Meet Daisy…

[Adam T7]

Monkey,

We have two minis here... Her f56 and an older coupe.

I hate them both!

Both have the BMW seat problems and horrendous hard ride.

Not for me at all but everyone else here loves them...

You’re not alone, another MINI hater here 👍. I can’t stand them.  A mini to me is the original Cooper my Dad had back in the early 70’s.

Oh, and Exonian, nice new wheels BTW 👍

I hate the original mini. My mam gad one and it was like a baccy tin on wheels.

I’d have a 1275GT to mess about with, more to look at than drive. In our youth in the early 80’s we used to drive some right crap as that’s all we could afford. A mate had an old Allegro that had rotten everything, his mum made him some mats out of some old living room carpet😂
Couple of girlfriends had old mini’s - remember them being pretty horrible to drive.

[The_Doc]

I took note of The Doc and Lee evo’s posts warning of the imminent demise of the performance MK8’s from the ordering system back in May.

 

[Exonian]

Oh, and Exonian, nice new wheels BTW 👍

Thanks Gavin 
I probably should have literally got a new set of wheels and left it at that! 😁

I took note of The Doc and Lee evo’s posts warning of the imminent demise of the performance MK8’s from the ordering system back in May.

 

Yeah, you can take responsibility Doc!! 😁

************************


Unpopular opinion #1
I kinda like Minis.
Old ones, new ones, Chinese ones…

Unpopular opinion #2
I kinda still much prefer the Clubsport to the R.
Early days yet.

R pro’s are obviously traction in this mildly damp weather and less tendency to nearly end up in a hedge at 5am whilst bouncing over massive puddles.
It’s quite nice inside apart from the nasty slab of gloss black on the centre console added in 2022 models onwards.
It pulls pretty well.

R negatives are really sh!te fuel economy, a good 6 to 10mpg down on the Clubby whilst still driving like a nun. Yes, I know you don’t buy cars like these for economy but at the end of the day it’s a small hatchback with a 4 cylinder engine bought by mere mortals and not just multi millionaires. Those extra 20 horses are thirsty ones even when pootling.
The driving modes don’t have a Goldilocks setting. I can’t settle on one at all.
Ride is a bit crashy from the rear unlike the 7R also wearing 19” wheels and more so the Clubsport which is a direct model comparison.
The Clubsport just looks a bit nicer in my eyes.
The Clubsport feels lighter on its toes but the R doesn’t really offer anything else to the equation aside from extra traction under limited circumstances.
The steering and turn in on the Clubsport feels better.


Conclusion: buy a Mini 

[gavinl1967]

Monkey,

We have two minis here... Her f56 and an older coupe.

I hate them both!

Both have the BMW seat problems and horrendous hard ride.

Not for me at all but everyone else here loves them...

You’re not alone, another MINI hater here 👍. I can’t stand them.  A mini to me is the original Cooper my Dad had back in the early 70’s.

Oh, and Exonian, nice new wheels BTW 👍

I hate the original mini. My mam gad one and it was like a baccy tin on wheels.

I’d have a 1275GT to mess about with, more to look at than drive. In our youth in the early 80’s we used to drive some right crap as that’s all we could afford. A mate had an old Allegro that had rotten everything, his mum made him some mats out of some old living room carpet😂
Couple of girlfriends had old mini’s - remember them being pretty horrible to drive.

I’ve never owned a mini, but my Dad had a few in the 70s, a 998 Cooper (I think it was), white with a black roof.  He had all sorts of tuning done on it.  We drove from Dunfermline to Weymouth in it (my mum, Dad, myself and my brother, aged 6 and 4) for a 2 week family holiday - can you imagine!  There was an inch of water on the inside when we arrived in Weymouth, so it had some emergency welding done.

In the mid 80s, my girlfriend had a mini Mayfair, which I quite liked working on it.  Setting the points was a doddle, front grille off, top off the distributor, take the handbrake off and pull the car towards you using the bumper until the points were correct 😁

I once spent 20 minutes looking for the battery on that car, eventually giving up and asking my Dad - try looking in the boot I was told 😁🤔

[SRGTD]

Unpopular opinion #1
I kinda like Minis.
Old ones, new ones, Chinese ones…

Unpopular opinion #2
I kinda still much prefer the Clubsport to the R.
Early days yet.

R pro’s are obviously traction in this mildly damp weather and less tendency to nearly end up in a hedge at 5am whilst bouncing over massive puddles.
It’s quite nice inside apart from the nasty slab of gloss black on the centre console added in 2022 models onwards.
It pulls pretty well.

R negatives are really sh!te fuel economy, a good 6 to 10mpg down on the Clubby whilst still driving like a nun. Yes, I know you don’t buy cars like these for economy but at the end of the day it’s a small hatchback with a 4 cylinder engine bought by mere mortals and not just multi millionaires. Those extra 20 horses are thirsty ones even when pootling.
The driving modes don’t have a Goldilocks setting. I can’t settle on one at all.
Ride is a bit crashy from the rear unlike the 7R also wearing 19” wheels and more so the Clubsport which is a direct model comparison.
The Clubsport just looks a bit nicer in my eyes.
The Clubsport feels lighter on its toes but the R doesn’t really offer anything else to the equation aside from extra traction under limited circumstances.
The steering and turn in on the Clubsport feels better.


Conclusion: buy a Mini 

I also quite like the Mini - the outgoing one that is. Not sure about the new Chinese one yet; I might change my mind when I see a few out on the road rather than just pictures on websites. My first car was a Mini, so I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for them.

It would be interesting to see if forum members over on vwroc.com forum agree with your early days opinion of the mk8 R, especially the negatives……. 

[Exonian]

I can’t see my opinion being of any interest or value to any stray VWROC members, and it’s very early days yet. Daisy might win me over yet!!

A Mini would make a great driveway companion for a Golf, both types of cars have their diehard fans and both are ubiquitous in their own ways.
I was invited to see the Chinese J01 model in the flesh at my local dealer but declined. I may however go and have a test drive in one at some point just to see what they’re like.

[The_Doc]

Unpopular opinion #2
I kinda still much prefer the Clubsport to the R.
Early days yet.

Very much agree. The Clubby is a more fun and engaging case to drive, looks more dramatic and overall better, and is quicker in a lot of circumstances thanks to being lighter and having a shorter ratio box.

The better fuel economy isn’t due to the 20 less HP, but a combination of it being a new engine (it will improve. 1000 miles on my clubsport and it’s already 3-4 MPG better than when I picked it up, even with me being a little more liberal with the throttle) and the extra weight and more importantly drag from the AWD system. Same with the turning being more lively on the Clubby, the rear doesn’t have a diff getting in the way with no AWD system.

I’ve found the R and its ilk to be good if you want to be as fast as possible round a track, but the clubby to be more fun and at least as quick on the road.

Sorry to have lead you down that path, don’t think I’ll be trading my Clubby for anything other than another special GTI.

[Exonian]

I’d expected a drop in MPG due to tranny drag Doc having owned an R previously between GTI’s but not a 10mpg drop, the rear diff must be filled with marshmallow!

**********************

A day late update on week 1.

Finally found a happy medium driving profile.
Driving in Sport mode rather than Race but using the paddles a bit more then I used to and “engine noise” turned to Pure as it’s bloody awful the same as in the Clubsport. Might invest in OBD11 to switch it out altogether.
I tried it in Comfort mode for a couple journeys and it basically sends the gearbox to sleep.

The bigger/better paddles are another ‘pro’ and I find I actually remember to use them now.

Happy to say Daisy earned her stripes (spots?) during Henk. Much less aquaplaning than the Clubsport suffered over the huge puddles my commute suffers from in wet weather (very low lying estuary roads with hills depositing surface water run off). Henk hoofed it down and Daisy took it all in her stride.
We’re properly bonding now.

She badly needs a wash.

And I’ll stop blithering on about her now and we can get back to GTI chatter elsewhere…

[BillSan]

Don't stop Exonian.

I'm enjoying your thoughts and experience.  As a Clubby owner who started as an R wannabe, but couldn't stretch that extra for the £40k tax, it's good to hear from someone I trust who has tried both.

I'm not sure about an R right now so I'll have to reconsider my options in a few months.

PS - just had a new steering wheel and no bongs so far.  For my final 6 months it may finally turn into the car I've been paying for all this time.

[monkeyhanger]

I’d expected a drop in MPG due to tranny drag Doc having owned an R previously between GTI’s but not a 10mpg drop, the rear diff must be filled with marshmallow!

**********************

A day late update on week 1.

Finally found a happy medium driving profile.
Driving in Sport mode rather than Race but using the paddles a bit more then I used to and “engine noise” turned to Pure as it’s bloody awful the same as in the Clubsport. Might invest in OBD11 to switch it out altogether.
I tried it in Comfort mode for a couple journeys and it basically sends the gearbox to sleep.

The bigger/better paddles are another ‘pro’ and I find I actually remember to use them now.

Happy to say Daisy earned her stripes (spots?) during Henk. Much less aquaplaning than the Clubsport suffered over the huge puddles my commute suffers from in wet weather (very low lying estuary roads with hills depositing surface water run off). Henk hoofed it down and Daisy took it all in her stride.
We’re properly bonding now.

She badly needs a wash.

And I’ll stop blithering on about her now and we can get back to GTI chatter elsewhere…

What mpg were you getting with the Clubby vs the R now?

My S3 generally does 2 types of journeys - very short (2 mile round trip for the school run), and long journeys (usually 240 miles each way - Newcastle to Milton Keynes (once a month, for work). For all the inbetweeny stuff, we usually take the Born.

For the 2 mile round trip, I get about 18mpg.

Sat on the motorway sitting at 75-80mph, I get about 38-40mpg, depending on the weather. For 10 - 20 mile journeys, I get about 32mpg.

It's a fair bit better than my 2015 Golf R on the motorway, because that 7th cog vs the old 6 speed manual has the car sitting at 2200rpm rather than 3100rpm, foreverything else, I'd say my old manual was better around the doors.

I use the paddles a fair bit in urban driving, because I find the 1st gear bite from standstill with the DSG is monumentally slow unless the box is in S mode, and unless you manually change, S mode always leaves you changing up very late. If I could have the S bite with normal change up, that would be my ideal combo.