Car Reviews, News, and Rambling
My original estimate for The Mini to rule them all was a little short. I had originally figured that this Mini Goodwood would end up costing about $48,000. It turns out, the actual sale price will be a whopping $52,000. For a Mini Cooper.
Mini is building 1,000 of the Goodwood cars, but only 140 will make their way to these shores. Are there 140 people willing to drop fifty large on a Mini?
The Mini Countryman is the most practical MINI ever, at least for families. With four doors and seating for four actual adults, it’s a big step up from the traditional Cooper. However, practicality doesn’t have to mean boring, especially when we’re talking about Mini. To date, Countryman buyers get to choose between the tame 1.6 liter naturally aspirated base model, and the hopped-up turbocharged S model.
No more.
Soon, Mini will be introducing a third Countryman. A fire breathing Countryman. A John Cooper Works Countryman. If you absolutely must have the most powerful Mini around, now you’ll have the choice between the traditional Cooper, the stretched Clubman, and the downright huge Countryman. Some sort of engine wizardry is expected to set the output in the 220-230 horsepower range. Even in the biggest Mini ever, that’s pretty serious power.
Check out the spy shots over at Autoblog.
I’m not going to do a full write-up of the 2012 Mini Coupe. Here’s all I’m going to say on the subject.It looks like this:
It starts at about $700 more than the traditional Cooper that seats four.
It seems to weigh, again, more than the traditional four seater Cooper. By nearly fifty pounds.
More expensive, heavier, fewer passengers, less utility. Yup, sounds like a winner.
Mini is proud of their cars – and rightfully so. Even though they cost more than regular subcompacts, they are more. They’re worth more. The drive, the style, the quality… it all adds up to a premium package that people are willing to pay a premium price for.
I have to wonder if there’s a limit to that willingness to pay a premium. I’m talking about the Mini Cooper Goodwood, of course. Named after the Goodwood estate of Rolls Royce fame, this is no ordinary Mini. Rolls Royce is actually decking these things out, with the best interiors that Mini has ever seen.
Rolls quality interior bits are pretty awesome, but there’s the small matter of price. See, the Cooper Goodwood comes in at an estimated $48,000 or so. (US pricing isn’t yet finalized.) When you consider that a plain-jane Cooper starts at $20,100, well…
Pricing concerns aside, I don’t doubt that Mini will find enough buyers to sell out of the Goodwood. Do you?
Mini Cooper Goodwood Edition Gallery
Some would-be Mini Countryman buyers, (my wife included,) have been turned off by the fact that the mini-SUV seats just four. Sure, cramming a third person in the back would make it a tight fit all the way around, but having the choice is certainly nice.
Mini has listened, apparently, and will be offering a rear bench this fall. The daring among you can now fit a total of 5 inside the biggest Mini ever. I don’t recommend putting 3 large humans in the back; that’s just cruel. Stick with kids, and everything should be just fine.
No one has ever looked at a Mini and say “That’s boring. It needs to be more interesting.” Looking at the Rocketman Concept makes you feel as if someone had. If you took a Mini Cooper and made it ever more different… more unique… you would come close to the Rocketman.
The Rocketman concept is barely eleven feet long, which makes it about a foot shorter than the already tiny Cooper. Inside there is technically room for four humans, though it’s really designed for two. The seating layout is billed at “3 plus 1″, which is a nice way of saying it’s for two adults. You can squeeze a third in the back seat if you need to. The tiny seat behind the driver is for emergency short trips only.
The doors have some sort of odd pivot system to make entry easier. While novel, there’s no way this feature would make it to production. In fact, I have my doubts about the vehicle as a whole. Sure, it’s neat – but at just a foot smaller than the Cooper, who would buy it? I can’t imagine it being much cheaper. After all, it’s still a Mini, and that’s a big name to live up to when it comes to performance and quality.
The Mini Cooper is not a large car. That’s kind of the point, actually. Fitting four regular sized humans inside is surprisingly easy, though. Fitting 26? Not so much.
Pilobolus Dance Company gathered up 26 very flexible people to try to set the world record for humans in a regular ol’ Mini Cooper. Twenty six humans in a Mini Cooper – with the doors closed. Absolutely amazing. Take 5 minutes out of your busy day to watch the video.
Cars.com reviews the 2011 MINI Countryman and has this to say:
My issues with the handling are twofold: The main one is the steering. Mini cars have had their issues with torque steer, especially in the turbo and supercharged versions, and the steering in front-wheel-drive cars is seldom something to get excited about, but overall I’m a fan of how well they match the Mini cars’ character. The Countryman’s steering is the proverbial sore thumb. It feels dead, especially on center, and though the Sport button reduces the electric power assist, all that seemed to do was make it a heavier kind of dead. Feedback is terribly inconsistent, depending on speed.
Well, that’s not exactly an encouraging review. In fact, it sounds very un-MINI like. No one expected the Countryman to handle as well as the cooper. While still small, this is a bigger, taller MINI, and it’s going to drive that way. That said, steering feel is a concern. Hopefully we can get a few more reviews to see if this is a widespread issue.
Read more about the 2011 Countryman.