(Pepper White, Premium Package, Automatic, Heated Seats, Heated Mirrors and Washer Jets, Bluetooth and USB/iPod Adapter)

Well, after 6 months of research and envy I finally pulled the trigger and bought a 2011 Justa Cooper Convertible at the beginning of December 2010. Unfortunately, the snowy New England winter kept Dad’s New Toy in the cozy, salt free confines of my garage. Now that the snow has disappeared I’ve managed to rack up just over 500 miles with three hours on the openometer! Here’s my initial take for what it’s worth:

This automobile is a pure joy to drive!!! It has plenty of pep, it’s responsive, and holds the road like glue! I find myself smiling from the moment I get behind the wheel!

The ride is, well…….firm. Not overly so, but I don’t regret not having the firmer sport suspension, and I will probably ditch the run-flats when they wear out.

The Harmon Kardon sound system is very good, but not great. I’m guessing that the base sound system would be woefully inadequate if you enjoy good music while motoring.

The heated seats and side mirrors are a great feature for the colder months.

The sport mode allows me to shift gears on my own without the annoyance of a clutch pedal. Having owned automobiles with manual transmissions for many years, I truly appreciate this feature.

The satellite radio is another great feature. Commercial free entertainment!

The convertible top kind of scares me. It goes through all kinds of noisy gyrations on its way down or up. I think it may be slightly over engineered which may be the root of some of the problems reported in the forum.

Top down driving is a blast! It simply becomes a different automobile. There is a little more turbulence and noise than my last car, a 2001 Sebring Convertible, but nothing excessive. I may try one of the wind deflectors this summer.

The dog loves riding in the Cooper, especially with the top down.

Well, that’s it in a nutshell.

 

Glad you're enjoying the new ride, sounds like a blast! Don't forget to post pictures

 

Wow, 500 miles in 3 hours. You drive faster than me. Sounds like you are enjoying the car as it was meant to to be. It certainly is a fun car to drive. Keep motoring.

 

Enjoy the car and congrats. Once you get slowed down and park it for a few hours take some photos so we can share in the excitement some more.

 

Congrats! Where are the pics?

Annette

 

Another new owner of a 2011 MC convertible here! Mine's velvet silver, automatic, satellite radio, bluetooth/ipod/usb, bonnet stripes, automatic climate control.

Have almost 600 miles in just over a week and lovin every minute of it.

I know what you mean about the convertible top. It definitely makes a lot of noises and I wonder how durable the entire mechanism is going to be. Hopefully very durable since I've read that they are expensive as hell to fix or replace. On the positive side, my last car had a manual top and was a little inconvenient to put up and down, and impossible to do in traffic, even at a stoplight unless I wanted to get out of the car in the middle of the street. I'm really enjoying the convenience of the automatic top. Also the sunroof feature is pure genius. It's a very well thought out and designed top. I just hope it's engineered well too.

I also plan on getting regular tires when the run flats die. A patch/plug kit and small compressor should solve anything short of a tire disintegrating.

My last car was a saturn sky redline so I gave up a lot of power (the sky had 260hp stock) but I'm finding that I can get by without it just fine and sport mode is a blast and makes the car much more responsive when zipping around in traffic.

The base stereo is audible even with the top down but I'm going to upgrade it first chance I get. It really is pretty crappy if you're the kind of person that appreciates good sound quality.


Anyway, congrats on your new convertible! Hope you're enjoying it as much as I'm enjoying mine.

 

I have owned convertibles for over 30 years and all that had power tops make many noises. Most of the screeching is hydraulic fluid moving through small lines and orifices. It means nothing.

The only additional complexity is the sunroof feature, the rest is pretty basic
power top. The only problem I have had in two years of ownership has been
the plastic clips breaking and allowing the rear sides of the fabric to become
slack (mine is an early production model - much about this in other thread). These were upgraded to metal clips by dealer.

My top gets a workout as I put it down all the time. Enjoy it! Happy motoring!