am i having a mad elder like moment?

I test drove one before buying my Cinq.

It was noisy, uncomfortable, harsh, the engine felt strangled and the view through the windscreen is akin to driving a post-box.

They rot quicker than a 1975 Fiat 124, too.

For commuting, lack of a 5th gear will annoy you hugely.

Fun on a Sunday morning, with no traffic and a twisty mountain road ahead.

Shite to live with on a daily basis.

Arguement for:

Towards the end five gears were an option courtesy of John Cooper. The last ones had it as standard IIRC

AFAIK that was never offered as standard.

I know Parkers isn't 'the bible' - but they agree with me.

I'm not totally sane, but "totally s**te" comes to mind. I spent a fortnight going around Cornwall in a mates about 10 years ago. OK, they're fun on a twisty road with no traffic, but other than that they are s**te. Harsh ride, noisy, uncomfortable, poor visibility and not that economical. There is a reason they aren't made anymore... I'm stunned they were made for so long. Why anyone would want one is beyond me!!

Mike P

Apart from Jack Knight and KAD, I don't recall any 5 speed Mini gearboxes.

And none of those were actually cheap...

You are missing a rather important point: British Leyland NEVER made a penny of profit on the Mini. BMW however...

For those who want a classic Mini: hurry! Not for the prices but because they will have rusted into the ground.

As to Vamp: get a new Mini, a normal one, not some rich chav's Cooper S. A One diesel or petrol, that doesn't matter. You may not like it, but girls fall in love with it and give them silly names. Grills don't go for the "Powa" or accelerations, they go for the "little" car (weighing

1400 kg) who forgives their change at minds at the last minute and looks cute.

At the end of the day the car you love is the reliable one, the one who rusts and leaks like there is no tomorrow gets forgotten and forgotten happily.

My GF has Mini One Diesel, she will never go or race with my cars but her "Hobbes" gets all attention, merit and trust. And indeed: I have to press the pedal rather deep to follow the little bugger.

Do what you like but believe me on this: Sir Alec Isigonnis had a streak of genius when he designed the Mini. BMW did too and more importantely they cashed in on it rather handsomely.

Forget the old Mini, the shape was good, the rest was ...ahum... s**te. Get a new MIni. Your sis will love you forever.

Just my 2-eur0 cents. Get the UK-pound some lower, will you. Interested in a UK car with a Yank-engine. The engine is OK ( 2kUKP for 400 horses) but bugger the 19700 UKP for the rolling chassis hurt!

Tom - happy 2008 every one! - De Moor

Are you sure a cooper will be that cheap for a new driver to insure? Do you plan to use it daily? They never sorted out the rot problems.

Oh don't worry, they will. Fancy GBPEUR at 1.00?

Don't take any finance. The coming deflation will screw you hard.

I've just Googled this:

'1996 on: 1275 Cooper Touring, Cooper Sport5 & Works

With the introduction of the MPI engined Coopers in late 1996 John Cooper Garages introduced their next generation of conversions.

The two initial options were the Mini Cooper S Touring and the Mini Cooper S Sport 5. Both options had the same 85bhp engine.

The Cooper S Touring had a 4 speed gearbox, 12" alloys, colour coded arches, walnut interior fittings, alloy door furniture, alloy fuel cap, door sill edgings, cooper vavlve caps, alloy dip stick, cooper bonnet and boot badge, Si boot badge, Cooper S Touring side decals, cooper chasis plate and 4 speed leather Cooper gear knob.

performance was 0-60 in 9.95 seconds

£11,595 when new

The Cooper S Sport 5 had a 5 speed gearbox, Rover Sport Pack Option (13" alloys, koni shock absorbers, colour coded wide wheel arches), 3 auxilary dashboard gauges, 4 auxilary lamps, walnut door fittings, alloy door furniture, alloys fuel cap, door sill edgings, cooper valve caps, alloy dip stick, cooper bonnet and boot badge, Si boot badge, Cooper S Sport 5 side decals, cooper chasis plate and 5 speed leather Cooper gear knob.

performance was 0-60 in 9.65 seconds

£13,650 when new

The next conversion released was the Cooper S Works, this was essentially the same engine conversion as the Cooper S Touring and Cooper S Sport 5 with an altered airfilter housing and fuel pressure regulator, increasing the power to 90bhp Sportspack and a Jack Knight five speed gearbox were options

£12,495 - £14,595 when new '

from

Take your pick, I suppose, as to whether the Cooper S Sport 5 can be considered a special edition like e.g. the Sidewalk, Italian Job etc. but it was certainly available though Rover dealers, as I almost bought one. I wish I did now...

Ordered as a standard model, then sent off to Cooper for a conversion pre-sale.

Don't think it qualifies as a mainstream offering - and you'd be incredibly lucky to find one for sale, given the tiny numbers they'd have sold.

No chance! My Mk2 Escort rusted and leaked. All my Minis did, and so did all my wife's Minis (7 between us). They were all cool cars no two ways about it. My Minis all needed fairly constant attention because they kept going wrong but when they were running right they were great cars!

The 1.0 Nova I had: never leaked or rusted (all that much) but I can't even remember what colour the dash was, brown or grey? The Mk2 Escort? Just thinking about it now brings back memories of a great summer 17 years ago: back end out at every opportunity, multiple producers, camping trip to the Lakes, crashed into my tent, shagging in the hastily repaired tent, constantly under the bonnet keeping the thing running, regularly being towed home or towing my mates home, banned from the college car park due to excessive drifting etc. etc...

You have no soul ;) I guess it's a British thing... :P

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Vamp, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

I've had a few Minis, but I've not even been in one for about 15 years.

Best one I had was a 1275 GT with a pretty hairy 1480cc motor with around

115-120 bhp. Went like stink (for a mini), used huge amounts of fuel, but that might have been something to do with the stupidly huge DCOE Weber.

You are Me and I claim my 5 free engine mountings.

(although I never had a 1.0 Nova..., I did have a 1.3 SR for a while)

Can't argue with you there. Like I say, I wish I'd bloody bought one, I reckon it'd still be in service as the weekend car, maybe.

I did see what looked like a Sport 5 northbound on the M6 back in the summer. I saw the Si badge on the back so when I overtook it I did so

*very* slowly and had a good look, and it looked right

:)

I beat a Williams Clio through town in the 1.0 Nova, the driver was a complete ponce. He caught me easily on the straights but he had no bottle in the corners, and I chose a nice twisty route through town.

I tried the same thing vs a Renault 21 Quadra soon after, but I spun on a roundabout trying to stay with him...

Don't tell anyone, I've had two of the SR variety... A 'D' and a 'F' reg, the earlier one was better.

AIUI some were produced with a galvanised shell. I came across one a good few years ago that had been stripped for painting and restoration. There was virtually no rust on the shell at all. I understood from the owner though, that galvanised ones were pretty rare. Mike.

Mine was "A" reg, one of the ones with the closer ratio gearbox and check trim.