Mini's are well known for being cute easy to park cars which are fun to drive. While that is true, it does not accurately portray one of the funnest cars available to drive. When BMW took over Mini, they redesigned the car to make it feel more sleek and exciting. The redesign left an interesting retro feel to the car right down to the displays.

From the exterior, the car is small, with various wheel sizes available up to 17 inches from the factory, with Pirelli Nero tires available on the sports package, and alloy rims available. The headlights are HIDs, both bright and extraordinarily expensive to replace, despite a long life.

Under the hood is a 1.6 liter turbo charged engine with a top mount inter cooler. The battery is inaccessible from the top, but has studs from jumping the car, clearly marked positive and negative. The engine's output is around 170 horse power and 170 ft/lbs or torque. This accelerates the car pretty well for being a 3500 pound car. Despite this, the car is quick of the line and very agile. The car feels much less like a car, and more like a go kart because of the tight lower gear ratios. This imparts drivers with the feeling of a light fast car, which does not sacrifice comfort for performance.

The Mini Cooper S takes on premium grade gasoline, though does get 26 mpg city driving, and 34 hwy. This leads to the most aggravating part of owning a Mini, which is the maintenance. In the newer Mini's the oil capacity of the engine is around 6 quarts, which must be synthetic. The oil change intervals are 10,000 miles, and almost has to be done at a dealer ship. This is because, even the oil filters are difficult to find for all the Mini Coopers. Automotive repair shops who specialize in European cars are most likely to carry the oil filters for Mini Coopers outside of the dealerships.