Suburban Dad: 2007 Mini Cooper S Update

I know, I know: Why is this Dad so fixated on the Mini Cooper? Well, it’s been a few months since the Cooper first visited me in the suburbs where the wife and I fell in love with it. So, when the opportunity arrive to put the Mini through its paces as a long-distance, four-passenger car over the weekend I couldn’t pass it up. Unfortunately, with the kids in tow, the results were less than I had hoped for.

On the plus side, it still drives like a Mini, it got better (just slightly better) than 30 mpg and nearly 400 miles on a single tank of gas.

On the minus side, I took three kids with me on a trip to Milwaukee, and many times, the car itself — not just having to take a  road trip with dad — sparked whining and complaining. At first, the two kids in the backseat were comfortable, but over time (the trip took about two hours each way), they began to complain more and more about their lack of legroom. Both are around 5 feet tall, and eventually, I had to move the driver’s seat up a notch to help accommodate them. That made my knees weary before too long, especially once I was off the expressway and onto city streets, where the heavy shifting began.

Climbing in and out proved challenging for the kids as well, as their first instinct was to grab the chair in front of them to pull themselves out of the car; of course, that just brought that chair back and into their way as they tried to get out. They learned after a while to grab the door jamb, not the chair, but it took a while.

Even though I enjoyed the low-to-the-road, bumpier ride that comes with a Mini, it didn’t fly with the kids, although they were impressed with the “mood lighting” inside. They also liked the keyless features, seeing how they could lock and unlock the doors without a key, and watching the car start up the same way.

In the end, I have to be honest: If I could get by just driving myself, or with only one passenger, the Mini could still work for me, especially if it was the third car in my driveway. But as a second car to our minivan, I’d probably have to look for something a little bigger.