Taking delivery of a long-term loan car is not unlike welcoming a foreign exchange student into your home for the semester. You're excited to meet and learn more about your new guest, and you look forward to the new experiences and adventures to come -- especially when the visitor brings along a reputation for having a good time. Such is our feeling as we get acquainted with the shiny new 2007 Chili Red MINI Cooper S Hardtop that just showed u...
Taking delivery of a long-term loan car is not unlike welcoming a foreign exchange student into your home for the semester. You're excited to meet and...
Here's the MINI we'll be evaluating over the next year: 2007 MINI Cooper S Hardtop; Chili Red outside, black cloth inside; 1.6-liter turbocharged 172...
The trickiest part about constantly hopping in and out of different manual transmission-equipped cars, each with their own clutch and accelerator pedal...
It would be easy to overlook the MINI as a good long-hauler, but after two LA-to-Vegas runs in less than two months, our long-term Cooper S further...
Has any car ever begged for a sunroof more than the MINI, we're wondering. Our long-term Cooper S doesn't have one, and it's beginning to drive some of u...
"Ergonomics?!" That's part of a conversation we imagined taking place in the MINI Cooper interior design studio. Our long-term MINI has proven perfectly...
One thing we recently learned about our particular MINI Cooper S is that even when you miss your freeway exit, get off at the next one, decide to backtra...
Our MINI Cooper S Hardtop offers 5.7 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats, which is only about half a cubic foot more than the two-seat,...
From the first day it arrived at the Kelley Blue Book offices more than a year ago, our long-term MINI Cooper S won us over with its fun nature, cool loo...
The original Mini was a fun, likable little car, but in terms of reliability, it was far from stellar. The new MINI, on the other hand, benefits from all...
Three different KBB editors have now piloted our long-term MINI Cooper S on four roundtrips from Southern California to Sin City. Our Irvine offices are...
In continually drought-stricken Southern California, it's not uncommon to hear radio spots for water parks followed by state-sponsored ads imploring us t...
There are some things German automakers do better than the others, but designing cupholders is not yet one of them. Germans don't eat and drink in their...
If you drove a Mazda Miata or Volkswagen New Beetle during the first few years of either's existence, you're probably familiar with the hand waving that...
At the halfway point in our scheduled year with the MINI, we've clocked nearly 6,500 miles on the sporty red hatchback, including three roundtrips from...