Comfort, convenience and economy (Points scored: 4/10, 4/10, 8/10 respectively)

Comfort, convenience and economy (Points scored: 4/10, 4/10, 8/10 respectively)

The biggest issues we had with the MINI Cooper S Coupe were its two seats, and the spine-damaging suspension that just isn’t suited for Malaysian road use.

Plainly, the two seats caused quite a ruckus every time we had to decide which ONE passenger would come along with us for the ride in style. But that’s an obvious issue, one easily established before purchase.

The real shocker was in the shocks. Because this is the most “go-kart” you can get in a MINI, the ride’s equally stiff and unfortunately back-breaking at times. Which isn’t a problem at all if you were on perfectly smooth roads, or a race track. But this is Malaysia, and how many times would you visit a race track with your RM 249k MINI? Bone-crushingly not enough.

Engine bits...

That said however, MINI’s twin-scroll turbocharged 1.6l engine is perfectly balanced between being economical and powerful. Expect fuel consumption to be satisfyingly linear with how you drive it; floor it and you’ll be visiting the gas stations a lot more; drive economically and your fuel filler caps will need dusting. 6.7 l/100 km (Combined) isn’t bad at all.

iDrive convenience

For those of you who are familiar with BMW’s iDrive, the MINI has it as well – just that it’s a MINI iDrive. It works to the same ease and convenience of the BMW iDrive, but everything – primarily the control stick, is MINI-ature.

We did feel however that the MINI iDrive – along with all its cool systems, was lacking a sat nav.