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Avenue of the Giants Weekend Run - Sat. March 23, 2024

Saturday will be a very full day of cruising from Novato up through the Avenue of the Giants and ending at Eel River Brewing in Fortuna. Sun...

MINI Cooper S Convertible Gets An Interesting South African Review

The MINI Cooper S Convertible received a rather interesting review from the South African website Bizcommunity.com. How is this for an opening line:
Besides being totally impractical and damn expensive, the new Mini Cooper S Convertible has a ride hard enough to shake the fillings from your teeth and a body flex that any belly dancer will be proud of - yet it is one of the sexiest, fun-to-drive cars on the road.

There is also this less than stellar analysis:

Alas, the roof might look good, but its very presence is the cause of some irritation. When it's up the visibility is woeful, as Jeremy Clarkson described it so accurately: “It's like sitting in a post-box”.

And, because the roof doesn't fold away completely like in most other modern convertibles, the view out the back doesn't get much better when the canvas is down.

With the roof up, the Convertible tends to shudder and shake. In topless mode this gets even worse and the body also flexes quite a bit.

And if this isn't disconcerting enough the car humps and thumps and the steering shudders something awful on rough roads, thanks to the hard combination of stiff suspension and run-flat tyres.

And while we're muttering, the backseats are for shopping bags or poodles with jewelled collars, not for anything with two legs. There just isn't any space for even a tiny tot's legs between the back of the driver's seat and the back seat.

The boot is about the size of a small wall safe which actually suits the poser owners. And I've actually seen this. Chic chick strolls out of the V&A, Louis Vuitton dress bag over the shoulder and when she gets to the topless car, she simply flops the bag on to the back seat. All in full view, of course and much classier than shoving it into a boot, don't you think?

Yet, the reviewer waxes:

But most of the Convertible's foibles are quickly forgotten and forgiven when you fire up the sporty 1.6-litre engine, blip the throttle to the lovely burbling music from the double-barrel tailpipes and head for the hills.