SA Road Tests

Welcome

This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We get our hair blown back in the 2012 MINI Cooper Roadster

A Minicar built for two

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday October 24, 2012

Let’s get something out of the way – the MINI Cooper Roadster is convert-able but is not officially a convertible. Reminds us of the morning ex-Radio5 DJ Cleonie Cassidy told listeners that she is blonde, but not a blonde. There is a difference. But we digress…

MINI’s convertibles have back seats. The Roadster does not. It is a pure two-seater in the spirit of Nissan 370Z, Mercedes SLK and a couple of others. One spinoff is that the Roadster offers 240 litres of boot volume against only 125 litres on the convertible. On the other hand, the convertible has fold-down seats that allow owners to extend the load volume, whereas the Roadster doesn’t. This car has absolutely nothing to do with boring practicality, however.

It is a young person’s car designed solely for play and attracting attractive company or a midlife crisis (MLC) machine designed solely for – wait, we’ve been here before, haven’t we? Whatever the case, MINI Roadsters are offered with three variants of BMW’s 1600cc petrol engine and corresponding levels of trim – Cooper with an unblown 90 kW engine, Cooper S that develops 135 kW and the jalapeño-hot John Cooper Works (JCW) version with its smokin’ 155 kW pavement-shredder.

We got to try the basic Cooper, which wasn’t as much of a trial as one might suppose. It still has that dinner plate of a centrally mounted speedometer placed strategically to impress the pants off one’s chosen attractive companion, the famed MINI suspension and quick steering and the time-honoured Mini-ness that has made the brand famous since 1958. Standard kit includes filtered automatic air conditioning, electric windows, rear fog lights, park distance control, push-button starting, follow-me lights, four airbags, ABS brakes with BA and EBD, safety electronics including CBC and DSC, central locking with autolock and a radio/CD unit with auxiliary input.

Inside, it’s all about the serious business of driving. The sports seats adjust back far enough and are fairly supportive although we found them a bit too narrow for continuing comfort, the steering adjusts for height and reach, switchgear is all aircraft-style toggles and the roof opens manually. As for point-and-squirt enjoyment, this thing is magical. It has all the power anyone needs and it hangs on like boerie to a braai grid. S-models and JCWs are purely about bragging rights. If you need them, it says rude things about you…

Gear shifting is via a six-ratio manual ‘box although the old at heart can splurge an additional R16 000 for a Tiptronic six-speeder if they really must. What oldies probably won’t enjoy in extended use is the very rapid steering and the rock-hard ride accentuated by runflat tyres. Both can get tiring and really uncomfortable after a while. Best buy something else for the MLC and leave this car to the young and incredibly cool.

As with many convertibles, roadster or otherwise, there are certain trade-offs. Looking back via the rear view mirror, one is conscious of a constant gentle shakiness of the body and the view outward is restricted because of the narrow back window. It gets especially bad when its glass is covered in raindrops.

But it’s meant to be driven topless, you squeal. Quite correct. Once the big locking handle has been released, a gentle push upward releases the front of the roof from the top of the windscreen, and then it’s a quick hop out to fold and clip it into place. Replacing the top is just as easy. With the R2550 optional wind deflectors in place, it is pleasant to drive at legal speeds, although noise and buffeting will get annoying at about the same time that Officer Aggro gets interested in you…



The numbers
Price: R295 000 basic
Engine: 1598cc, 16-valve, DOHC four-cylinder
Power: 90 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 160 Nm at 4250 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,2 seconds
Maximum speed: 199 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: 7,3 l/100 km
Tank: 40 litres
Warranty: 2 years unlimited distance                                                                     Motorplan: 3 years/75 000 km

Quickpic only had pics of the JCW version. Sorry about that.


What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously.