- Average user rating: 5.0 stars out of 14 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"The Dog's Bollocks"
Pros: Classy and Classless at one and the same time
Cons: Nasty, cheap seat adjustment (especially the tipping/rake lever)
Summary: I currently drive a UK spec 2005 Mini Cooper S (so 170bhp rather than the 168 equivalent in the USA)
Points of info: Cooper ?S? doesn?t stand for ?supercharger, its derived from the original Mini, and the ?S? version was ?Sports?.
The engine hasn?t been ?reworked? ? it?s a completely new unit jointly developed by BMW and Peugeot/Citroen and so also appears in Peugeot 207 GTi hot-hatch. The old engine was a Brazilian lump that had to be used because of some pre-existing deal of BMW.
In the USA you receive slightly diluted versions of the car(s): the European spec Cooper S has 175 bhp.
However drove the 2007 model when I was back in the UK at Christmas (me and my little car experience the delights of the roads here in Eastern Europe (Ukraine to be precise) and was overall impressed, especially with lower revs pick-up: as the turbo kicks in low down, you get access to most of the power/torque around 1500 rpm, rather then the 4000+ of my car. In day-to-day driving it?s therefore much more user friendly (which is why the ludicrous Civic Type R is such a non real-world car, with its screaming, high-rev engine).
It is what it is ? a small, perfectly (well nearly) formed BMW
And if you think that you got admiring looks in the test car, then my right-hand drive Mini Cooper S in the depths of Eastern Europe is something else!
