- Naturally, when we look at British cars,
it's usually all sunshines and Doritos.
I mean, the cars across the pond
that sit on their own island
have always had a little bit of a unique way
of building cars.
They just make 'em up just like quirky enough
that makes you question whether it's a car you truly,
really, actually want to own
because it's just a little bit confusing.
You just don't know everything about 'em.
You know, you look at a Jaguar, okay,
it has a tendency to create cars
that people didn't really care about
when it comes to reliability before 2014.
You know the Lotus that, for some unknown reason,
have a used value of $30,000 for a new lease
regardless as to if it has 15,000 miles or 150,000 miles
because damn autocrossers, they'll pay $30,000
for any type of Lotus.
Then you got Rolls Royce, that went through a harder divorce
between BMW and Volkswagen than a marriage story.
But there's a car manufacturer
that's been pretty much through it all,
that has retained a good chunk of what made it what it is,
even though it kinda changed parents
a couple, two, three times,
a car that, without a doubt, has done something
that nearly no other manufacturer has ever been able to do
besides Porsche.
I'm Alex, Alex.Fi on Instagram,
and today, ladies and gentlemen,
we're gonna be talking about a car
that has it's own unique identity.
A car that has somehow made it through thick and thin
of the generations.
A car that has formed a following
that could just be stronger than my love for ramen.
Today, we're gonna be talking about you wanting to own
a Mini Cooper S.
(dubstep music)
(fire popping)
That beat drops. (imitates beat)
And if you're just jumping into this,
allow me to say hi in British.
Hi, welcome to Fitment industries,
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And if you're looking for after-market wheels,
tires, or suspension for your newly-acquired Mini Cooper,
or Mini Cooper S,
or otherwise,
be sure to hit us up over at fitmentindustries.com,
where we literally have everything for you.
It's kinda what we do, we're really good at it,
we got a gallery so you can check in, what fits your car,
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it's pretty much bangin'.
I don't know what else to tell you.
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you guys should check the description link below,
pick up one of these tees, a sweatshirt, or a wind breaker,
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but it gets you automatically entered in to win.
It's gonna be a banger.
The origins of the Mini Cooper (sniffs)
date all the way back to a company named BMC
and designer Sir Issigonis. Issigonis.
(attempting to pronounce name)
There's too many I's and S's in it but, it's okay.
Alex, we're just gonna call him Alex.
In the mid-1950s, originally built due to fuel shortage
and the constant pressure to create a car
that would get your commuting done with decent gas mileage,
the Mini was essentially birthed
into that dreary, rainy country that we call
Yeah.
Originally developed as a four-cylinder, two door car
with a monocak, monocock? (chicken squawking)
All right, don't laugh, shell, what that pretty much means
is it's just a fancy way to say that
the structural system of the Mini Cooper
was supported throughout the full body of the car,
rather than just being the chassis
being welded and bolted to the body.
It kept costs down, it was able to make it
so it was a little bit easier to make,
and it was overall, a pretty good platform
to do at the time.
There's more science to it,
but we really don't have much time for that.
Bring it forward a few years,
and Alex's friend, John Cooper,
designer and builder for Formula 1,
saw the Mini Cooper as a potential powerhouse
in motorsports.
It had all the beans that it needed, okay?
It was small, had a short wheel base, it was light,
it should be able to handle
just about everything you needed to throw at it,
and it could be gutted relatively easy.
After a firm handshake and some tea,
the Mini Cooper was built in 1961,
and shortly thereafter started to provide
motorsport-like activities, with this little tiny coup car.
They featured 840-CC engine for the standard Cooper,
and a 1,071-CC motor for the S type.
That's a motorcycle right there.
The cars would start to catch wind at that point,
being in the Monte Carlo rallies in the mid-60s,
and in the original, original,
original Italian Job.
Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch were second to that jam,
you can watch that movie later.
But the Mini Cooper name didn't live that long.
Really, only from 1961 to 1971,
and then again from 1990 to 2000.
And then again from 2003 to 2000-now.
I mean, due to Mini licensing their Cooper name
over the Innocenti name
out of Spain and some other odd little deals
to get the car the production resources it needed,
it started to get a little bit of a weird life.
The car in the 90s was introduced by the Rover Group,
who owned rights to the Mini at the time,
but was ultimately bought out by BMW.
Because Rover was having no fun staying alive.
If you didn't know that Rover just really isn't good
at keeping cash.
Rover would ultimately be sold,
but BMW would keep the Mini mark,
and they reintroduced the Mini in 2000.
Pretty much like divorce, I'm tellin' you.
Even with the changes and licensing battles,
the car was still named European Car of the Century.
A few years later, it would come to the States,
and decimate all
without having any overnight parts from Japan.
Americans loved this car, I mean they did, loved.
The Mini Cooper came in more trims than shoes my wife wears,
and it did everything fairly well.
When you used it in tandem with BMW's own RND department,
the Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper S that hit the States
would feature all sorts of interesting little quirks
and techs.
I'm gonna keep going
even though I almost just fell out of my chair.
Not too much horsepower out of the base Cooper,
but the S would feature about 170,
which was a good chunk of change
for the little tiny toaster car.
You could get it with a manual gearbox or an automatic,
which had drive-by wire electronic throttles
and a revised suspension system.
It was actually a pretty well done car.
By keeping it small, keeping it short, and keeping it tight
it was pretty much a banger to drive.
The first generation would last until 2006,
until the second generation took over.
Second generation had had more power.
Baby, all right there I said it.
Moving from a supercharger to a twin-scroll turbocharger,
this would move it to mid-170 horsepower.
Because it was doing well,
BMW would allow the Mini to get a little bit more beefed up,
with more tech, more options, and a little bit more pizzazz,
and it would become the generation where people like you
and people like me really started to see
the Mini Cooper S as a platform to have fun with.
The third generation would jump into the pool in 2014,
and would be the one that we have now.
Stock Coopers would come with a three-cylinder,
134 horsepower engine with some insane mileage,
and the S would get a two-liter, four-cylinder turbocharger
again, at 189 horsepower
and a longer body to fit a few more golf clubs
and a couple more groceries.
The cars would get some love from celebrities
like Madonna, Mindy Kaling,
Katie Holmes, Brittney Spears, Blake Lively.
All right, my wife loves Blake Lively.
These cars are insanely customizable from the factory
if you've got the money for it,
and they're at absolutely no signs of slowing down.
Celebrities really love these cars
because they're quirky, little,
and you could do little things to them, and they were cute.
And they drove well, and they were fun,
and it was just a good time, and they were kinda like,
an upscaled Kia Sol.
That's besides the point,
we're not here to talk about the history of these cars.
It seems a little bit counter-intuitive, I know,
but we're here to talk about
when you actually want to own one of these bad boys.
Well, set down your limited edition Italian Job DVD,
and grab your favorite toothbrush,
because we're about to jump into what it's like
to actually own one of these things.
Starting out right in the beginning of the 2000s
Mini Cooper and the Mini Cooper S had a ton of success
for normal Joes and Janes.
But modification support didn't immediately follow,
it actually ended up taking a few years
for people to start throwing things like the Mini Cooper
and the Mini Cooper S right on the ground,
but once they did, you had proper poster status.
It was beautiful.
Most first gens run airlift performance
for their suspension option,
and more affordable wheels in the narrow sizes
like 16x8's, and things like that.
That is because they're missing a lug.
Most of them are four-lug except the newest generation,,
and they have some fairly limited options,
unless you do a five-lug swap,
which isn't very common on these cars.
Second and third generation Mini Coopers
get bigger and beefier,
which is when you start to see these cars
get a little bit modified
more than just wheels, tires and suspension
that they got from fitmentindustries.com
Just saying.
And turbo modifications, you get yourself your tune,
your intake, exhaust, all that good stuff
are all things that you can modify
on the Mini Cooper S platform.
And it's gonna be relatively okay.
Doing this can turn them into little spirited machines,
when they aren't broken down,
and that is where it starts to get a little bit hifey,
but when you want to own one of these, because I'm sorry,
I had to talk about it, don't at me,
or whatever the cool, trendy thing is these days.
Mini Cooper S's can be the CEOs of breaking your heart,
because they just don't have the best reliability.
JD Power in 2016 ranked the Mini
as the fifth worst brand for reliability.
The S's, while they do perform,
do have their fair share of issues,
and if you just don't even wanna trust me,
you can just go ask our buddy Charlie,
who's on his third block and fourth turbo
or something like that,
because he just continues to send power through it
and it just continues to blow up.
They can have cooling issues,
because of just the way that they were built.
Engine failure, because of, well,
it's the way they were built.
Plastics shake loose on the inside,
they have body hardware issues,
and they do have a couple other things.
The automatic CBT transmission is a disaster to work with,
and it's not something that you would ever want to get.
Stay away from 'em.
'02 to '06 models have a known defect in the strut tower
which literally makes them bend.
Pre-2000s have a potential for power steering to go out
due to overheating and poor cooling.
The early S models with the supercharger
need to be rebuilt around every 100,000 miles.
'07s and '08s had an internal engine failure
that happened at cold start
which caused a bunch of noise and rattling,
and even though Mini Coopers and Mini Cooper S's
have some of these well-known issues
that people aren't afraid to talk about,
people still run these bad boys because they don't care.
They are a blast to drive
when they are performing as they're supposed to,
and they can perform in just about any setting.
You wanna go tackle some cones?
Go get 'em, son!
HPD, go grab a helmet and give it your best toss down RA.
Need something that pops flames
with the tune that might be due to engine failure?
Hey.
I mean, why not, right?
Mini Coopers have fantastic history
that does make them a fun platform with a ton of stuff
that would make you proud to own one of the cars.
They have a unique look
that the company has never really deviated from,
and that's probably why such a large group of people
will buy them over and over and over,
even with their less-than-stellar reliability ratings.
Or, they just have a warranty.
I mean, warranties are like, safety net of the century.
If you do end up snagging one of these,
you're gonna want to make sure
you keep an eye out on those common issues
that we talked about before.
It's also important to remember
that you're buying a four-lug car for your wheels,
which limits options unless you get third-gens,
or multi-piece wheels.
And of course remember
that you're gonna have peculiar things
you'll need to work on and around as you modify--
There's dog.
Dog?
Puppy?
There are some peculiar things you'll need to work around
as you modify these cars, as they aren't as stable
as we would like them to be.
Which is pretty much the same to say
for most car guys and gays in a relationship in 2020.
But, it's besides the point.
If you do end up picking up a Mini Cooper,
just make sure you're checking that maintenance,
make sure that you're okay with working on it a few times,
and of course, don't forget to just throw it on the ground.
So what do you think about the Mini Cooper
and Mini Cooper S?
Drop your comments below and of course,
let us know what you'd like us to talk about next.
If you have a Mini Cooper, tell us if you love it below,
and if you're looking for aftermarket wheels, tires,
or suspension for your Mini Cooper or otherwise,
be sure to check us out over at fitmentindustries.com.
I'm Alex from Fitment industries, we will see you later.
Peace.
Whoa.