I fancy trying a Cooper S

[Petrolhead]

I recon I can probably get a 70K miler for under 4K

Anything I need to be aware of?

[2slo]

Had enough of the Mazda already?

[ED209]

crap fuel economy

[Petrolhead]

No, keeping the mazda

As this is a toy fuel is not an issue

[TOENHEEL]

Horrendous fuel economy, might as well buy an M3. I ran a GP for a while and couldn't get over how bad it was.

[John Boy 616]

Just the usual ste, gear boxes, power steering pumps etc. They are good fun but the standard 2006 model I had never felt rapid. Made a good noise thou with the super charger and what not

[TOENHEEL]

If you want a fun fwd hot hatch why not look at a Clio trophy, rare and if the suspensions been maintained a right laugh to chuck about. Or an S1 Elise for a bit more than £4k.

[Defcon5]

Gearboxes are fine on the Cooper S.

PAS pump will break, header tank will split. (May have already been done though, both mine went at 55k ish)

I got an 03 S with 45000 miles and decent options for 4.5k last September, bought it for the other half but I use it a lot - its quite good and sounds brilliant.

[2slo]

You know what you really want. Nothing else comes close.

[Petrolhead]

Been there many times thanks. However there are other interesting cars as well as a Caterham

[Hedgetrimmer]

Give Forsters garage in Wallsend a ring if you get one. They will fit reduced pulley, new headers, and an intercooler to release some pace. The pulley alone is worth a reasonable amount of power. Most people go for either the 15% or 17% reduction and gives around 190 bhp. Fuel economy should bother your Peter!

[Petrolhead]

Cheers

Why should fuel economy bother me?

[Defcon5]

Low 20s is the norm

The exhaust popping on overrun makes up for it though

[Hedgetrimmer]

Petrolhead said:

Cheers

Why should fuel economy bother me?

Should'nt - missed off the n and t!

[2woody]

aren't the BMW Minis a bit, well, camp ?

[Mastodon2]

A friend of mine has a supercharged Cooper S with some JCW kit on it, not a bad car, but has all the usual foibles - the noisy steering pump being the worst, it whines constantly and is quite intrusive at low speeds, but that is the same for all of them. The tyre pressure warning on the dash likes to flicker on and off too, regardless of what you do to the tyre pressures.

The exhaust does a nice little popping thing too, iirc Mini engineered it to do that. According to a thread I found when I googled it, the first gens did it, but the second generation had it removed by altering the map - apparently "negative customer feedback" caused them to make the change. My friend's car is a first gen but it's so quiet the tyre noise is louder than exhaust anyway.

[Petrolhead]

Well I got one

[2slo]

Good for you. Are you bringing it next wednesday?

[Petrolhead]

If you like