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Driving a Mini Cooper over the last few months was a surprisingly
enjoyable experience. Even with just 115 Bhp it was a hoot. I was not
convinced that the idea of putting a weedy little 1.4 Diesel unit into
the Mini would really do such a great car justice.
I was not expecting the performance to grab me by the
short and curlies and it certainly didn't when driven around town. Once
on the motorway though, I noticed something, and immediately drove home
and hopped into our long term Cooper. Driving back onto the motorway I
realised just how much better the One D is in this environment. The diesel
can really pull in sixth, where as when driving the Cooper you would be
reaching for 4th or even 3rd gear to make progress up a large incline.
The suspension set up is not as hard as our long term
Cooper which has Sports + suspension but I found the ride to be just about
perfect for the performance, if anything a little harder than a standard
Mini One. The handling remains typically Mini like which makes this the
most fun diesel I have ever driven.
Whilst the Cooper is no V8 petrol guzzling monster, it
would still be lucky to make over 300 miles to a tank of fuel. The One
D has no such problem. Driven hard for the time it was with us, it still
managed to return a rather staggering 52 mpg. Driven with a bit more care
it can achieve over 600 miles on one tank of Diesel.
One thing that did surprise me is how quiet the engine
is from inside the car. You really would be hard pushed to tell it from
a petrol engine if it was not for the rev counter willing you to change
at 4500 rpm.
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