ALLGBMINI

After reading MotoringFile this morning, I grabbed a copy of Motor Trend magazine – the comparison is entertaining and well written (driving the H2 in downtown Chicago is like showing up with your float four days late for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in Manhattan … imagine yourself zipping along Michigan Avenue [in the MINI] during rush hour, slipping between much bigger things, and tracking down the people responsible for the remake of “The Italian Job”)

I scanned the relevant pages for those that can’t get a copy of the magazine …

I dropped by this afternoon to exchange a shirt, and saw more convertibles at MINI Peabody. There was a Chili Red and a Liquid Yellow, as well as the two new blues (Hyper Blue & Cool Blue) next to each other.

The Hot Orange (in the showroom) and British Racing Green (demo) were still there too, so MINI Peabody have had at least 8 convertibles so far – maybe 500 total for the USA so far? I guess we will see the sales figures at the end of the month …

First, my great thanks to MINI Peabody (Martin especially) for allowing me the chance to test drive a ’05 MINI Cooper S convertible!
Quick conclusion: STUNNING!

 

Things that impressed me:

• In 1st and 2nd gear, the car seems to pull as quickly as my JCW equipped ’03 MCS!
• The ride quality is massively better than my MCS, even though GBMINI is no longer on runflats!
• Selecting reverse is much easier
• The HK stereo had ample volume – it was nowhere near full volume at 70mph with the top down and windows open
• There is negligible wind, even though I sit very high and straight
• The car brakes better than GBMINI (but I have previously noticed that the Green Stuff brake pads are not as good as the stock pads)

Things that bothered me:

• Very poor rear visibility, especially with the top up but even with the top down
• The rearview mirror vibrated wildly on the ready-to-be-resurfaced route 1 near the dealership

 

I was particularly impressed with the power of the car off the line – it appears to pull away even better than GBMINI, which presumably is a result of the better gearing of the ’05 models. The ride comfort was also impressively better than GBMINI.
In 5th and 6th gears, the car had obviously less power than GBMINI, no doubt due to the JCW kit in GBMINI.
I did not notice any handling differences from what I am used to.

I would say if you have a high mileage ’02 or ’03, you should test drive an ’05 – they are so much better! And if you are considering a JCW upgrade of an ’02 or ’03, you should definitely consider an ’05 upgrade instead.

 

For fun, here’s a photo comparison with another cool convertible – the Audi TT (thanks to Scott at Ira Audi who recently sold an A4 convertible to my wife):