hi-mpg.org Ratings for
2003-2006 Mini Cooper
| Price: | $17,000-22,000
(in 2004) |
| Style: | 8 |
| Performance: | 7 |
| Luxury: | 6 |
| Utility: | 5 |
| Fun: | 7 |
| Value: | 7 |
| Overall: |
6.67 |
| | Ratings scale: 1-10; 10 = best |
John, Paul, George and Ringo each supposedly had one. So did the
Queen. There was something so appealing about the original
Mini Cooper which was so little on the outside, and yet so
surprisingly large on the inside. And there was nothing
little about its heart and race-car spirit despite its
front-wheel-drive and diminutive tires: witness
Paddy Hopkirk's legendary rally victories in the 1960's.
The new Mini Cooper, thank goodness, has all of these wonderful
qualities of the original, with seemingly none of its vices.
The looks are there, from the outside to the inside. While
the former looks very much like the original, the inside--"overstyled"
to some critics"--is a thumbs-up to us at hi-mpg.org, which
an almost-dizzying array of silver accents, form-and-funk, and of
course, the traditional tachometer planted straight-center of the
driver, proudly perched upon the steering column.
The car can still comfortably seat 4 and with its teutonically-engineered
structure and side airbags can even qualify as "reasonably safe".
The handling and engine is all BMW (its maker/owner)... or Mini; either way suits us fine.
For both are excellent, especially for a car of this size and price-range.
Hi-mpg.org got a chance to test-drive a Mini Cooper in the rolling backroads
outside of Paso Robles, California, with its optional continuously-variable
(CVT) automatic transmission. One nifty feature of the Mini Cooper's CVT is that
it can be placed in semi-manual, "Tiptronic-like" mode, where upshifts
are manually achieved by nudging the tranny lever upwards (like
a joystick), and downwards to downshift. Steering is extremely
precise like any Bavarian machine, but adding to the fun-factor is the steering's
extreme quickness. The Mini Cooper is one agile car able to beat just about
any "true" sports car through a slalom course! And despite its
frugal engine, the car still feels quick (even in base model guise):
relatively low mass helps, and so does the Mini's efficient engine management system.
Style, handling, performance, even practicality! The Mini Cooper is one
of the finest examples of hi-mpg.org's Hot Green Machines: a hot car
that's easy on the eyes, environment, and your pocket book, one
that remains befitting of a queen.
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