Do you mean as far as size or styling?

IMO, the GTI interior is rather plain. Of course if you get the total base interior in the Mini, it's a bit plain as well. But with the Mini, you can add all sorts of interior options to spice it up. Things like Lounge Leather, color line, or wood/piano black/brushed aluminum trim. I think when optioned right, the Mini interior is one of the nicest of any car on the market. It also allows you to make your Mini unique, where as every GTI interior is going to look basically the same.

I have to chime in... I had an '07 GTi (traded it for the wifes new car, tried to commute by train, didn't work out, ended up buying a MCS). It was a great car, I loved it (I also love my Mini). Speed wise it felt faster to me, although keeping traction was difficult and it didn't have a twin-scroll turbo so the boost kicked in a lot higher. 1/4 miles times are a bit faster, good drivers were getting in the low 14 seconds (14.0 - 14.2, some guys pulled 13.8s with a chip and intake). I commute about 55miles every day, most of that is highway. I could get 32-34mpg whereas I get about 34-36 with my mini cooper. The main difference in my eyes are styling, interior room and handling. Handling on the MINI (stock is my only comparison) is remarkably better. Oh yea, and the standard radio in the GTI is lightyears ahead of the standard radio in my Mini. They both have their pros and both have their cons, as everyone else has been saying. Best bet is to pick which pros you favor more and go with that car. If a little "small" or "girly" comment will **** you off every now and then, go with the GTI

Before buying the Mini a couple of months ago I test drove the GTI. The handling felt very soft to me, much less sporty than even my non-sport suspension MCS. The R32 that I drove had very nice handling, it felt much tighter than the GTI. I really liked the GTI interior, very classy design, though the Mini design has grown on me. Ultimately it seemed too big, too generic looking, and lacked the unique feel of the Mini. It was however, a very nice car.

I have had a few VW, Repair is a nightmare.....

Sorry OP, but the GTI is:
- Much heavier (3100 lbs in the GTI versus 2668 lbs in the MCS; think of your brake pads),
- Much slower (7.2s to 60mph v. 6.7s),
- And gets much worse mileage (21-29mpg v. 27-32)

Put another way, the MCSa gets 29% better mileage in the city, and 10% better on the freeway). That's with official specs, btw. Bears mentioning that we see an average of 32.0mpg in mixed driving in my wife's '08 MCSa, and on open highway runs, the MCSa indicates 38-40mpg at 65-70mph.

You save some money up front on the VW, perhaps, but maintenance costs and resale value will more than offset that. Good luck, no matter what you decide.

http://www.vw.com/gti/completespecs/en/us/#/show_all
http://www.miniusa.com/#/learn/FACTS_FEATURES_SPECS/

/thread

GTI DSG 0-60 is 6.9 seconds -- as much as we're all already biased towards the MCSa let's try not to play with the numbers to swing the pendulum even further.

Transmission-wise there is no contest - the DSG is the best auto tranny out there today. When shopping for my current car I test drove one and DSG shifts so quickly, smoothly and accurately--it is the freakin' bees' knees.

Everything else you said, however, is spot on . Resale value, fuel economy, handling, buying into a brand and car culture, all in Mini's favor. Which is why I am an owner as well, after seriously considering and test-driving both GTI and MCS.

Totally my bad... I completely missed the 6.9 on the other side of the '/'. Thanks for pointing that out.

what's .3 seconds between fellow Mini owners, lol. There's a lot of back and forth here as to which is a better performing car. When test-driving both, the GTI did seem a tad slower, but the ride in the GTI imo wasn't as "busy" as the MCS so I could be confusing "slower" for "more composed".

I have owned a couple of Volkswagens, the first was a 1984 GTi, and the second was a 2001 Jetta VR6. The 1984 had it's issues at the time, but it was bearable. The 2001 Jetta had many problems, and many re-accuring problems. The VW warrany is a joke, for example, at 24,000 miles a radiator hose failed (it ripped because of a faulty design, that had the hose rubbing against the battery cover), VW would not cover the repair, because they claimed it was a wear and tear item. This was not the only defect that they would not cover, under the guise of wear and tear. Now I stay away from VW, although I love the way they look, their performance and price.

My 2 cents

A question concerning insurance. Does the Cooper S have a sport insurance premium, because I do not think the GTI is considered a high performance vehicle in the insurance world. anybody really know for sure?

Also...GTI can take regular gasoline according to their website (at a loss for performance of course), can the cooper s do the same, or is it just premium only. Even though I would never use regular on a performance car...never know if gas keeps going up..would be nice to atleast know you can put in regular.

as for 0-60 performance i read in car and driver as well as other magazines that it can hit it in 6 flat to 6.7..so i get mixed 0-60 times from different magazines.

hi,
another consideration.....
as a past multiple vw owner (passat, karmin ghia and beetle),
give the vw's service or lack of, some thought.
everyone i know whose owned a vw complains about
the service.....it's really bad....
ck

I can't say about that particular model.

We are on our first and last VW. 2000 passat V6.

We've had a friend work on it (he's a real mechanic)
so we're not ruined for life financially. That's the
only reason. They are impossibly complicated and
expensive to maintain.

It sits now because a little wire popped off somewhere.
(not operator error we, that means me,don't touch
the car except to check the oil)
The wire got sucked into the fan and pulled out half the
wiring harness and the backs of the headlights.

Sure. That could happen to any car, eh.

I THINK NOT.

Yeah, if you HAVE to have a VW, go with the beetle.
I mean, the original one.
Assuming you dont mind keeping up a 40 year old car.

We had those when I was little and really even through
HS and after I returned from the army.

Indestructable.

I wouldnt mind one myself actually.

You can put Regular in a Cooper S, just like the GTI the performance will suffer.

GTI looks like a wedge.

Agreed that back end really is a turn off for me. It just looks way too high and skinny.

Same here 98 Golf = many re-accuring problems, 02 Audi TT = ditto
maybe just me, but had bad expericence (reliability) with VW/Audi.

So far, BMW/Mini = Im happy with.

According to CR Audi/VW reliability has improved greatly over the last few years, while BMW seams to be going in the opposite direction (although not as much). I've owned 2 VWs (1998 Jetta, 1993 Corrado) and 2 Audis (2006 A3, 2004 allroad) over the past ten years not one had a single problem, although I have heard horror stories, but again thats the nature of enthusiast sites, and VW/Audi have tons of enthusiast.

VW service does suck, but Audi is topnotch.

That's an important point right there. How well does each of the manufacturers stand behind their product. MINI gives 3/36K free maintenance, and 4/50K bumper to bumper warranty (including 24 hour free roadside assistance). Many service reps are happy to work on a MINI under warranty even if it has aftermarket items, so long as the aftermarket items didn't cause the repair situation. MINIUSA has been known to respond quite well to customer complaints.

Hell, MINI offers cash prizes to individuals who race and win in their cars. Does VW or Audi do that?

Personally I feel like if I buy a car from a dealer, I don't want to hate going back to them. When I bought my Neon, I was treated like crap as soon as they were assured their money. When Liz bought her MINI, she continued to get goodies and letters from her MA for over a year after her purchase. That and the continued support from the MINI dealership was more than enough to ensure that I would come to them for my MINI.

I have 07 GTI that I traded 04 mcs for. Love the GTI, interior diff is not even close the VW has it all over mini. The GTI is bigger in every way. The GTI will smoke most all mini's, but with all that I missed my mini so much that we justed ordered a 08 MCSa. We will be keeping the GTI also. Both cars are a blast to drive.

"The GTI will smoke most all mini's"? At what exactly will a GTI smoke a Cooper S? I'd like to see a track that a stock GTI goes around quicker than a stock Cooper S.

As for insurance, when I traded my VW for the MINI my premium went down $180 for the six month period. So I guess my carrier does not view the MINI as either a sports car or a high risk.

VW Service, as most say, is poor. It is the main reason I got rid of the VW. The car would not stop rattling. Worse yet the rattle was coming from about ear height over my left shoulder, so no matter how loud the radio you heard it. The replaced everything and it persisted. It rattled from other places as well, but that one was the nail in the coffin. Bought the VW in February and replaced it in May. We still have another VW because I like the brand and their cars, but the dealerships are where VW looses big. MINI Service to this point reminds me of Porsche, they know my name and car and are quick to address both.

They're only listing the manual transmission speed specs there. Can't find official 0-60 listing for the auto.

No way the same engine going through vastly different gear ratios and a torque converter comes out to the same time down to the tenth of a second. Just not possible.

Most companies don't list the automatic spec because it's not very spectacular. VW's DSG is an exception, because it's really an automatic shifting manual.

For the '05 MCSa with the Aisin 6 speed auto:
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...tic/index.html

stink...electrical, electrical, electrical.

You'll spend more time at the dealership trying to fix that electrical problem...when you should be on the road in a MINI...Driving!

Well I would think he was referring to at the drag strip, but I wouldn't say smoke, GTI has basically the same 0-60 and a little better 1/4 mile. The key is launch, its very hard to launch a GTI without giving up traction, and precious seconds. Now on any road corse, auto X, or real track and the MCS will leave the GTI in the dust, hell I would think even a justa may give a better lap on many tracks.