WORDS By niky tamay
O PHO
t
OGRaPHy By ERWin BaRLEta
2006-2014 Mini Cooper S
History
It’s easy to become cynical about
retro-styled lifestyle vehicles, which
are often nothing more than ordinary
cars under pretty sheet metal. Thank-
fully, when BMW reinvented the Mini
brand way back in 2000 , it produced a
car that was both stylish and fantastic
to drive.
Demand was so great for the hatch-
back that importers made good busi-
ness bringing it in, until Mini officially
opened its doors here in 2010 , offering
a fuller lineup of cars and services than
any gray market importer could.
But while few other cars offer as
much driving fun as the Mini Hatch,
there are a number of things to con-
sider when buying one secondhand.
Value and costs
If you’re looking for secondhand bar-
gains, good luck. Minis are typically in
high demand, keeping the resale value
on the high side. First-generation
gray-market supercharged units can
be found for under P 1 million, but
second-generation turbocharged R 56
cars go for P1.3 million to P1.6 million.
Don’t turn your nose up at regular
Coopers—the naturally aspirated
port-injection motors cost less to run,
and manual variants are massive fun.
The much cheaper Mini One was also
sold here for a time, but those are rare
as hen’s teeth.
Don’t be afraid of newer units with
higher mileage. The direct-injection
engine in the R 56 needs to be driven
regularly (and occasionally spiritedly)
to prevent carbon buildup and pump
fouling. This is something you will also
want to do after you’ve bought the car!
Exterior and interior
The modern Mini design language
hasn’t been updated much since its
debut in 2000. The floating roof, the
ENGINE: 1.6-liter turbo I4 gasoline GEARBOX: 6-speed manual or auto POWER: 184hp @ 6,000rpm
TORQUE: 260Nm @ 1,600rpm ECONOMY: 6-8km/L (city) 14-16 km/L (highway)
PRICE NEW: P2,300,000
PRICE NOW: P1,600,000
cheery headlights, the clamshell hood and
the bubbly fender flares echo the looks
of the old Morris Mini. Second-gen R 56 s
have a longer nose than the original, and a
cleaner lower grille. The intercooler slot
on the hood is merely cosmetic; the inter-
cooler is behind the bumper, not on top of
the engine as in the older car.
The interior is retro-cute, filled with
circular gauges and design cues. The
gigantic center-mounted speedometer
lets everyone know how fast you’re going,
and mood lighting in the doors brighten
the interior at night. The switchgear will
confuse the uninitiated—door locks and
windows are all controlled via chrome dip
switches in the center console.
Standard fabric seats give good lateral
and thigh support for track work, and are
comfortable for commuting. The rear
seat, on the other hand, lacks decent leg-
and elbow room. For those who might
actually need to use the rear bench, the
Clubman variant is a more realistic prop-
THE GARAGE
USED CAR
The JCW is a great
drive, but don’t ignore
the practical variants.
They’re fun, too1
3
We wanted to go with the most
iconic shape, so we went with
this particular model2
100 TOP GEAR PHILIPPINES WWW.tOPGEaR.cOm.PH