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Mini One is big to boot

Thursday, 29 May 2008

A few weeks back I wrote about the new Mini Clubman and this week I’m in the revamped 1.6 Mini Cooper D.
In a perfect world I suppose I should have driven the Mini One first and then the Clubman, but that’s the way the bookings fell. So now I have the basic version of this attractive motor after earlier driving a bigger, longer model.
The Mini One is much the same as the Clubman but naturally it’s smaller. In a nutshell, you get two doors instead of three and less boot space. The ‘D’ obviously stands for diesel but I found it very quiet and really you would need to check the fuel tank to be sure it was diesel.
It’s definitely a Mini in every sense and you will love that familiar sound when you rev it up. My test car was silver with a black roof and two black lines on the bonnet added to the sporty look. It certainly attracted some envious glances from both young and old on the streets of Dublin.
Internally you still have that massive speedometer which dominates the dash and a whole range of toggle switches which look very impressive. There is also a digital speedometer just in front of the steering wheel, which is very useful in these days when there are speed checks on safe stretches of road.
There are no two-door car fans in our house, but to be fair this is not a family car and the target market will be affluent single people, mainly female. Apart from your passenger there is room for two children in the back seat. But their leg room depends on the size of the person driving and the passenger, who may have their front seats pushed back.
This is the second version of the “new” Mini which was introduced in 2001 and naturally BMW have made improvements to Mark II. The headlamps look really cute and they do I think, give the car a fun look. The boot is small, but as usual with most cars nowadays the back seat can be left down to provide extra luggage space.
Internally on the dash you get a whole raft of toggle switches just under that massive speedometer and also above your head; it takes a while to figure out what each one does. The side pockets for holding objects on the driver and passenger side are not very deep.
The driving position is set fairly low, but overall it’s a fun drive. My back fitted snugly into the driver’s seat. After a few weeks of good weather in Ireland everybody will be thinking about sunroofs, but unlike the clubman there is no sun roof in the Mini One.
Prices for the 1.4 Mini One start at e21,350, while the 1.6 diesel Mini Cooper D which I drove costs e26,400. It’s expected prices will fall when the new C02 emission rule come into play on July 1. I liked both cars, but if I had to choose I think I would probably opt for the more expensive Mini Clubman ahead of the Mini One, but then I would be thinking of a car for family activities.
Looking to the future and the day when you trade-in, the Mini One could be a better option as most garages would welcome this iconic car. However, that’s for another day and right now it all depends on what type of car you need, the Mini One for buzzing around the city or the Clubman for that weekend feeling.

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