I tested this Mini Cooper SD Convertible for a weekend on the twisty broads of southwestern germany …
So it’s a chilly morning and i’m driving around in this mini cooper sd convertible and i have to say i’m feeling slightly self-conscious in this car 65% of the people that buy this car are females and if you are men driving around in this car chances are probably really looked that the latest issue of gq magazine is laying on the front passenger seat i think
You get what i mean driving around in the mini is something that has to do with being part of a culture and a lifestyle but for me the big question always was is the mini really the drivers car that all people talk about so the most common comment about the mini is that it feels like a go-kart and having race go-karts myself i have to say that for me it doesn’t
Feel anything like a go-kart to be honest but the chassis of this car is really well sorted the suspension is quite firm some people complain that it is uncomfortable but i have to say i feel like some people nowadays have gone a little bit soft i think it’s really ok the handling is really precise the steering is absolutely direct and has nice weight to it
But overall i have to say that i’m not overwhelmed by the driving experience of the mini maybe my expectations for this car we’re too high but i really don’t feel like that it is in a different league then the citroen ds3 for the only a1 with this mini cooper sd bmw has missed the great opportunity of building a really fast diesel mini because the engine of
This car comes from the bmw 118 diesel it has 143 walls floor and 305 newton metres of torque normally i wouldn’t complain about bmw they are very smooth to drive and have no trouble i can also pretend not to feel how fast they are but they are very efficient but why then they use the engine from the 123 diesel with 204 horsepower in this car there would have
Been a much more pleasing driving experience for me this engine has 204 horsepower and we all know that the mini is easily capable of handling to one horsepower looking at the cooper works additions and that would have justified the high price of this car for me but with 143 horsepower in this mini cooper sd the driving experience to be honest it’s not really
Exciting for me that’s power that you get in most vw gold’s here in germany that drive with diesel engines an eight point seven seconds from zero to 112 e210 it’s certainly not driving in sensation for me you while the interior of the mini cooper sd convertible is quite nice to look at and the driving position inside here is really ok and driver focused
So i like that what i don’t like is to build quality inside this car for the asking price of twenty eight thousand eight hundred years without any optional extras i would have expected that bmw would have fixed some of the quality issues in this car the center console here is still made of really cheap feeling and looking plastic and the design of it even
Though it’s quite nice to look at is quite distracting while driving and far from being intuitive in my opinion i don’t have any problems with this big speedometer in the middle where you also get the readout for the optional i drive like multimedia interface here with mini kinect office navigation bluetooth telephone radio options all that stuff that you want
To have in a new car but that of course will also set you back some serious money same story goes for the harman kardon sound system for the leather interior in this car and still i don’t think that the quality is up to the price looking at this review mirror here which is shaking all the time while driving and just the overall feel of this car i’m not really
Convinced that it is worth the money that bmw is asking for so while driving and renting about the sky here i noticed something that is really a big issue for me and that’s the fuel economy of this car many claims that the mini cooper sd will take 4 and a half liters of 100 kilometres and normally i would say 1 litre more than that would be realistic so five
And a half liters but i’m averaging a 2.1 liters at the moment it was small hot hatchback convertible cruising according to the speed limits here not really driving fast love revving the car then much maybe something is wrong with this car but i don’t think so april 1 liters of 100 kilometres i’m sorry that’s just way too much that fluids optional you would
Expect from a car with a petrol engine but not from the diesel so – surprised to see this number of year of the readout so in the end all those downsides and things that i don’t like evolved too many don’t matter that’s what i learned today driving around here in salt western germany there are quite a few minutes driving around and i’ve just been flashed
By a nice-looking girl in her mini cooper convertible and that was the moment when i learned that this mini is not about driving the best drivers car it’s not about having the best quality this guy is really like a fashion item it’s not very practical but it’s nice to look at and that’s all that matters with this guy in the end you know from a rational point
Of view i wouldn’t really be able to recommend this car to you but if you love the styling there’s just not much more to say about it then you should get one
Transcribed from video
' 2012 Mini Cooper Convertible ' Test Drive & Review – TheGetawayer By TheGetawayer
