I was stuck in traffic the other day and managed to leave my car in first gear with no gas to keep her at a steady roll and to not stress the clutch too much, and it just seemed like every couple of inches the car would lurch/lunge forward. Is it my driving or is this normal for the MINI?

Granted, it's always lurched while accelerating and changing gears but it was very noticeable for just rolling in first gear.

 

Mine does that, too. It's fine if you're giving it just the slightest amount of gas, but if you get too slow and have your foot off the pedal or just resting on it, the car doesn't like it.

In that case I will just push in the clutch and let the car in front of me get a little further ahead until I can go back to creeping along with a little gas. Then repeat the process. :impatient

 

I've only had two cars in my very long life that weren't stick so I was beginning to think I had lost my touch.

 

That's normal.

 

I've had it happen with nearly every stick car I've driven, especially those lacking torque down low.

 

Ahh ok, well I'm glad it's normal then.

 

Good to hear.... I sometimes wonder how good am I(?) with a clutch... but at a stop lights on hills I erase all thoughts of that when I can zip away without backward roll. :-)

 

the same thing happens with me, im guessing it depends on the finess of the driver

 

lol, possibly. I learned how to drive stick on my MINI, but she's defiantely 'quirky' compared to other cars I've driven. My sister had owned a Honda S2000 at one point and I drove it in stop/go traffic; and it was tons easier than in the MINI -- granted I didn't leave the S2K in first gear to keep the car rolling, as previously mentioned in my first post.

I was just curious if it was me being a bad driver or if it was one of those 'MINI characteristics.'

 

Have you ever noticed that the MINI also seems a little jumpy around 3,000 rpm, slightest lift on the gas or just a little push on the gas?

 

I think theses situations a greatly because of the "drive by wire" system that the mini utilizes, or not..