On the face of it, the best analogy
pertaining to a year spent with car like the Mini Coupe JCW is playing with a
terrier. Sure, it's cute, frisky and full of energy, but after a while the
incessant yapping and haring round the yard will see you fleeing for the back
door before that slobber-coated tennis ball is rolled to your feet for the
umpteenth time.
That was the general consensus upon our
gaily liveried test unit's arrival in our long-term fleet - no doubt a bundle
of fun, but as a liveable companion for a year? That's potentially a big
reach...
Finished in ivory white with a red roof,
matching wing mirrors and contrasting racing stripes, this JCW is hardly
subtle. It was sometimes met with delight from bystanders, while others
squirmed with self-consciousness while piloting it. But applied to this squat,
playful looking car, such go-faster addenda does seem fitting.
The
Mini Coupe JCW cuts a very distinctive shape
Given its pint-sized dimensions, we
expected the cabin to be pokey, but our car's optional Recaro seats proved
accommodating of even the heftier members of the team and the twin domed
recesses in the roof lining, ostensibly for those wishing to don crash helmets
and hit the track, ensured that headroom wasn't an issue for all but the loftiest
of team members.
Another unexpected aspect of a car that
most would deem the least practical in its already space-compromised hard-top
family was the boot. Cutting a fair way into the car's body, the luggage space
measures a handy 256 dm3 - ample for the weekly shop, the girlfriend's
ambitious packing for a day out and even two bedside cabinets during a house
move. The ski hatch between the seats also proved a useful means of slinging
jackets and handbags out of the way.
Regular
steering wheel is a good size and shape for a sporting car such as this
Ours was the first long-term Mini to
feature the Connected audio/Bluetooth/ sat-nav system, featuring a watered-down
version of BMW's previous-generation iDrive interface. Broadly speaking, the
system worked well: the tiny joystick-button input was intuitive, the
voice-recognition system one of the better ones we'd encountered and the
navigation module was clear and fast, although the inability to zoom in further
than 100 metres made tight urban exploration a little challenging.
The system did, however, display moments of
recalcitrance. While generally happy to converse with our smartphones, it did
occasionally decide to deny all knowledge of its relationship with the devices
and occasionally left some of us cursing in the driveway while trying to stream
music from our phones.
Centre
screen’s entertainment and electronics systems are controlled from the central
tunnel
A facet of the interior that increasingly
irritated over the miles was the cabin's subpar build quality. The swathes of
hard plastics and stiff suspension conspired to see most trips over anything
but billiard table-smooth road surfaces accompanied by a litany of creaks,
buzzes and rattles, most often from the steering column and rear parcel shelf.
Fortunately, the optional Harman/Kardon audio system managed to drown out the
worst of it.
As an everyday driver, the JCW was a mixed
bag. Those compact dimensions made it ideal for nipping round town, but the
heavy steering and surprisingly large turning circle sometimes made parking
more of a chore than it should've been. Stop-go traffic also revealed a
sensitive clutch with considerable weight and a high biting point that worked
calf muscles and made progress rather jerky.
