New car for Heidi - VR4 competition!

[Beastlee]

Well we popped over to the UK to pick up Heidi's new car.....made by the Germans LOL.

Having always said we would never buy a brand new car we simply couldn't turn down the offer put before us. We are now the proud owners of this :

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We dove back from the UK to our house in Germany on the same day and covered 450kms in about 3 hours, the European roads allowing an average of 70mph but with an amazing 39+mpg average! With a 50 litre tank we had enough fuel to complete the journey and still have enough for a couple of days of playtime ;)

We owned an original Mini convertible at the time the new Mini ONE was introduced and swore blind we would have nothing to do with the range. Over time we have sen many other followers turn to the dark side and we haven't looked back.

Handling is near perfect, I can corner at least as fast as I do in the VR4, the acceleration of the 1.6 turbo engine is similar to the VR4 (although yet to be compared directly) and the brakes are far better. Ok they are two different classes of car and you certainly don't get the room or functionality of the Legnum but as a fun fast car it's amazing. It's nice to be back in a manual as well and the 6 speed box is matched perfectly to the torque curve. I did notice though that at 80mph you're doing 3K RPM even in 6th which means a short box. This gives it great pull at motorway speed with no need to downshift, and I also believe that it would out run a VR4 at 120mph+, although the VR4 does have a better theoretical top speed of 149 compared to 134mph (sat nav registered) of the Mini. I did take it up to 130mph on the 61 to Venlo earlier and it seemed to have plently left as it was at about 5K RPM.

We managed to spec it highly and it has the Chilli Pack which includes leather seats, auto-dim mirror, heated screen, headlamp washers, bi-xenon headlamps and a few other niceties. We also got the bonnet stripes and roof in black and the tinted rear glass. There's more but I can't remember it all.

The downsides to it are lack of rear legroom, boot space and of course the price tag (compared to a VR4). The price wasn't a bother as we will only be paying £109/month for it on a special deal for the year and legroom isn't too bad until Sophie gets a little older. The VR4 comensates for the boot space so that's all the problems covered ;)

Now we have 2 cars again the VR4 mods can get a little more involved, it can come of the road as needed......watch this space :scholar:

[The Vee]

TBH always felt the same as you mentioned earlier about the new Mini. However, it is only fair to say, as a car the new one is obviously a completely different animal and no doubt a cracking car. The one you have there does look good. Did you get a LHD or RHD?

[Beastlee]

We got a RHD model, it will be returned to the Uk after 13 months but we have the option to keep it if we want.

We never believed the stories that they had tried to keep it very much like the original Mini but now we realise that it is somthing like the transistion from the 70s/80s Fiesta to what it is now, although the Mini has retained a lot of the original values and is still much better than a Fiesta! It's the Mini ida built by the Germans which means character with a geat build quality.

We haven't seen another in eactly the same color combo as ours over here and only one other in the multitude of forums but that was an older 1.6 supercharged version.

Speaking of forums....none of the Mini ones have been appealing to me, I must be spending too much time here wit friendly fun people.

[The Vee]

Minis Fiestas VR4s Skylines or whatever!! It's the people on here that make the club what it is. :thumbsup:

[d i c k i e s]

im glad the misus is not on these forums to see that... she loves these sorts of cars. nice ride but its a tad too small for my liking.

[CANDEE]

Nice ride :)

Ive been tempted to take one for a spin for a while :)

[Beastlee]

I can certainly reccommend one. I am not a big fan of small cars, hence the VR4, and the lack of internal space but this is a pleasant car to be in. Wehn we had teh classic Mini I was renowned for driving it like a BMW driver, always trying to get others out of my way as if I had a big car. With this one I'm almost as bad but at least I have an excuse....it a BMW LOL

There's a multitude of gadgetry and the auto stop-start takes a little getting used to! When you stop at traffic lights and put the car in neutral it cuts the engine until you dip the clutch again then starts again.