Ok, here goes!
'08 R56 Mini Cooper S
laser blue; 6MT; leather; sport package
This car was like a great pair of flip-flops. Good, frugal, casual fun. You go in with pretty low expectations in every regard including price, but you come away surprised by the utility, flat cornering, open feeling interior, and a great feeling of zippiness with its tiny wheelbase, short gearing, and quick-spooling turbo.
Background
In 2015, I found this car at Mini of Marin and paid $13k (USD) for it. It had only 35,000 miles on it, and it was in absolutely mint, showroom-new condition outside and in.
The Drive
8/10
It made 172 hp out of a 1.6L turbo 4-cyl, which at first doesn't sound like a lot, but when you consider it only weighs 2600 lbs, had super short gearing, super quick steering, short wheelbase, low-to-the-ground seating position, it felt plenty quick.
Even the throttle mapping was tuned to make it feel quick: I remember the throttle response being pretty sharp, and the first 1/3 of the pedal travel gave you nearly all the power, and the rest didn't really do a whole lot.
The shifter had this kinda longish throw, but made a kind of satisfying clicking noise as it went into each gate. Not at all the direct feel of an S2000 or Miata, but it wasn't hellish rubbery feel typical of a BMW either. And given the generally laid back feel of the vehicle, it felt pretty ok.
Took it out to Buttonwillow and on the first time out, was already happily going 8/10s. Felt super confident, the car is very predictable. Even kept up with a Corvette (with a terrible driver, albeit)!
AND it was excellent on gas!
The Interior
8/10
Quirky as hell. Made the experience fun. From interior chimes going "doot-doot doot-doot", to the fishbowl* giant center-mounted speedo, to the all-around SD-gundam squishy styling of the car inside and out, it just gives you a spunky vibe that always uplifts your day.
*thankfully, there's a digital readout of the speed in the middle of the column-mounted tach in front of you so you don't actually have to look over at the goofy fishbowl thing.
It has a tiny hatch, barely big enough for any luggage IIRC. But because of this, you get a surprising amount of interior space even in the rear. I regularly carpooled in this car and as a 5'10 dude, comfortably sat in the back a couple time. What makes it so survivable is the panoramic moonroof, which takes up most of the roof. And what's really cool about it, is not only can it slide open, both panes actually vent upwards. Gives it a bit of a hedgehog look imo.
I remember the doors closed with a solid CLANG like the oldschool bimmers and mercs. The interior panels looked and felt plasticky like a Super Soaker (anyway totally on-theme with the goofy styling), but the body itself felt super super solid. Prior to this (and the GTI prior), I'd had a string of Japanese cars and this German construction was a whole other level for me which I really appreciated.
The Utility
7/10
Again it has a tiny hatch, but at the same time, because you expect this, you intuitively move to fold the rear seats down almost permanently. And with that, you actually get a really surprising amount of trunk space! I made many successful trips to IKEA.
A nice random touch was the headlight sprayers which extended out and jetted a little wash fluid backwards onto the light. Really cool, surprised to realize I had it one day, given the price point.
Ownability
3/10
I say ownability and not reliability because how often stuff breaks and how badly is only one part of the equation, as I would find out: there's also how big a pain it is to get in there to do the work.
I only owned this car 9 months. Why? Within the first month, the clutch went out. And I kind of expected that would happen because even though it had only 35k miles on the clock, something had felt a little off about the clutch. What I didn't expect though, was that it wound up costing me $3000 USD (that's $4000 CAD)! Why? Because the darn thing is so compact that apparently the whole front of the car had to come apart and the motor+transaxle together had to be removed, for them to access the clutch.
So ok, fine, tough luck but still loved the car, life moves on.
But no. Life did not move on, as it turns out. 6 months in, I started getting knocking at wide-open throttle: CEL. Pulled the codes and it was a bunch of stuff about random missfires. Brought it to an independent shop, and then the Mini dealership, and after changing out the obvious (spark plugs, coil packs), nobody could figure out why this was happening.
At some point while the car was with Mini, they said while they couldn't figure out why the misfiring was happening, they did find that oil was starting to leak from somewhere around the turbo. And that everything would have to come out to get at it, which was going to be a couple grand.
At which point, I decided to call it quits and sold it. Since I really liked the rest of the car, I wrestled with the idea of building it, or doing a JCW swap, or something else cool. But the right thing to do was exit. Not only had it only been 9 months, and that was way too much, too quickly, to go wrong on a car with only 35,000 miles on it. And way too damn tight to work on.
The Verdict
Danger Zone. Danger Zone as hell. Do not own without a warranty!!
