How comfortable are Mini Coopers?

I'll be doing a LOT of traveling in the near future, and want a little sport with good mileage. It's likely that I'll be driving more than 1500 miles a week regularly.

To be honest, I don't find small cars like Miatas very comfortable for the long haul. My widening girth and aging knees are much more comfortable with the upright seating position and big fat bench seat of my F-250. That doesn't make it fun.

I'm gonna need a lot of creature comforts (speaker phone, laptop in the car, decent stereo, AC, comfortable ride). I've got to try to be productive, alert, and happy while on the road. Also need a bit of cargo space.

I'm a bit tall (6') with long legs.

Any thoughts on the Clubman S? Forester? Others?

I know I will regret this:

2010 VW GTI stick.

Really??

It's been a long while since I drove a GTI, but VW's were never known for long distance comfort.

Used Acura TSX: high mpg/sport/luxury

Ford Fusion/Milan/Mazda6: 4cyl delivers 30mpg and available sync radio (bluetooth)

I liked my old '95 Volvo 850 wagon for this kind of service.

The new GTI's are VERY comfortable. It's really the cheapest Audi you can get. I drove my 08 from Appleton to STL (7.5 hours) and was comfortable the whole way. While not the most fuel efficient way to gobble up miles (28-30mpg average on premium) they are very comfortable and feel safe and planted. They are also quite sporty.. The only thing is it's up to you to decide if you want to own one out of warranty, or with what will be a very short waranty at 1500 miles a week. I put 30K miles on mine and had $1500-2000 in looming maintenance bills (DSG trans, 30K mile service, Tires soon), and decided I really didn't need that expensive of a car to own/maintain for what kind of driving I did, and I wanted to ditch the payment. Now I own my current car and it has <60K miles on it. I'm happier here. It really had little to do with my happiness with the car (I really liked it), and more to do with my perception of the Value the car offered me.

How long do you expect to drive this much?
1500 per week is 78,000 miles per year.

Are you more the type to buy one car and put 300k miles on it or a new car every 10 months.

I once did similar and had great luck with Accords. I would buy them off lease with roughly 36k miles on them. Make sure that they had fresh tires and brake pads before buying them. I would take these "low mile cars" up to about 80k where they were then just known a slightly "higher mileage or average mile cars." For you, this would mean a new car every 7 or 8 months.
In that time, the car would need little to no servicing and I could loose as little a $2k - $4k off the original purchase price.
I would get about 16 months out of the cars this way (so I was driving less than you.)

It may be hard to pass on the diesel option for that much driving. If i went that way I would want the new Jetta wagon.

new fiesta?

Once upon a time I had a 02 Cooper and a 05 WRX , I found more and more my GF and I would take the cooper on long trips (8-15hr) because it was more comfortable. I miss that car

My '07 Cooper S was remarkably comfortable, 26k miles in 8 months comfortable.

My new '10 Forester is OK, but not great. I find the seat bottoms a bit short front to back. No support for the back of the leg.

Subaru still hasn't fixed that eh?

I drove my RSX from NJ to Iowa in one day (17 hours) and got out feeling fine. Averaged 35mpg on the highway too.

Look at a Infiniti G35 / M45. I just picked up a used G35 sedan and although it isn't much to look at, it is very comfortable, has a nice inside and good grunt. I got sick of looking for a stick and settled for a autotragic, and even that isn't too bad. They are pretty cheap to buy, I have no idea how they are to maintain, but there is a big aftermarket for the G35 sedan and coups.

Volvo. Seats were designed by orthopedic surgeons.

Fit. One of the best long-distance seats I've sat in, 40mpg, fun enough for normal driving, good resale value.

SVreX wrote: I'm gonna need a lot of creature comforts (speaker phone, laptop in the car, decent stereo, AC, comfortable ride). I've got to try to be productive, alert, and happy while on the road. Also need a bit of cargo space.

I think you just described a mini-van.

SVreX wrote: I'm a bit tall (6') with long legs.

6'4" with 36" inseam. My '03 Cooper S is the first car I've ever been in that I did NOT have to move the seat all the way back for comfort. About 4 'notches' up is where I've got it.

toyota echo

nocones wrote: The new GTI's are VERY comfortable. It's really the cheapest Audi you can get. I drove my 08 from Appleton to STL (7.5 hours) and was comfortable the whole way. While not the most fuel efficient way to gobble up miles (28-30mpg average on premium) they are very comfortable and feel safe and planted. They are also quite sporty.. The only thing is it's up to you to decide if you want to own one out of warranty, or with what will be a very short waranty at 1500 miles a week. I put 30K miles on mine and had $1500-2000 in looming maintenance bills (DSG trans, 30K mile service, Tires soon), and decided I really didn't need that expensive of a car to own/maintain for what kind of driving I did, and I wanted to ditch the payment. Now I own my current car and it has <60K miles on it. I'm happier here. It really had little to do with my happiness with the car (I really liked it), and more to do with my perception of the Value the car offered me.

Good points on the warranty. Personally IF I were to buy one I would jump up and get a Certified Pre Owned car car that adds 2yr 24k warranty on it, then buy the 100K VW realdriver waranty for $2000.00 and drive it for two years.

The new cars seats are fabulous.Even the Golf is pretty awesome.

our office uses a car sharing service that has mini coopers as an option and two of the 4 closest cars are coopers. i walk the extra distance to the other options to avoid them! of the other options available, the ones i tend to look for the most are an o7 or 08 volvo s70 and an 09 mazda 3. i find them to be the most comfortable and easy to drive offerings out there.

I've had two Maximas both of which have been good cars. Fun to drive, good power, decent gas mileage. Get one with a stick and you won't regret it.

My '09 Mazda3 is a very comfortable car to spend a lot of drive time in. It's what is considered a base model-2.0, 5speed, cruise, crank windows and manual locks- but it was under$14K out the door. Honest 28-30city mpg and 32-34 on the road. Plenty of interior room , good sound and plenty of power outlets. It even will play my MP3 through the stereo.The warrenty is only fair(IMHO),3yr./36k bumper-bumper and 60/60k powertrain. I too am longish legged and I found the VW to be way too short on the seat bottoms. Mrs.Mini just got a new '10 Versa hatch that's surprisingly comfortable and decently equipped for $12k. The gas mileage isn't quite as good as the Mazda, but it's still new. The ride is also surprisingly good for a smallish car. I could do a lot of miles in this car also. In both, the rear seats fold down, so there is quite a bit of carrying capacity.

Last week I had to do a trip for work and the F-150 was in use by someone else. I didn't want to drive the Miata, so i borrowed my dad's 5 series. I have to tell you, I never really thought it was all that in town, but on the interstate, it was awesome. Oh, and it averaged almost 29mpg for the 700 mile trip. Tons of room, decent power, great seats, and I did a bit of shopping, great prices used. Of course the Garmin was light years better than the factory GPS in I-Drive.

The Mini is a plenty comfortable car with LOTs of room for the driver. The one issue you'll have to deal with is the choppy ride caused by the short wheel base and sporty oriented suspension. On rough roads, it can get tiring but makes up for it b/c it is so much fun to drive. Non-runflat tires and 16" wheels are a must for a more comfy ride.

The Mazda3 is probably a good option as well. Longer wheel base, roomy and still fun to drive.

I've done a number of long-distance drives in MINI's. If I'm driving, I've discovered I have to fiddle with the seat adjustments or my lower back will kill me. It's my g/f's car and we're close in height, so for short trips I can jsut get in and drive... but her legs are slightly longer than mine, so for long trips I need to move the seat up a notch or about an hour into it, I'm dieing... Unfortunately, I usually forget this...

R50/53 MINI sports seats are not really very sporty... but they are reasonably comfortable. In general, I prefer the seats in my '03 Jetta, but after 216K miles, familiarity probably has a lot to do with that...

Oh yeah... and I'm addicted to cruise control... on long drives, I'd be dead without it.

SVreX wrote: Really?? It's been a long while since I drove a GTI, but VW's were never known for long distance comfort.

I had a Jetta 2.5, was extremely comfortable over distance, damn near perfect.