Hello everyone, I am thinking of buying a new Mini Cooper R56 and since tomorrow I ll be test driving it I wanted to ask you a few questions before I make up my mind!Any help will be greatly appreciated!

FIrstly I must tell you that I already own a BMW 320i E90 and I am rather annoyed by its heavy clutch, which makes urban driving tiresome , to say the least. Now, since Mini is a subsidiary of BMW , I am concerned whether BMW's heavy clutch has migrated to the Cooper as well. I must tell you that this is a rather serious issue for me since my left knee wont stand anything as heavy as the BMW clutch for long driving sessions and I ll mostly use the Mini for urban motoring...

Secondly I d like your opinion about the aesthetical part : I was thinking of Chilli Red/black roof and bonnet stripes for the exterior and chrome line,
piano black for the interior , what do you think? Any picture depicting this interior combination would help me evaluate it more clearly.I havent yet decided about the colour line , although I am between cream white and red... I am not so sure that the cream colourline will
be consistent with the exterior and whether the red rooster colour line will look too cheap...

Lastly , is the Cooper's base audio system the same as in the BMW 320? Owning the latter, I d go as far as to say that the base BMW sound system is rather appaling, so I suppose that if this the case in the new Mini as well, upgrading it will be inevitable...

Cheers!

 

What year is your BMW 320?

 

2005, the new model.

 

I think the MINI's clutch is light, lighter than our '94 325i.

 

The MCS I test drove with the standard transmission had a very light clutch pedal. Almost too light. I felt like I had to hold the weight of my leg up off the pedal as just the weight of my leg would depress the clutch.

When the clutch in my future MC wears out, I will be looking for a heavier-duty clutch.

 

I'm getting a MC with manual around April 1, light clutch good news. You might consider the MC with 6 speed auto and steptronic mode. Pretty good reviews from both this press launch review and motoring file. Guys over on mini2.com like the steptronic auto as well.

 

The clutch is light. I don't know about the 07 stock stereo, but the standard 04 was okay. I'd get the upgrade, especially if you like to listen above background volume level.

 

I prefer standard transmissions as I can rip then apart and rebuild them myself. I've rebuilt enough Getrags to have learned a few things to do which aid in smoother and quicker shifting.

If I feel like I cannot live with how light the pedal is, then I can look into adding a helper spring to increase the pedal pressure. I do not know if this is feasible yet or not.