A WEEKEND WITH MINI ONE
This article should have appeared in the last Register but it was late, I have therefore slapped myself on the wrist and will try harder next time.
Working on the principle of "if you don't ask - you won't get", I asked Victoria Mini in Milton Keynes if I could borrow a New Mini for a weekend so that I could take it to a Mini show. Although prepared for a rejection, I was very pleased that they were happy to oblige. The show in question was Mini in the Park and it was agreed that I could collect a Cooper model on Saturday morning and return it first thing Monday.
Not everything went as planned, the week before the event, someone test drove the Cooper
across a high curb, damaging the underside and making it un-driveable. So we collected a
Mini One instead.
We had tried a Cooper when the new Mini was launched and were not overly impressed with the liveliness of engine, so it was a bit of a disappointment to have switched the Cooper for a One, it could only be even worst. How wrong can you be, the Mini One felt quite nippy as we pulled away from the showroom, it didn't even run out of puff on the long uphill drag north of the town. And when in the lanes, it even began to feel a bit like a proper Mini, with a sharp turn-in and quick response to the steering wheel input. I would emphasise the word "bit", it felt a bit like the proper Mini, because it doesn't matter how you approach it, nor how much of the true Mini heritage you commandeer, the New Mini is a small modern hatch that has been given the name MINI. It is not a true Mini, nor will it ever be so.
That said, it should not detract from the fact the BMW have created a very nice little
car, it is comfortable and roomy with stylish looks and a solid feel. Driving along a
motorway or dual-carriageway at the legal limit (sort of), there is little to differentiate
the experience from doing exactly the same in a 3-series. That is until you look down and
see the large central speedo and the row of aircraft style toggle switches.
Saturday was spent fetching and carrying with the Mini One ably acquitting itself in town and country, A-roads and twisty country lanes. It was impossible to park without two or three people approaching wanting to have a look or asking how it felt on the road. Until the number of cars on the road starts to reach BMW's targets, the one thing you can't be is inconspicuous.
With the split rear seat, the rather small boot did not present a problem on the morning
of the show. We had three adults, a gazebo, four deckchairs, a coolbox, two boxes of
literature from Victoria, brollies and enough wet weather gear to protect an army.
Now back to the performance bit, we can only assume that the engine in the Cooper we originally drove was still tight or was badly adjusted. The Mini One was no hot hatch, but it was no embarrassment either, with its full load, it coped with the mix of road and gradients through the Bucks and Oxfordshire countryside without problem and was in fact a pleasure to drive.
At the show, with both the Mini One and Karen's Vince sporting a nice blue paint job, we lined the cars, centre stage, on the Minilist stand using a Blues Brothers theme. The fact that Jake's rather overweight profile was in front of the Mini One was nothing to do with the relative sizes of the two cars.
The response to the cars was very interesting. There were a few, typically loud, who
denounced the car outright - it wasn't a Mini and therefore was a bad car. Then there
was a rather larger group who took the time to look around and ask questions and in
general approved of the car but said it should never have been called a Mini. The largest
group however, and bearing in mind this was a Mini only show, were not bothered about
it being called a Mini and were in general favourably disposed to the car.
Many thanks to Victoria Mini for the loan if nothing else, it proved that you can't
really get a proper feel for a car in the very short test drive normally available.
Had it not been for the weekend, I would have dismissed the New Mini as a gutless wonder,
as it is I'm impressed.