[Exile]

My father has always been an automotive enthusiast and I am very happy to have someone to share that passion with, be it finding good driving roads, going on cross country road trips or discussing automotive trends. He was instrumental in pushing me to finally take the plunge on my dream of getting a 3 series, but this is not about my dream though. This is about his dream and his wish to own an iconic car.

Enter BMW Joyfest 2021

Even though the dream to own an icon, a very unique and sporty car might’ve always been there, the gears actually set in motion when both of us went for BMW’s Joyfest in Kolkata back in 2021. We had performed timed laps around their little circuit(one was marked with cones on a field and another on concrete) in a Mini Cooper S and a Countryman and it was absolutely thrilling.


The Mini Cooper S JCW at Joyfest ‘21

The JCW was also on display and I saw my father having a discussion at length on how one can buy it in Kolkata where there were no Mini showrooms. I didn’t think much of it at the time. We both went home having enjoyed the experience and the Mini’s.
Little did I know my father had already started planning for this. His idea was that he’ll create a fund for it and see when the time comes whether it still pulled at his heart strings. If it did, he would know what to do next. In the coming months I had to get back to work and we drove my 3 to Bangalore, it gave us a good idea that these cars could do cross country trips quite easily, contrary to what many people think due to the low ground clearance and fuel quality doubts.

Patience

Almost 2 years went by and my father finally expressed his wish to buy the Mini, he just hadn’t gotten it out of his heart after our first drive at Joyfest and it fit into his “iconic” genre of cars. There were obvious questions about its usability and practicality though. At 60 would it be comfortable enough or would it be a back breaker? This prompted me to get test drives of the Countryman and Cooper S, by this time I had moved to Mumbai. The roads here gave me a special understanding of how these cars would fare elsewhere. To be honest, I found the Countryman to be less comfortable than the Cooper S, which I believe is down to the seat cushioning and it also felt like the Countryman was trying to pull to much weight. It was the more practical and feature rich of the two without a doubt and with the discounts on offer at the time with the new gen coming in, it was cheaper than the Cooper S with its million options. I was surprised with the Cooper S’ comfort, the driving dynamics was amazing and it had a slightly heavier steering than the 330i. The ease with which one could drive it in traffic seemed like the icing on the cake.

Decision time!

The heart had triumphed over the head, it had to be the Cooper S. Even though it was less practical than a Countryman, for my father, as they say, the heart wants what the heart wants! The way it drives is something else altogether. The Countryman anyway could not really replace the SUV back home since it wouldn’t be as versatile, and the Cooper S is the quintessential hot hatch and a great size for urban environments.
This was the first time we had to configure a car in such detail, this took a few weeks to finalise with Infinity Mini also checking on what production slots and equipment was going into the next batch of vehicles. We properly kitted it out and after some negotiations we finally closed on the booking in December of 2023 with tentative delivery by June 2024, though the SA told us that barring any shipping issues, it would be here by April.

The Options

1. Steptronic Sport Transmission (7spd dual clutch)
2. Enigmatic Black Metallic Paint
3. Leather Chester Malt brown seats
4. Napa leather steering wheel with paddle shifters
5. Rail spoke 17” light alloys with Pirelli tyres
6. Wired package and Apple CarPlay
7. Anthracite headliner
8. Roof in white (no cost option)
9. Full size alloy spare + toolkit
10. Exterior trim in piano black

Had to select the below 3 options as manufacturing mandate for this lot, or else wait to get a later allocation if any.

11. Panaromic sunroof (in hindsight it is a good addition if anyone is going to sit at the back for extended periods, definitely adds to the sense of space and prevent claustrophobia in those who are susceptible)
12. H/K HiFi sound system
13. Comfort Access

Arrival, PDI and Delivery Day

!
We were informed when the car went into production in January and in March, earlier than expected, it had landed on our shores. I visited the Infinity Turbhe workshop to inspect the car after its long journey from Oxford. Also gave the go ahead to paint the roof in white.

Some images from the PDI at the Infinity workshop in Turbhe


Fresh off the trailer after customs was cleared




All black looked aggressive


Chester Malt Brown breaks the monotony of an all black interior

After I did the PDI as per the checklist, my father come down to Mumbai for the delivery in April. It was a seamless delivery process and the people at Infinity did a good job making it a special day. After my wife and father had performed Puja, we took the car and went ahead to celebrate over lunch. It was such a brilliant drive and the optioned seats were plush, felt these were more comfortable than the ones in the 330i M sport or the Countryman. Added bonus that it had lumbar support.

Images from delivery day


Happy faces


New look with the roof painted white


Neatly packaged engine bay (with space for an Eveturi carbon air intake maybe)


The stunning rail spoke light alloys


Absolutely love the detailing of these tail lamps


A shot from the Bandra Worli Sea-link on our way to a celebratory lunch


Safely parked after an milestone day

Detailing

The car went in for ceramic coating the next day and both the bumpers and some gloss black high touch point areas were PPF’d.

Road back home!

We took delivery with Temporary Registration and the plan was to drive down to Kolkata and get it registered there. My mother would be flying down in a few days and the 3 of us would drive back from Mumbai. Wife anyway had work which was spilling into the weekend. After some research on road conditions, ongoing roadworks, we decided to take Mumbai>Hyderabad>Vizag>Bhubaneswar>Kolkata. Basically getting onto NH16 to get to Kolkata.

High level route map


We took it easy till we hit 1k kms and then also only amped it up slightly till completing 2k kms. This was to settle in for the first few days with the new machine. Understand our comfort levels and decide how many stops and night halts we’d need. Also we were running in the vehicle over the duration of the trip, whether necessary or not, it’s an essential emotional exercise with one’s machine in addition to the mechanical considerations.

We started for Hyderabad on Day 1 around 7:30 am on a Friday hoping to make it home by the Sunday. This was the first time my parents would be driving through Maharashtra, I think it was a pleasant experience for them to drive on the Trans Harbour Link which helped us leave Mumbai without much traffic and get onto the Expressway. The Food Plaza right after the first Tollbooth on the expressway was our first stop and fuel break both for man and machine. We were averaging around 14-15kmpl which isn’t bad for brand new car. With a quick breakfast and tankful of XP95, we started again towards the traffic that awaited us at the Lonavala Ghat section of the expressway, and yes, it was a 20 min traffic snarl. It was fairly smooth sailing after that with Pune taking 1.5 hrs to cross completely and my mother was reliving her Army kid days while passing through the cantonment areas. After Pune, we were finally able to drive smoothly without much traffic, kept the RPMs cycling up till 3.5-4k for this day. Special mention to the heatwave, getting out of the car felt like entering a furnace, thankfully the small car cools quickly and kept us fresh. We stopped for lunch near Jalna at Hotel Chhatrapati. Decent food, very good service and was pretty hygienic. Regarding the rest of the way, lovely roads for the most part barring some bad patches near Omerga. Our pace was hindered a bit at every border crossing by the Police check posts set up since it was the election period, each stop cost us at least 10 minutes. Some policemen were bewildered as to where are the rear doors. They were all very polite though at all instances. We finally reached our overnight stop in Hyderabad at 9:15pm, not exhausted at all. Good underground parking was available and we concluded our 700km 1st leg.


Naldurg Fort


Our quick lunch stop in Jalna


Good to look back sometimes to see where you’ve been


Random night shot during a tea break

Day 2 started around 8 am and it was quite smooth sailing using the ORR to exit Hyderabad, the infrastructural improvements of which was impressive. All 3 of us would change positions after 2-2.5 hrs of driving and no one got tired. We mostly carried tea bags and a thermos of hot water for all our tea needs during the quick stops, we drink lots of black tea usually, 4-5 times a day! XP95 was easily available throughout the route. The highway was in good shape with some new roadside food plaza’s cropping up which had fast food, restaurants serving thali’s and even Baskin and Robins. A few problem areas near Rajahmundry where the highway resembled the Moon’s surface back in 2022 and the bridge over river Godavari were now fixed, it was unrecognisable. The last time I had to get out of the 3 series and guide my father past the monstrous potholes which even had the larger trucks stumped. There’s a nice big food court just after Rajahmundry on NH16 on the West going side where we stopped for a quick spot of lunch. Being a Saturday we didn’t face unusually bad traffic which I’ve always faced while entering Vizag, we covered the 677kms to the Gateway Hotel on Dr. NTR Beach in ~11hrs.


A quick tour around Gachibowli for my parents


Love this angle of the car


Father enjoying the hot-hatch


Dr. Narla Tatarao Thermal Power Station near Vijayawada. Somehow I hadn’t noticed it in my previous drive from Hyd to Kol.


Getting a well deserved break and some shade while the humans fuel up

Day 3 started again around 8 am, this was the longest leg of 875kms, but we were reaching home so it was not a problem. We used a different road this time to exit Vizag which took us all along the coast and then through a small village with some superb roads directly onto NH16. It was a delightful start to our morning with those amazing views of the beach and the sea. On the highway we did come across some Yamaha’s and KTM’s who were wanting to race, we were obviously not having any of it and carried on at our own pace. The stretch from Vizag to the Odisha border is great, good roads and fast moving traffic, but one must be careful and considerate of 2 wheelers here which can appear suddenly in front of you. That’s nothing though compared to the cows chilling on the highways of Odisha. We never drive above 80 in Odisha, reason being the cows and INR 2k challans above 80 kmph! Be very careful as every time I’ve passed on NH16 through Odisha, I’ve seen 3-4 dead cows along the road and badly damaged vehicles. Take this stretch as the comfort stretch and take it easy. No cruise control was engaged since we were still running in the vehicle. Lunch was taken care of at Bhubaneswar with lots of eateries along the highway, you have to get off the elevated NH16 to the service lane to find these. After lunch we only stopped every 2-3 hrs for a tea and stretch break and carried on to Kolaghat where there is an assortment of eateries and dhabas and stopped for dinner at around 9pm. We feel like we’ve reached when we get to this point anyway since it’s ~60kms from home. We finally parked and ended our day at 11:30pm, so around 15 hrs with generous stops and Police checking at the borders.


Notice the ambient lighting around the display unit. This is different in the Countryman which is more like a tube of light.
Also noticed many of these hills of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh being turned into quarry sites. Legal or illegal, would definitely affect the local environment if this affects the wind and thereby rain patterns. Lots of farmland adjacent to these as well. Hope(optimistically) there’s some method to this.


Some lovely roads before the concrete roads began from the Odisha border

I know many of you might’ve been thinking how 3 adults would fit in a car so small with luggage and a full size spare. I’m happy to report that we did it quite comfortably and without incident and any underbelly scrapes. I’m 5’8”(not particularly tall) and I was comfortable sitting behind my mother who was in the front passenger seat, ingress egress to the back seats is a bit of a faff, and I wouldn’t fit behind my father’s driving position. So a 3 person car at best, but best enjoyed by a couple of people only. It is what it is, a car that appeals to the heart, a hoot to drive and my father’s dream car that he can finally call his own!

Side Note: Registration for 5yrs was done in Kolkata the week after we had reached and HSRP plates were then ordered and couriered by Inifinity Mini to our Kolkata residence. There’s the option of Lifetime tax as well nowadays in WB.

What we loved:

1. Handling
Handles like a dream, such telepathic steering and very communicative. The steering is also the perfect width, and one can enjoy placing the car perfectly. You think it and it’ll do it. I understand why people liken it to an Go-Kart. It does feel like it’s on rails. There does not seem to be any understeer, at least from the performance you can extract on roads. It might understeer a bit on the limit, but I would mostly hit my limit way before that! Hope we can take it to a track someday soon and find out, that would require a road trip on its own as well. Meanwhile, enjoy the good roads and please take it slow on bad or unknown roads is all I can say.

2. Quality and Appearance
Quality levels were quite high, at least the perceived quality. The seat leather quality, dashboard soft touch plastics, ambient lighting unit around the display, steering wheel leather quality, door panel plastics were all of better quality than the CKD Countryman even though the interior trim might look similar. This I had also noticed immediately on my test drives. Also the seat quality is better than in my 330i M Sport. There are some hard plastics lower down the side of the door though. The switchgear are all of very high quality and delightful to operate.
On the exterior, the Mini Cooper S looks fast even when at a standstill. Looks inherently sporty and is a handsome little car. The Enigmatic Black metallic paint work is fantastic and has a real depth to it, blueish in direct light but black otherwise. Everything feels solidly put together and has a heft to it and the Cooper S looks like it is raring to go at every opportunity! Special mention to the tail light details and headlight performance, they look like a million bucks and perform superbly, these aren’t the fully adaptive lights which are optional equipment.

3. Power train
Typical of the B48 2.0L engine variants there’s loads of torque from pretty much the get go, and revving the engine doesn’t make it sound coarse either or make it lose all its steam. This engine is the BS6.2 updated one with 178 bhp (down from 190bhp) and 280NM of torque. Plenty powerful for its size and weight.
After we had run it in I did perform some pulls (all within the speed limits) and the response was almost immediate. I say almost because in auto mode it does take a slight moment to kick down while the DCT sorts out the gears, whereas with the paddle shifters you can always be on point with the shifts. Didn’t launch the vehicle and don’t intend to either. Autoblipping is fun and makes it a sporty experience even at low speeds and upshifts are seamless. The transmission is not jerky in traffic either, feels well judged for out conditions. The engine and exhaust note are very nice, not sure if I noticed any piped in sound through the speakers, I could be mistaken, while the stock exhaust note is a lot like the 330i’s without the cracks and pops. It is rare to get crackles and pops out of this Cooper S and I only managed it a handful of times, guess it’s a skill thing or the exhaust needs to settle down more with more carbon deposits? Let me know if anyone has an idea.
The car has 3 driving modes, Green(Eco), Mid(comfort) and Sport. Eco does dull the power and response, didn’t use it much. Comfort is the most usable mode and that’s what we mostly stuck to. On some instances we did engage sport and it makes the drivetrain very aggressive with its shifts and power delivery. We were still taking it easy and switched to comfort mode after a short trial. Maybe I’ll try it when the car isn’t full with people and luggage. Didn’t option adaptive suspension so no changes with the driving modes on that front.

4. Sense of Space
Mind you I’m coming from a mindset that this is strictly a 2 person car. The interior space exceeded our expectations. I was very sceptical how 3 adults would manage on a 3 day trip with luggage, but we did it comfortably. We were however all carrying soft bags. Big suitcases won’t work with 3 adults, especially with a full size spare sitting in the boot. It’s 210lts of boot space I think, so can’t expect miracles.

5. Mileage for the performance
We constantly got around 14.5-16 kmpl throughout our journey and that was impressive. We didn’t push it hard since it’s a new car, but new cars also give less mileage. So don’t expect it to drop drastically when driven slightly spiritedly.

6. Surprisingly Comfortable Ride
Even though the Mini Cooper S is on the stiffer side, owing to the well judged chassis which feels very neutral and balanced, it provides a good mix of ride and handling. Add to that some beautiful seats and you do not feel tired on long distance drives. Did not feel uncomfortable at any point, but bad roads have to be taken with utmost case.

7. Intangibles
This car got us all together to do a cross country road trip. This was the first with all 3 of us after Covid. That was special.
Also for peace of mind, we wanted an E20 compliant vehicle at least, thankfully BMW engines are rated for up to E25.
Another aspect are the toggle switches of the Mini, they exude quality but it’s the feeling of operating them that is so delightful. It’s like a pilot switching on the ignition which keeps glowing red!
A manual handbrake just feels so good to use after having to push buttons for a while now.
Even though we didn’t willingly option the H/K Hi-Fi audio system, I’ve to admit it sounds amazing. Specially packed into a small cabin. Is it a necessity though on a drivers delight? Maybe not.

8. Ground clearance
The GC might be around 140mm I think, slightly lower than the 3 series, but due to its short wheel base and stiffer suspension, it went over all speed breakers on our route without scraping. These speed breakers were taken at the slowest possible speeds and diagonally like we have to do with the 3 as well. Still, pleasantly surprised!


The Cons
Most of these we were aware of going into the purchase, but must balance it all out ass well.

1. Run-flat tyres
Can be a boon and a bane. We’re sticking to them due to our experience with them on the 330i, but they do make the ride stiffer, and there is always the worry of hitting some pothole too hard causing it to bubble or worst, burst. Cost is also high for a Pirelli Cinturato P7 RFT (205/45/R17 88W), which is around INR 23k each. But then again there’s the safety angle. Will have to take a call when the time comes to replace these.

2. Lack of Active TPMS
The TPMS present is basically a run-flat indicator which will indicate any loss of tyre pressure. It can’t show the actual tyre pressures or temperatures. Not that it is a necessity, but with run flats and our road conditions, it would’ve been a good to have. It was not even a paid option since the factory was not planning on adding it the this lot of Mini’s. Very strange.

3. Rear seat comfort
Though the cushioning is brilliant, on bad roads, you really feel all of the road in the back seat since you’re almost sitting on top of the rear wheels. Not an issue on good roads, but on something like, JVLR near Powai, your back would know where all the expansion joints and potholes are.

4. Lack of a spare and tool-kit
I was surprised to know that they don’t even provide a full toolkit, strange times indeed. No space saver is a bummer but I could see no space to put it either. Pretty cheap to charge for a toolkit and space saver though, it’s already a CBU. We just decided to get a full spare anyway and the toolkit. An alloy comes to around INR 42k from Mini for anyone interested.

5. The pesky Auto Start/Stop
I know it’s common place in all cars now, but there should be a way it can read the signal timing and take that into account before switching off. Would make it much more usable in the city. Anyway, both my father and I switch that off the 1st thing after we start the engine. Hate it when the engine suddenly shuts off when stopping for an obstacle and starts up immediately again while some other times it doesn’t switch off even at a signal. Maybe there’s some logic built into it but it’s the same as in the 330i.


To sum it up, it’s absolutely amazing that I get to see my father truly enjoy his dream machine and be a part of the process too. Driving it is truly an experience! If any of you is considering the Mini Cooper S, and you’re already very clear on what it offers, I’d say please go for it. Price is on higher side when you add options which does take the overall cost and taxes up, but if this is what you want, there’s nothing else like it out there! It is a proper supermini!

ODO reading crossed 2000km along the way. Officially ending our running in period.


This post has extended way beyond my initial plans, so leaving you all now and I’ll update on further road trips, ownership experience, servicing and details over time in following posts.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Jeroen]

Congratulations, lovely car!

I’m still very happy with my Mini One. In fact I’m thinking of perhaps upgrading to a more recent one!

Jeroen

[Mitadru]

Congratulations on getting the new Mini. It's every car enthusiast's dream to atleast experience this beast once. My father also likes the Mini, and he is saving up to buy it one day(Hope ICE engines last till then). The colour enigmatic black looks especially nice, and adds sporty vibes to an already sporty car. That there is no Mini showroom in Kolkata, was news to me. However I have a question. There is a dual clutch transmission provided as the default transmission option according to the brochure. But there is also the option of opting for the sport transmission, which you chose. So what's the difference between those two ? Also why didn't you opt for the adaptive dampers in your Mini ? Wouldn't it increase the comfort level of the car ?

Anyways, wishing you a million happy miles with this beast of a car.

[sachin_cs]

It makes me really happy to see people put their car to use for the purpose they are engineered for i.e. drive. It was a great read in the morning and I did a word to word reading, I loved your narration and the pictures. I genuinely believe that cross country is possible in India in “cars”, we don’t necessarily need big burly fuel guzzlers to explore. Graaja sir doing Arunachal, Hanley in his M-Sport spec 330i, Dr AD exploring our beautiful India in his 320d, Kartikv1 doing Ladakh in a 3 and now yours Mumbai-Kolkata drive with 3 onboard that too in a Cooper S, can’t get better. Feeling proud of our BHPians.