34

Question:

Is $4 a tank more too much to pay to ensure you are treating your engine right?

Personally:

I ran with both regular and premium. I noticed that with regular my throttle response was lagging and fuel milleage dropped a point or two.

 

You proved that too-low octane gasoline can damage an engine, which all of us already knew, thanks.

What you did NOT prove was that 87 AKI is too low for a MINI. The owner's manual says that 87 AKI won't damage the engine, and yet some random chucklehead on NAM is telling me it will.

Hmmm, whom to believe?

 

Blaugrana ; To answer your question: I use 87 (low) most of the time, especially when motoring about in the suburbs. If I feel like I want a racers edge, on a Mini club trip or just to play on some back roads, I may use Mid, or the high, or a mix. The Mini engine management computer takes care of this and it works.