My mum just text me telling me to find out about these cars as she's going on a test drive.
What should she look for?
Any problems?
Basically a quick "check this and that" please.


Be nice please, I don't often come in here!

*yells* Westttt! Westtttt! whaaarrr harrrrr yoooooooouuu! *end yell*

Umh, ok? Assume you're speaking about the noise issues? Would the petrol version be better then?

(Woo, 2000th post)

In a word, yes.

No, West is a member here who knows about Minis.

But to answer your question, the petrol version is a lot better.

Diesel is good for lots of miles.

Mini is good for being a 'chic' town car.

Would you want to do lots of miles in a very very small car?

If she does lots of miles then it would probably be better looking at slightly bigger and more refined cars.

If she doesn't do lots of miles but likes the Mini you should point out that it's going to be cheaper and better to get a petrol Mini.

Either way she should not be buying a diesel Mini as they make no sense.

I've recently been through the buying process for a Mini (girlfriend is now the proud owner of a Cooper S Checkmate).

Aside from the advice to get a petrol rather than a diesel you should look at the following:

Oil leaks from gearbox mating surface
Badly worn steering wheel covering
Exhaust rust (some exhausts only lasted 3-4 years from new!)

The power steering will whine loudly, this is normal. The ride can be quite choppy on the run flats, maybe look at converting to non run flat tyres later.

You ideally want to get a cooper with a chilli pack, face lift was start of 06. Cars newer than 06 have a different engine and gearbox and started to come with iDrive. The pre-face lift cars are curvy on the bonnet and there is nothing really that wrong with them after 2004 when a gearbox fault was fixed.

I just came here to post this

Small cars = good for nipping around = not doing big miles = who cares about economy = buy the petrol.

Diesel = good for long distance = doing big miles = not for small cars.

I'm under no illusion that something like a *insert big car here* will be very good at long distances, but my girlfriend manages just fine with a Works MINI as her daily drive and covers 18-20k miles a year. She even manages to do it on 18 inch alloys and hard as nails run flat tyres.

Now regarding the MINI

Check that it’s got the TLC service pack and if you're very lucky the extended TLC XL service pack.

Check for parking dents as there are no bump strips down the sides.

Remember virtually everything on the MINI is an optional extra so try to get one with the Chili pack at the every least.

Personally I'd go for the petrol over the diesel as the average price difference between the petrol and diesel will buy you a lot of miles and to be honest the petrol is a better driver overall.

Seriously you'd have to be crazy to get a Mini Cooper Diesel.

OK so usually when we have this debate it's over high powered cars like 330d or 330i but the consumption/distance issue is invalid since the Mini Cooper manages over 50mpg which is impressive for a petrol car that hits 0-60 in around 8.8 seconds. I've also driven the One D and it was awful, the 6 gear petrol engine in the R56 Cooper needs to be worked hard and the result is it's cracking fun to drive.

It’s the first gen that has the loud power steering whine, the second gen is quite quiet in comparison.

One thing to remember is there is going to be a facelift of the MINI range soon, with updated styling and revised engines. So it may push the current gen prices down.

It's still fairly audible on the R56. It's definitely improved but it's still a horrible noise.

They did make a few changes to them recently. The Cooper S now has these strange looking air intakes next to the fog lights.

I had no idea they even did a diesel Mini! How pointless.

Nail, hit, head.

The tritec is a fabulous little engine, and from speaking to someone who does even more miles in one than I do in my car (upwards of 25K/year) she says it's quite frugal for a petrol as well.

I genuinely believe the diesel is only there for those who want the feeling of "savin' the planet, innit".

Most people are obsessed with diesels these days and want one, regardless of mileage.|

I learnt to drive in two new minis, both diesels - One was a year old and this got replaced by my instructer with a brand new one (in 2005 - The one I got crashed into in my driving test in!).

They have pathetic power. I have not driven the petrol verson so it would be unfair to comment on that.

A bloke at work has the new Fiesta 1.4tdci with 67hp - why!?

Cheers for the help. Will tell my mum that the motor experts urge her to get the petrol. I suggested she get an S, but I think it's more than she wants to spend.
Hopefully she puts me on the insurance too!

Mini Cooper Diesel. John Cooper must be turning in his grave.

The Cooper D is a completely different kettle of fish to the One D and drives very well - but I agree with Peerzy, Fox et al. I'd rather have a petrol.

No, it really isn't. Both the Mini One D and all R56 have never had the steering whine as they all have electric power steering.

A Tritec, frugal? I would say the Prince engines in the new shape were reasonably frugal, but could never say that about a Tritec.

Get the petrol, seriously.

Don't be daft.

I've had a Cooper Diesel as a hire car, was fantastic.

Little known fact is that the Cooper D share almost exactly the same torque band as the R56 Cooper S (170bhp and 192lb ft of torque) where as the diesel is only 108bhp, but with 177lb of torques.

Yes, the ONE D was dire, simple reason - It's a ONE it's meant to be.

If she gets a Cooper D, I very much doubt she'll regret it.

Edit: Sorry for the late reply - I was too busy playing at the Pod yesterday

Get with the times brah.

At the fly.

Torque without power is useless, and torque at the fly without power is even more useless.

All the diesel MINIs suck the big one.

This is because your standards are through the floor, as we know from your many 'my new car' posts

'torque band'

GTFO.

Well it's an 05 plate, so i'm certain it's the Tritec rather than the Prince engine.

And obviously frugal has to be taken in context. It's not "Prius driven at 55mph" frugal, but it's good enough with fuel to make the diesel version quite pointless in terms of economy savings.

Oh please don't play that card, i'm a diesel driver and it makes me cringe. I read that the Fabia vRS almost has the "torqs of an M3" but would you consider it anywhere near as fast? Absolutely not.

This is why bhp was invented - it gives a good, fair way to compare engine power between several cars.

From what I can tell, the Mini either comes with an 89hp or 108hp TDI engine, depending on year.

Well we can agree to disagree. The Cooper D isn't all that bad.

What? all 3 of them? stfu Fox.

West, were you at MiTP yesterday?

Thought I might have seen your car

EDIT - Just seen you mention you were at the pod so take that as a yes

Maaaaaaybe I hadn't done a drag before yesterday, did 5 runs and did a 15.8

Yeah thats where I thought I saw it, down the strip

Nice one mate!