What’s it like to live with?
I wrote somewhere once that a Skoda Fabia, in the right paint combination, is trying to be an ‘own-brand’ Mini. I went on to say it was sort of, well nearly, succeeding too. Ish.
That was not quite an aberration, but it did dumb down a lot of the Mini’s finest qualities, which no other car can really lay claim to. They are qualities that justify both the new price and the impressive used car residual prices.
Nothing else gives you that curved-letterbox windscreen, through which the road ahead looks altogether more exciting. No one else has a retro-design Sat Nav, in the middle of the big central ship’s compass of a speedo.
Every button as a distinctive look and feel. Every site line reveals another little design touch, from soft multi-coloured uplights in the roof to the uniquely sculpted dashboard. The car is bordering on over-the-top, but Mini gets away with it because there is such quality.
The seats are more comfortable than those in conventional BMWs. Any little oversights from earlier Minis have been resolved. For example, there is a small digital read out in the rev counter that confirms your speed at a quick glance. Which is a real boon in big cities where speed cameras are manifest and the traffic doesn’t allow time to look over at the big central binnacle.
In Cooper S Trim you can still get 48.7 mpg, but I wouldn’t. The gentle growl, like a Lion cub, is just too exciting; the un-intimidating noise and available power makes shooting out of side roads and round other cars irresistible.
On a wet B-road I found that the car may be un-intimidating, but it’s capable of bullying you if you take it for granted. Apply too much power, or carry to much speed in these situations and you’ll soon find the back twitching.
Which is exactly why you will want to buy a Mini Cooper S rather than an ‘own-brand’ Fabia vRS.
What’s the right time to buy?
There is now a Mini Cooper S for all budgets. For example, an eight to nine year old car is yours for just over £5,000 with average mileage of 60,000. Or a three year old example is a good buy at £11,000 with just 21,000 miles on the clock. Although you should note that the older version had a super charger rather than the more efficient turbo, and there are a raft of little updates on the latest model.
If you want the new version, then a six to twelve month old is £14,000 with less than 5,000 miles on the clock on average. Still a worthwhile saving on the new price of over £17,000.
What else does this budget buy?
A £14,000 nearly new hot hatch budget gets you into the Ford Focus ST – but it’s not as classy.
There are two year old Volkswagen Scirroccos that look the part, but actually don’t have the performance. Or there is the Golf GTi, which shifts more like the Mini, but doesn’t look or feel particularly special.
Summary
The coolest hatchback to date.