Bucket Seat: Mini Clubman Cooper S

After attending the launch earlier in the year and having a limited drive in it due to time constraints, so I was really looking forward to getting the Clubman on my test. Alas, something aren't meant to be I guess as during my time with it, I encountered an unfortunate incident which saw me return the car just 3 days after getting it. Some people in this country just enjoy causing damage and trouble to others property but luckily the damage to the car was not too severe and at the same time let me experience first hand what an owner has to go through should something like this had to happen to them. Even though it was just 3 days, I did manage to have a lot of fun with the car and here's how it went down.

Style

The Clubman is probably the longest Mini in the line up, its base is the Mini 5 door with a longer boot. Although some may call it a hearse, I think it looks pretty nifty. It has that Mini charm to it, and while looks compact, it really is quite big and spacious on the inside. In fact, I'd go out on a limb and say its more spacious than the Countryman. It was the Cooper S model so it had all the sporty extras added to it, large 18" blacked rims, lowered bumper and bigger grilles. The business end of the car has to be the rear, although the back is longer, it doesn't seem out of place and the showstopper has to be those rear doors. Normally with a hatch, you would be familiar with the usual tip up door but with the Clubman, the doors open like a panel van with a two split and with the auto boot open function, it proves to be quite a cool party trick as I showed it off to many and they were equally impressed.

Performance

Nothing more needs to be said about Mini's Cooper S engine that hasn't been said already. It's an almighty 2l Twin Turbo power plant that just itches at every opportunity to provide the most thrilling drive every time to you flick the switch to start the car. That coupled with the masculine tone of the twin exhaust, makes you feel like a racer ready to take on the track. Even though the car is larger than the other Mini's, it still has that Go-Kart feel to it, and it easy to maneuver around. I had the automatic gear box which some may say takes away the joy of driving this type of car but I feel it's quite the opposite. With the engine pushing our 141kW, 280Nm of torque and a top speed of 228kph, you don't want to be changing gears all the time.

Comfort

It's not only me that shares this sentiment, as others who sat in the car said so as well, it really is the best Mini in terms of space and comfort. There's tons of leg room in the back for adult passengers as well as plenty of space in the front. The set up is more in line with BMW although everything is distinctively Mini. The Clubman also has some neat tricks to it as well, normally the mood lighting package in the Mini just features the usual LED lights on the door handles, center console and cabin lighting but on the Club, it has an LED feature pattern on the door which really is breathtaking at night. It caught me off guard at first and I was taken a back by it. It really is flippin cool to see!

Storage

If you going into the market to buy this car, it's for the storage capacity no doubt. The boot is massive and the storage space can be increased by dropping the rear seats. It's simple enough to do so, either by flicking the switch from the boot or from the back passenger doors. It's actually quite surprising how much can fit in the boot and with the doors being split, it makes loaded and off loading easy peasy.

Extras

The cars extras list is might long and impressive to say the least. The car came loaded with them, the light package as mentioned before, Harman Kardon HiFi stereo sound, panoramic glass sunroof with blinds, Scotch pattern seats which is really cool and makes your Mini distinctly different from others. The car also came with Satellite Navigation and Bluetooth Audio streaming. 

Mini Assist

Now on the third night with my car, on way home from dinner, I encounter rocks placed along the road on a blind rise and it was almost impossible for me to avoid, as agile as the Mini is, I managed to avoid the bigger rocks and subsequently hit the smallest one, immediately the cars safety warnings told me something was wrong, the left front tyre was losing pressure and I could feel the car pull to the left. Knowing my house was not more than 200 meters away and the Mini has run flat tyres, I continued to drive at a slow pace, fearing if I had stop to assess the damage I could have been a target for the perpetrators who placed the rocks there. Initially I thought it was the tyre that popped but when I arrived home I realised that the entire rim had cracked. Miraculously nothing else on the car was damaged and the tyre looked like it was fine but due to the rim being cracked, it cut through it. 

Now if this had to happen somewhere else where you're quite far from your destination, it would not be advisable to drive on with a damaged rim. Thats where Mini Assist comes into play, every car sold comes with a Mini Assist plan, and in cases where the rim is damaged, one cannot just pop the boot open and change the tyre since there isn't any due to the cars coming with run flats, so Mini Assist will come to you with the spare rim, change it for you and you can continue to your destination. Of course that rim won't be a replacement, just serves as a standby while you source a new one. It was a learning curve at the same time for myself to see what would happen if an owner had to experience this problem and I must add, the guys were pretty helpful and saw to the issue as soon as they could. 

Verdict

It's the best Mini there is, yes I know I didn't have it that long, yes I want it back, but like the phrase for the Clubman says "Go with your gut!" Seriously, go down to a Mini dealer and test drive one, if your biggest concern over getting a Mini was space for 4 adults and enough boot space, this is the answer to your problems. It is a fantastic car, loads of fun and great to drive. 

Specifications

• 2 litre, 3 cylinder TwinPower Turbo
• 6 speed automatic gear box
• 141kW
• 280Nm torque
• Consumption: 6.4ltr/ 100km
• Top Speed: 228kph
• 0-100kph: 7.2 seconds 
• Price: R447 000* (*excluding extras)

Bucket Seat: BMW M135i

I'm not the biggest fan of hatchbacks, we've only ever owned sedans in my family and big ones at that. Learning how to drive in a large sedan did prove useful to me as anything else that I needed to drive didn't seem like a big adjustment. Hence my love for them continued, even whilst many raved about hatchbacks, I never really took the liking to them, yes I admired the hot hatches but the urge wasn't there. Yes sure they're great cars and most are great value for money but maybe I just preferred having an actual boot? 

BMW called me up  earlier this year and said they were going to send their M135i to me for a week, this was the second time this car was scheduled for me as the last time someone had some trouble with the power of it and it had to go in for some minor repairs, so I was really looking forward to getting this car. Having driven the 120i late last year, I knew the 1 Series was one of the better in it's range compared to it's competitors so having a go in their range topping model was an opportunity I was waiting for.

Since the day it arrived, you knew this car was special. It rolled in, painted in their signature Estoril Blue, with 18" smoked alloy rims, flared air in takes on the front M Sport bumper which was painted in silver and the twin black performance exhausts that hummed to the tuned of its roaring 3 liter, 6 cylinder engine. It made the hair on the back of your neck stand up, this car was no soccer moms car but a proper hot hatch and as much as you can read stats out of the booklet, there's no true way to describe this car unless you experience it yourself. 

BMW cars come in 4 driving modes, Eco-Pro for your conservative driver, Comfort, for your everyday, any type of driving style, Sport, something to beef up the engines response time and then lastly Sport + which beefs up the engine as well as switches off any car aids such as tractional control and ESP. In a car like the M135i, one won't even bother with Eco-Pro as once you take off in comfort with your foot planted to the floor, all you want it more!

The roar from the exhaust is exhilarating and unleashes various emotions while driving it, all of them good though! I described this car as such in one of my tweets, the raw power of the motor working with the twin turbo's is magnificent, it evokes the pure passion of the guys from the factory in Munich. It's relentless and hard working but delivers performance every time you need it. It left me flabbergasted to be honest. It got to a point that I wanted to drive all them time while I had it, I offered people rides to places and even took pointless drives. 

Style

The One Series isn't much to write home about in terms of styling but I really like what they did with the face-lift. The revised lights both at the front and back add real character to the car and gives it that more executive feel. With the M Sport Package, it really beefed the car up. The M front bumper with large air-intakes, blacked out kidney grille and the non-existence of fog lights really gave the car a menacing look. The side profile has had some tweaking with M135i badged into the side skirts of the doors, the rear which had a splitter in the back bumper with it blacked out at the bottom completed the devilish look of the car. Something different about this car is the day time running lights, normally with the BMW we're used to seeing the "angel lights" or halo around the main lights but with the One series, it's more of a tear drop at the bottom which I thought was quite cool.

Comfort

Getting into the car, it seems like any other BMW, pretty much a standard setup with the added extra's of the M Sport package, that being lots of chrome, silver and sporty finishes, not forgetting the electronic racing seats. The M Sport steering wheel is probably my favourite steering wheel ever, if they can be such a thing. The look, the feel and the styling of it is just great. Being a sports model, you would expect the ride quality to be quite stiff and hard but it was quite the opposite, you cant tell the difference of the ride quality between this and a 318i.

Performance

Where do I begin? All you wan't to do with this car is give it horn's and its more than happy to reciprocate. Acceleration is phenomenal, 0-100Kph in 5 seconds and it just keeps climbing at the same pace, no slowing down until it reaches it's governed speed of 250Kph. Unfortunately unlike the German's autobahn one needs a private road or test track to achieve this as our national speed limit is 120Kph. The engine is the same one that get's fitting into all of the '35i badged cars, well now they're being re-badged as '40i. You won't get the most out of this car from day to day driving as it isn't as thrilling as taking it out on the open roads, which is why I did a trip to the Natal Midlands over the weekend. 

Driving

There's no ill I can speak about the car, it performs like a beast, handles like a dream, comfort of any other car in the BMW stable and it makes such a beautiful noise. Maybe there is one thing, but that would be a given,  it does tend to make you notice more than you would like. The fuel consumption, the booklet claims it to have a combined consumption of 8 liters per 100Km but realistically its more like 10.9, switch over into sports mode and the figure almost doubles, hence I said at the beginning to throw the booklet out. The estimated range on sports mode drops faster than the Rand when we change Finance Ministers. Is it worth it though? Hell yes! Every single rand to liter is worth it with this car.

Extras
The car came with pretty much most of the thing standard on the M Package but notable extras were the reverse camera with front and rear PDC, Satnav and larger display screen, lane departure warning which comes handy at high speeds, Xenon lights, Memory seats, Sunroof and light package.

Verdict
This car gives you an andrenilin rush of note, it gets your blood pumping and awakens your soul. Yes it is small and not the most powerful engine from BMW but the complete package is simply mind blowing. The amount of joy it brings you from driving it is unbelievable and it will leave you with a stupid grin on your face every time you get out of the car. Compared to the other hot hatches it lines up against, it's not the fastest but I'd rate it the best in terms of what you're getting. It's not badly priced and the quality of the product is great. If I could afford one, I'd definitely have one in my garage. 

Specifications

• 3 litre, 6cylinder TwinPower Turbo
• 8 Speed Sports Automatic Transmission
• 240kW
• 450Nm torque
• Consumption: 8.0ltr/ 100km
• Top Speed: 250kph
• 0-100kph: 5.1 seconds 
• Price: R572 000 (excluding extras)