I sold a 2008 Saturn Sky Turbo to get my 2nd Mini. I swore I would never have front drive again. The Mini is the ONLY exception. My Sky made over 300 HP, it was a blast to drive, but there is no trunk space. The Mini is much more practical. Also gets 28 MPG around town.

 

If you wanted trunk space you should have bought a Miata

Not as good looking and not as fast as the Redline Sky but a very useful trunk.

I've got the older (NB) version, 2004 Mazdaspeed which came with a factory turbo, not as fast stock as the Skystice turbos but easily rectified with aftermarket mods.

After owning the MSM for 5 years I could not go back to not owning at least one RWD car (my other cars, including the wife's MINI are all FWD).

Still if you gotta compromise, the MINI is probably the most fun in a FWD package.

Analogeezer

 

I might have contributed this to the thread already, I've not been here in a while, but man the lack of a temp gauge just bugs me to no end.

I can understand the lack of dash space to put in a dedicated gauge, but **** you can call up tons of info on the tach display, including your friggin birthday and **** but no way to look at the coolant temp. Hell you get this STANDARD on a friggin Cobalt!

Speaking of Cobalts, you can get a read out of the tire pressure on EACH Tire, all MINI gives you is a warning light when one tire gets low, WTF is that!

If you are going to saddle the car with TPMS why not at least make it more useful, I don't get that....

I find it interesting the onboard diagnostics and other "features" will gladly tell you when to visit the dealer but not tell you what the coolant temparture is....it's like they designed this car for idiots who know nothing about cars....

I will say it is a ton of fun to drive and quite unique, but I do wish my wife had agreed to the C5 Z06 I wanted to buy her instead

If it were my choice (she is the one who wanted a MINI) I certainly would have chosen about 6 - 8 cars before the MINI.

Don't get me wrong I like the cars and think they are cool but I would have never bought one for myself.

Analogeezer

 

And you didn't. It's your wife's car, and as long as she is happy, that should be all that matters!

 

there's a rattle in the passenger side - don't know if I should bring it in for that or not? What do you think?

 

Definitely take it in, that is what the Dealer is there for at leas for 4/50,000. I have one, hopefully, last rattle to have the Dealer fix and you can bet I'm getting it looked at when Molly goes in in April!!

 

Short answer--yes.

I had rattles in the dash for some time (my car is 3 years old). Toward the end of the warranty period I decided to make one last stab at locating them. I finally decided that the secret compartment door needed padding, and my SA said it would be an easy 15 minute fix. It wasn't--he wound up replacing the entire dash! Pretty drastic, with only about 800 miles remaining on the warranty, but there are NO rattles, even in the cold.

 

thanks - I'll just do that.

 

The fact that the doors like to swing shut at the smallest push drives me a bit crazy at times

 

Yeah the problem is I paid for it....

Still she could have insisted on a Minivan or SUV, she hates automatic transmissions so I am luckier than 99% of the guys out there.

Like I said I like the car a lot, I pitched a lot of alternatives to her (C5 Z06, RX-8, Crossfire, Miata with a hardtop, C class, 350Z) but she only wanted a MINI.

Analogeezer

 

Acura Integra Type R is probably the best FWD car ever made. Honda Prelude is pretty close. I like my 2009 MCS engine very much, but handling\steering feel is not as good as ones from those Hondas.

 

new topic!

best FWD car of all time?

 

Mk1 Golf GTI, hands down, game over.

 

Definitely first gen GTI. I had one of the first 83's, fully loaded, black, red interior, A/C, deluxe stereo, vent windows, sunroof. Handled like no other car at the time (or since, maybe). Even better when I did a Koni spring/shock kit.

 

a gti from 1974 - 1984 eh?

how much did it weigh???

 

< 2,000 lbs.

I had one of the first Rabbit GTI's to hit the streets. I ordered it sight-unseen in late '82 after all the positive press that came out before they arrived at dealerships. It was one of the best-handling cars I've ever owned, and probably the most fun car, despite some serious competition. It had manual steering - something I wish our MC's had, as I can't stand the overboosted electric steering. The problem with "our" Mk1 GTI (US-spec) was that it was built in the dreaded Westmoreland, PA VW plant, noted for its horrendous "quality control" (I use the term loosely). Lots of US-sourced components of inferior quality to the Wolfsburg-built Golfs of the day. Still an awesome car, just not a very high-quality one. You think your MC has rattles in the dash? My GTI sounded like a 20-yr-old rattletrap by the time it was a year old!

Old habits apparently die hard. Despite that being 27 years ago, I drive an MCS today, which is about as close to an early GTI as you can find nowadays. My other car is a Z4 M Coupe.. which very closely resembles the original 240Z.. which I was driving when I was 18 back in the mid-70's. Thank goodness for the growth in horsepower over the years - the original GTI was 90 hp, or roughly half of the MCS (albeit with a lot less weight to cart around in the GTI's case) and the 240Z was only 151 hp, vs 330 for the M Coupe. Road & Track clocked the 240Z at something like 9.7 seconds in the 0-60 run. Can you imagine? That was considered awesome performance back in the day.

 

Just changed a blown light bulb on the rear license plate. Who the heck designed that?! Taking the lens off is easy enough, then there's no room to stick your fingers in there to take out the blown bulb. The bulb looks like fuse and is held in place much like a fuse. I used a screw driver to pry it out and it just flew out there, I have no idea where it went. Got ready to install the new bulb ($3.20 from BMW) and again, you can't hold it with anything. I dropped it three times before I finally got it there! One simple bulb took me about 20 minutes to change! Jeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! I'm an aircraft avionics technician so I know about working in tight places but this takes the cake. Can't wait for the other bulb to burn out...

 

Why wait. Never postpone happiness, for less than $4 change it NOW

 

Now I know why the parts guy almost twisted my arm to buy two bulbs...

 

when you run over a manhole or any kind of pothole - the entire car shifts in that direction... + seat belt situation and pant leg catching on seat adjuster

Most fun car I have EVER driven.

 

Another (relatively) small annoyance, for somethings they only dings at you once you're moving forward, but they chose the wrong things. They've got the logic for the seatbelt chime and the hatch warning exactly backwards.

The seatbelt chime could well benefit from only dinging once you're moving forward, but it insists on dinging at me while I'm backing out of the garage.

Once I've appeased the seatbelt chime, and started to move off, then, and only then will it warn me that the hatch is not closed properly. If it'd warned me of that while I was still backing up I could have reclosed it before I left the driveway. But it insist on only warning me once I've got on the road.

 

It drives me nutz that an armrest is an option!

 

After a week of moving stuff around, I have to add to those who have complained about the lack of an easy method to open the hatch. A system that REQUIRES the use of the key fob seems goofy. I'd buy an aftermarket hatch opener if somebody were to market one.

But I still love the little car -- just looking to make it better.

 

My main problem - not sure if it has been mentioned - is the constant pissing on my shoulder from the water on my roof when I have my window cracked during a light rain (smoking a cigg), after the snow, or anything like that. Cant they have some sort of fix for that? I know make a couple hard turns and it wipes off, but that isnt always an option.

 

I'm glad - because the factory armrest is an utter POS. I was forewarned here in these forums, and checked it out before placing my order, and sure enough, the thing was an embarrassment. It has a cheesy slide cover that feels (and no doubt is) cheap and from owner reports, slides open all the time when you don't want it to. And the thing is rickety and unstable-feeling. They need to start over on this one.