Mini Cooper 2001 test drive - 2006 hatchback

Good mood cars

Good Day Sunshine! Remember, the Beatles had such a song? Something like a day, the sun is shining. You sing it, and the mood somehow rises immediately: guys, spring in the yard! Smile, damn it, because life is a great thing! Yes, do not turn my neck, I will turn out anyway and again rush past you!. And everyone around and really begin to smile! After all, today we have a couple of good mood cars Good and cool Volkswagen Beetle and the furious lawn mower Mini Cooper! Down with boredom! Better sing with me: Good Day Sunshine, Good Day Sunshine, Wa-A-U !!!
I Need to Laugh and when the Sun is out,
IVE GOT SOMETHING I Can LAUGH ABOUT.
(I am so funny, even if there is no sun,
I have an object for laughter.)
Rather, get up, the sun! After all, under the window they are waiting for small drawers. Top exactly like toy! And immediately recognizable there, red with a white roof, well, just like a real Mini Cooper S, on which in 1964 Paddy Hopkirk took the 1st place in the Monte Carlo rally. And look at that silver, as if drawn by a compass! Well, how can I not smile here! Both cars are an amazing alloy of modern design and technology with a cult style. The same is inside. The interior mini in spirit completely echoes the exterior design. A two -spoke steering wheel, a number of torso at the bottom of the central console, a speedometer in the center (by the way, they only scare passengers!) Everything is at the first mini. And the seats with excellent lateral support will please even gourmets. That's just the folding mechanism is some kind of illogical and inconvenient. But the back is not too spacious, so it is preferable to rush at Mini together.
The beetle is less colorful inside mainly due to black-gray plastic. True, there is his own zest in his interior. For example, a dashboard in the style of the ancestor, to the right of which a small one ... a vase for flowers! And sitting behind the wheel, as if you find yourself in Minivan, the front panel meets with a windshield somewhere far beyond the horizon. Yes, and the back seat here is completely coping with its direct responsibilities, although the ceiling hangs over his head.
I Feel Good in A Special Way,
IM in Love, and Its a Sunny Day.
(I feel good, let the shadow in the sky
I'm in love, let it be bright day.)
I definitely fell in love! Why, why no one can understand that Mini is not trying to shake the soul from passengers at all. Vice versa! The mini management process is simply an incomparable buzz! Hey Banderte, where are you? Where did you hide your brabuses? I will find you and tear you anyway! This lawn mower clearly dreamed of being a card in childhood! Heavy in parking modes, but an amazingly informative steering wheel, making only two turns from the stop to the stop. A short -lived lever of the gearbox with round iron knob. Lada pedal node ... And now we connect all this with a decent gasket and get a small road bomb.
The famous Grand Prix pilot John Cooper can be proud that his name is written on the nameplate of this car. The mini reactions to the actions of the driver are so clear and clean that the management process itself turns into endless pleasure! Yes, reactions, especially with the ESP disconnected, may seem too sharp and sharp. But how obediently, the car prescribes turns and holds the high -speed straight line from the trajectory, no potholes will be broken by the car! True, though, be healthy, but the energy intensity seems simply unlimited ... When, having accelerated from a traffic light from kilometers to 120, I suddenly realized that the obstacle course was ahead (road workers took off the asphalt, forgetting to put at least some sign!), I prepared To see the front suspension like MacPherson live, and through the holes in the hood ... What was surprise when the suspension did not even work to the chips, and Cooper landed, slightly shuddered and drove on!
We Take a Walk, The Sun is Shining Down,
burns My Feet as the Touch The Ground.
(Let's go for a walk, and the sun sends rays,
Burning foot, paths hot.)
In vain, in vain I moved to Beetle immediately after Cooper ... Maybe that is why the rolls were so irritated at first, even, without pickups, the character of the engine, and clearly staggering all night, and therefore an extremely slow and thoughtful automatic machine. But then everything gradually fell into place. We go for a walk, and the sun sends the rays .... where, damn it, rush. The beetle must be walked, and not drive back and forth! Of course, he also knows how to ride quickly, and very good. The brake work is especially good. On the segment of the serpentine, they saved from very beautiful ears in a cuvette. In general, extreme tricks are best saved for mini. And on the beetle you can ride calmly and with great comfort, while the attention of others is provided.
And the We Lie Beneath a Shady Tree,
I Love Her and Shes Loving Me.
(And we lay with her under a shady maple,
She is in love and I'm in love.)
And now you can really relax from the curious views and adrenaline emissions under the canopy of something big and green (for example, army KamAZ), and at the same time to speculate about the fate of the ideas and creations of great people. Both Mini and Volkswagen Beetle were created in not the easiest times for automotive. The beetle took his first steps in the destroyed and bloodless Germany after the war. He was supposed to become purely utilitarian and the country was in dire need of a cheap and affordable vehicle. Mini was created later, immediately after the crisis in the oil market associated with the Middle East events of 1957. In the super -gear, constrained by the most severe technical task, the brilliant engineer Alec Issigonis managed to create not just a car, but the deepest concept of such machines in general.
Times have changed. The current Beetle leaves the assembly line in Mexico, and Mini can be called a British car very conditionally. Looking at the beetle, you understand how brilliant the idea of \u200b\u200bsingle platforms, which Ferdinand Pih so actively brought into the life of. After all, without it, the Germans would hardly have decided to reincarnate the legend. And in Mini, the true British spirit of the ancestor overshadows high German technologies from BMW, which made it not just a beautiful toy, but a serious and practical car.
She Feels Good, She Knows Shes Looking Fine.
Im So Proud to Know That Shes Mine.
(She's good, she is good
I am so proud that I found her!)
Obviously, the creators of the originals and their modern heirs were guided by completely different principles and pursued different goals. After all, the new Beetle and Mini will never be massive and cheap cars. To own them the lot of a few sufficiently wealthy people who may not take care of the functionality of these machines. But, damn it, because there will be those who buy them contrary to everything, real fans of a real legend! So Down with the wheel and full gas. While the sun shines, you need to give people smiles and joy! In the end, what could be better?! Good Day Sunshine, Good Day Sunshine!
 
Text Alexander Bochkarev
Photo Alexander Nozdrin
How do they look:
Nikita Rozanov
     
 
OUTSIDE:
If I were a photographer, then the Children's World store would choose a background for shooting this test, and I would try to call inward, right in the soft toy section. Believe me, this is not a drop of sarcasm is very eccentric and pretty this time a couple. I repent today I can not be objective. I really like both cars, and like it the same. Moreover, I would buy them at the first opportunity. True, in the same children's world, on the second floor, where models are sold on my favorite scale of 1:24. Now they are behind the glass of shelves, each next to their historical prototype: the classic mini from Alec Issigonis and the classic Volkswagen from Ferdinand Porsche. Comparing their design with nozzles, it can be seen how the family features and the smallest details were caressed by designers. Here we would learn when they took up the Volga-3111! Both Mini and New Beetle managed to preserve even the parameters of the main volume of the body of their eminent ancestors. And this despite all the rigidity and determination of modern aerodynamics, technology and economics. And the details! Take a look at their faces and profiles, as in the monasy families of flesh from the flesh, parents. Genes ...
Results
Mini is an extremely correct remake and an extremely accurate stylistic arrangement of the classical topic, but at the same time very mischievous and very cheerful.
Volkswagen New Beetle style of the highest professional level. The car, with all the safety of the image of 70 years ago, is both modern and emotional. It's great!
INSIDE:
Car interiors do not cause such equivalent emotions as their outer appearance. But the losers are also not here, time is just working. The New BeeTle design went on the 5th year, the Mini product of the first year of the new century. This difference is felt both in style and in detail. Mini can afford more playfulness or unborn (understand how you want), and New Beetle is a few timids, and the serial Golf resembles the seriousness of its style. This is not scary, because if you recall, then the panel of devices of the classic beetle was even iron. The interior of Mini seems to play with you as a Black Sea dolphin with his girlfriend: only spray with a fountain in sunlight is very impressive and emotionally. Take, for example, an extraordinary in its design, the door upholstery panel or the layout of the instrument panel. The game is everywhere and even in a comparative design test, where it may seem that the beetle is fighting off the pressure of the fashionable minds of the mini only with an elegant bouquet of artificial flowers from a plastic vase near the steering wheel. But, firstly, the vase was present on the historical beetle of the mid-60s, and secondly, with a bouquet, even plastic, it’s not so scary to meet even the most frowning morning ...
Results
Mini at first glance may seem that the interior is too variegated and disturbed in the decoration and details. But everything is very stylish and tasty, but in general it is a subtle continuation of the game.
Volkswagen New Beetle quality and cautious design looks (compared) rational and very correct, and some details make the necessary share of retro.

Source: Cars