Mini is pricey but very nice

Image courtesy of quickpic.co.za

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Although these days the Mini is a pedigreed BMW creation, by nature the Convertible it is much closer to traditional British bone-shaker sportscars such as the MGA, Austin-Healey, Morgan and Lotus-7.

And of course it stirs fond memories of the original Mini (the car, not the dress) that was so much fun to drive on the road and on the race track way back in the sixties and seventies.

Except, in the original Mini what you got was a basic frame with a small Marie Biscuit wheel at each corner, a large steering wheel, a single instrument gauge, seats as hard and as uncomfortable as bicycle saddles and stodgy brakes.

But the road-holding was great, the performance was peppy and even lowly-paid motoring journalists could afford to buy and run one in those days.

Today a bog standard Mini Cooper costs R214,000 and the manual Mini Cooper S Convertible, in which we posed around for a week, will set you back a whopping R327,500.

And that's a heck of a lot of money. In fact, it's more than you will have to fork out for an Audi A3 Cabriolet 1.8 FSI, Alfa-Romeo 159 1.9 JTS, BMW 120i Convertible, Ford Focus 2.5 ST, a 2.0-Litre Honda Civic Type R, Mazda MX-5 Convertible, Opel Corsa OPC, Renault Megane F1 Team R26, Volkswagen Scirocco, Volkswagen Golf 6 GTi, Volvo C30 T5 and just a few rands less than a Subaru 2,5 WRX AWD.

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All the cars listed above are high-spirited fun cars so the question arises - is the topless Cooper S worth its weight in rands?

And the answer is, well, um, maybe, perhaps, yes and no, depending on what you want from a car and how thick your wallet is.

The one undeniable fact about this fancy Mini is that it's an absolute hoot to drive - a great looking little eye-popper, loaded with bells and whistles.

Besides being frisky, it's also very fashionable and high in status with the club and coffee bar trendoids, so seeing that it's such a people-magnet, let's start with its looks.

Our test car wore very attractive, muted silver make-up, smartly off-set by black flared wheel arches, mean black mesh grille, two black-and-silver “dice” lines down the bonnet, a cheeky air scoop, a liberal splattering of very shiny metal trim and its main attraction, the black canvas roof which folds away in seconds.

Alas, the roof might look good, but its very presence is the cause of some irritation. When it's up the visibility is woeful, as Jeremy Clarkson described it so accurately: “It's like sitting in a post-box”.

And, because the roof doesn't fold away completely like in most other modern convertibles, the view out the back doesn't get much better when the canvas is down.

With the roof up, the Convertible tends to shudder and shake. In topless mode this gets even worse and the body also flexes quite a bit.

And if this isn't disconcerting enough the car humps and thumps and the steering shudders something awful on rough roads, thanks to the hard combination of stiff suspension and run-flat tyres.

And while we're muttering, the backseats are for shopping bags or poodles with jewelled collars, not for anything with two legs. There just isn't any space for even a tiny tot's legs between the back of the driver's seat and the back seat.

The boot is about the size of a small wall safe which actually suits the poser owners. And I've actually seen this. Chic chick strolls out of the V&A, Louis Vuitton dress bag over the shoulder and when she gets to the topless car, she simply flops the bag on to the back seat. All in full view, of course and much classier than shoving it into a boot, don't you think?

But most of the Convertible's foibles are quickly forgotten and forgiven when you fire up the sporty 1.6-litre engine, blip the throttle to the lovely burbling music from the double-barrel tailpipes and head for the hills.

Wedged in below the stubby little bonnet lies a sporty little mill that churns out 128kW of power at about 5,500rpm and 240Nm of torque from as low down as 1,600rpm.

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Impressively it squirts off the mark without a hint of turbo lag and trots gamely from standstill to 100km/h in about eight seconds. Not earth-shatteringly fast, but quite fast enough, considering that the boulevard, not the race track, is where the Convertible is at its best.

And it handles beautifully. The steering is sharp and perfectly weighted and the little topless beauty sticks to the road like it's glued to the tarmac.

The brakes, like in all Cooper models, are absolutely outstanding. The ABS system, ably assisted by EBD and CBC, drags this cute-mobile from 100km/h to standstill in less than three seconds.

The six-speed manual shift is slick, but for city driving I would opt for the auto option, even though it costs a painful R16,000 more than the manual.

Fuel consumption during our stint was just under 9 litres per 100km for combined town and motorway driving.

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The Convertible also scored top marks for cabin ambience: zesty, off-the-wall switches and dials lay-out, huge centrally mounted speedometer, fully adjustable steering wheel with audio controls, cute little lever to flick between entertainment and sat nav, a popular “Sport' button to improve the car's grip and go, a button for switching of the DSC, all against a smart black background and stylishly enhanced with lots of shiny metal strips.

Even though the Mini is a small car the front seats are surprisingly comfortable. And the driving position is low, which adds to the driving fun.

It's a great little car, minor warts and all, if only it wasn't so darn expensive. As a package it is unashamedly aimed at the top end of the earnings market and to me it has much more cult appeal than a Harley or an older sportscar, to say nothing of the also-ran new VW Beetle or the re-born Fiat 500.

The Convertible's uniqueness is appealing although it probably makes more sense to buy the tin top Mini Cooper S. You get the same performance and funky fun, but for R57,000 less.

And for that amount of money, old petrol-heads on park benches will wryly remind you, you would have been able to buy 12 brand new 1275 GTS Minis out of the box 30 years ago!