I am surprised to hear that. I had a '97 EX coupe that I bought new & put a 160,000 miles on without doing a thing to it, never even replaced the timing belt, nothing ever went wrong with, not even a bulb. Currently have a '99 EX coupe that I bought used and use as a daily driver. It's too bad the new ones are having some trouble. I imagine a MINI will still have more problems, even if it's an '08. The R50's & R53's did throughout their production. If you can live with a few rattles & few electrical gremlims, & mechanical headaches go for the MINI. Like I said before it depends on what you want out of the car, I'm partial to MINIs, and would take one over a new SI, but Honda builds a hell of a car, great engines & great transmissions, just lack a little soul in my opinion.

 

1: I'm pretty sure that BMW bhp numbers are Crank ... the claims on my car are 507... and I know for a fact it's 435@ the wheels
2: Someone stated that the MCS is faster than the WRX... I assume you weren't talking WRX/STI... those cars are pretty fast

Now for the important part... sitting in my driveway I have a 06 Viper SRT-10<truck> an 07 e60M5.. guess which one I drove yesterday... that's right... neither... I drove my daughters 07MCS.... why?? because it's fun factor... would I want to drive it everyday? no probably not, but it's a pretty fun car, is plenty fast and is more fun to drive than every honday I've ever driven <excluding the S2000>

The car's not for everyone, but even I have to admit, I really enjoy driving the mini, even if it is a 25K car if they make the AWD model I'll probably consider buying one for myself

 

I stated that my friend said it was faster or felt faster than the stock subaru WRX, the one with the 2 liter engine turbo, not the new one with 2.5 liter, this comment came from the Owner himself. That of course is before he Moded up his car.

 

I wasn't callin you out. ... just was suprised... I also didn't know it was the older model... I've only driven the 07STI... <with the 2.5> the cars are apples and oranges... can't really compare the two... they're both fun... just different

 

I think the MCS and Civic SI comparison is apples and oranges also. The way they make power is completely different and the only way to see which you like is to drive them both.

 

Me too! If cheap were kittens, I would be a litter, and I spent upwards of 30k on my MINI in the end. NO REGRETS! I HEART MY MINI and can't imagine dropping for any boring Honda, even if it is less expensive.

 

No problem, just wanted to clarify in case somebody thought it was the STI, I have another friend with the STI and that car is insanely fast. Even my friend with the 2.0 Turbo WRX, after modding it, the car is really fast. But is stock form, I remembered testing it, the take off was a lot slower than the MINI.

 

Hi, I bought a 2007 MCS in August and waited for a month to get the car and finally got it in September end. I drove Civic Si, VW GTI, Pontiac GTO, Solstice before I drove MINI. The moment I drove it I forgot what it felt like when I was driving the other cars. Everything about the car is better except for the parts in case you want to replace some in the future. It looks a lot better, Pick up is superior, Gas Mileage is better, Handling is unquestionably superior, Saftey features are advanced. These were the motivations I looked at. I dont know what else we need from the car. Maintenance might be little on the higher side after 3 years. But thats after 3 years right? The 4K you spend more on the car is well worth. But before you decide love the car. One major thing you should consider is how many people might sit in your car most of the time? If it more than 2 most of the time then MINI might be a little behind in the scores. Hope it helped.

 

The torque steer makes the MCS feel faster than a WRX, but trust me, it's not (I had one)

That said, I think because of the traction issues at a drag strip, MINIs run a slower ET, but trap higher than a stock 2.0L WRX.

 

WRX/STi = Race car with a radio!

 

LOL how'd the GTO get in there... talk about apples n oranges.. ....

 

The MINI is a vastly superior car to the Si. If you're comparing prices, you'd need to drop quite a bit on a new suspension for the Si to bring it even remotely close to the handling with the MINI.

Plus its an absolute chick magnet and is far more customizable than any car on the market today, at least in this price range. The MINI will grab everyones attention while the Si will only grab the attention of a select few.

 

Yes, forgot to mention the MINI is a real Chick Magnet. Most girls that see mine parked at the parking lot dig it.

 

Personally I was split. I didn't like the styling of either cars although MINI has grown a bit on me. For me it just came down to the MINI being more fun to drive (and better at autox). The test drive in the MINI vs the Si won it for me. If i went with the Si pretty sure I would have the suspension replaced by now. From that respect the MINI just made more sense to me.

 

Both are nice cars.

 

i used to be split too. i really liked the si for a while. i wanna talk about the price though. i dont know how dealerships work in your area, but when i went to Honda of Annapolis, that immediately eliminated the si from my list. allow me to elaborate.

actually, the si coupe is only $90 cheaper MSRP than the mini. now i know that is a mini with no options, but that isnt the important thing. the MSRP of the si is $21,110, straight from honda's website. however, when i went on the lot, first of all, you had to pay for wheel locks and mud guards as all the sis had them. not only that, but on the list of options, right under the wheel locks and mud guards, was an option called "DLR MARK UP". hmmm whats that? now i dont remember the price of that "option" but i know it brought the grand total of the car up to 24 or 25k, which is more than the mini i am going to order will cost. when i asked the salesman about it he said, "It's a hot item." so he admitted to my face that he was ripping me off. if i was trying to rip you off, i wouldnt put the real price on the car, and then tell you im going to charge you and extra couple grand just for the hell of it. i would at least try to lie to you if i was already dishonest enough to mark it up like that in the first place. he basically said, we are ripping you off and if you dont like it, too bad, we dont care. hopefully, all honda dealers are not like that.

moral of the story is, dont go by msrp on this one. go to your local honda dealer and see if they have any sis on the lot and see how much they are going for. hopefully your dealer doesnt rip people off like mine.

 

Thanks things have changed since '06 when the new Si's came out. I can get the Si for the MSRP with no markups...no room to bring them below though as they are still rare.

BTW, what is wrong with the Civic Si's suspension that so many of you say that you'd have to change it right away? How does it compare to the standard suspension on the MCS?

 

Well hard to say without putting decent tires on and going to the track or autox. I have only drive the 7th gen civic or RSX to the limit and both were inherently unstable towards oversteer when actually driving them correctly (even on the soft civic). Part of it was the rear wishbones were too small and geometry was poor at the limit. They made a lot of changes for the Si and 8th gen civic but I felt like they softened up the car too much and it roles around. Just didn't give me the confidence the MINI gave during the test drive. Its too bad I can't test drive at the autocross . But with the softened up suspension anyone serious about handling is probably going to move to the after market. Honda just simply isn't as good at a suspension as BMW, but from my experience so far their quality is better. Going new BMW had a good enough warranty combined with decent resale to make me decide MINI. Limiting your options should help keep the prices together. Premium package, auto light/wipers, and cold weather if you live somewhere cold are the major resale choices. Id thrown in LSD since you are comparing to the Si anyways.

 

The Mini is in a league of it's own. For the longest time I actually hated driving. It was expensive and agrivating. Now, yes it's not cheaper, but it's more FUN than I ever thought it would be. I'm not talking about driving fast, just everyday normal driving is fun. I can't say I ever owned a SI, but from what all the road test say, the FUN quotent is in the far, far, up rev range. The MCS power, I think, is more everyday usable in everyday driving.

I never before named my car, never detailed my car, and never had so much attention paid to it, just parked. As I said before, people go out of their way to look at it in a parking lot. A few day's after I picked up my MCS, I went to my chiropractor (bad back), I was seated in the back room waiting, and the receptionist came running back saying, "there's some guy whose been checking out your car for the last 5 min's". I told her that was normal. I go this one pool hall that has all glass in front that allows you to see the parking lot. Next door is a fast food resteraunt. I can't say how many people walked out of their way to check out my car. And many, many were not exactly young. One charming elderly lady wanted the complete tour, and to sit in it. As I mentioned before in another post, I once had an entire restaraunt talking, and asking me endless questions about my car.

I don't think you'd get so much attention with the SI. It looks like all the others, trim or no fancy trim. The Mini is just far more,...charming and fun, without having it pressed hard to the floor.

 

A guy I know drives an SI. Very nice car. I was telling him about the Motortober event where I got to drive the 07 MCS's on the track all day long. All I have to say is what Honda dealer would ever host a track event and bring brand new cars for their customers to do some performance driving. Its a no brainer.

 

Don't be fooled into buying the pre-build packages for the MINI either. If there's an option you don't like in the premium package, separate it out, the savings really aren't that great.

I ended up with LSD, a multi-functional steering wheel, a sunroof, colored interior (rooster red and piano black) and rear fogs and still got the car to about $25k even before taxes. Thats not too bad.

 

I'm doing the same. Like you, I will add LSD, a multi-functional steering wheel and the sunroof, plus DSC and the Crown Spoke Wheels. That way, I can upgrade the suspension and wheels later if I desire.

 

Here's what I have spec'd for my '08MCS if i get one:
Premium
Cold Wthr
DSC
LSD
MFSW (not part of premimum anymore)
Rear Fog
Center Armrest

Wasn't sure if the rain sensing wipers would work well or better than doing it manually.

 

I personally hate auto wipers...but that is just me...one more thing that down the road could go bad

 

Listen, I have a history with Honda and really looked to them recently when shopping for new cars the past couple of years. So, I think I can weigh in here.

My first car was a 1991 Prelude Si 2.0. Still have it and it still gets eyes and compliments now and then (when I take it out of the garage without its tags). In addition, my wife's first car was a 1989 CRX which was sold just yesterday .. We literally cried as we watched her drive away. So, we have a history with Honda and I have always been very impressed with their reliability, resale, and style.

That being said, I can tell you how disappointed I was to really take a hard look at their product line the last couple of years. Honda was built on the fun, small, and affordable car. Hell, they pretty much invented it. However, they tucked tail and followed the masses, introducing only Minivans, SUVs, and pickups the last several years and whittled their passenger car line offerig to the Accord & the Civic. Period.

Now the new Accord only mimics the bold lines and front ends the American car makers invented a few years ago with the 300M, Calibur, etc. In doing so they have lost their way and cant even come up with an original design. That is what the Civic SI is now: a 2 door version of a Civic. A few lines here and there but really uninspiring.

I looked hard and really wanted to come back to Honda. However, I found the unique styling, blending of performance & functionality, and spirit that I had so long ago experienced in a Honda present in the MINI.

I travel a lot and have seen the 5 door version they sell in Asia, South Africa, & Europe. Now that is a unique design. Unfortunately, when I took the brochure I picked up in S Africa to my Honda dealership & said "Bring this here" he just looked at me in that smug Honda way and said "We sell plenty of these. Why do we need to bring that here to the US?"

So, in short Honda is going to have to do more than take 2 doors off of a librarian car and put an under-torqued engine in it to recreate the long lost Honda spirit. That spirit was embodied in the little CRX that just left our driveway and I am very sad to see it go. I hope Honda can introduce something besides fuggly SUVs and embrace their past that made them a successful car company. Maybe they have with the new Civic Si. I feel they they havent, so go with the MINI.