Backseat review : 2013 Mini Cooper 

"Pabuuu, JDM car enthusiast & Italian parts hoarder" (pabuuu4) 03/01/2015 at 16:59 • Filed to: review, backseat, oppo, mini cooper

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5

So I spent about 20 hours in the backseat of a 2013 Mini Cooper 'Chili package' last week and I have some observations:

- The backseat is more comfortable than the passenger seat. The backseat is soft and bouncy, the passenger seat is really hard and really stiff.

The passenger seat is nicer in the corners, because it really holds you in your seat with its almost bucket seat-like side flaps and low seating position.

- Every window in the car has a Mini logo on it.

- It is impossible to get out of the car from the backseat.

Not only does the front seats slide forward too little for any human to get out, but to make it worse, once you slid it forward, it starts to slide back at 2x the speed. Ideally you need another person to hold the seat forward for you.

- The placement of the lever to fold and slide the seat forward is ugly and in a weird place.

- Little to no leg room. If the person in front of you wants to sit at least a bit comfortable, the person in the rear would have to amputate his legs. The most comfortable position is sitting cross-legged ( shoes off of course) but that gets tiring after a few hours, so sitting sideways was another slightly comfortable position. This was my view for hours.

- The backseat is not the most comfortable place to sleep. This mostly because there was a hump in the middle of the two seats to seperate them. This was not removable.

For the rest of the car:

Exterior- 7/10 - it's a Mini. Not the most exciting or nicest looking car around. I have to give it points for being so recognisable, but previous generations looked better.

Interior- 8/10 - Stylish and pretty. Nice leather seats, feels like quality. The computer system looked very BMW and drawing the letters of an adress with your hand is a nice gimmick. The only thing that drove me mad was the arch on the dashboard that lit up everytime you did something. Change the temp? RED AND BLUE IN YOUR FACE. Go in sport mode? BWAA ANGRY RED IN YO FACE. And so on.

SPEEEEED- 7/10 - Car was pretty quick, we may have hit speeds over 140 in Germany, and we were still overtaken. Car is pretty quick of the line, and makes a real nice noise. Although I don't know if it was really the engine making this noise (Looking at you, BMW) Car holds its own on the Autobahn, plenty of speed to overtake most cars.

Ride- 7/10 - Handles bumps very well, corners like mad too.

Gearbox- 8/10 - It was an automatic, but at least there is a good reason why he has it. That said, the car shifts fast and is gentle when you want it to be, and can be sporty too. and I really don't have anything to complain about it.

Toys- 7/10 - All I know about it is that it has an AUX-cable and Navigation. It also has a computer wich is controlled by a small wheel behind the shifter. Awkward to use at first, but after a while you get used to it. You can also draw letters and numbers on it with your finger. Neat. It probably had way more features, but as you know, I was mostly in the backseat.

Audio- 7/10 - Nothing special, but I heard that the Chili package adds a better audio system. It did not stand out to me and sounded meh. Maybe it was set up this way, but I found that the bass was boosted too much and it drowned out the vocals and effects.

Total (backseat) - 70/100

Engine: 1.6

Transmission: 6-speed automatic

Drivetrain: FWD

Headroom: enough

Legroom: Tons in the front, little in the back

Seating: 2 humans, 2 amputees

MPG: Only tanked twice on a 800+ km trip

MSRP: expensive.

(No research done.)

Also saw some interesting things along the way. From rolled-over cars with crying children and panicking people next to it, to other crashes and being overtaken by the most amazing cars, road trips are always an adventure.

E. Julius > Pabuuu, JDM car enthusiast & Italian parts hoarder 03/01/2015 at 17:16

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I once spent an entire road trip from Michigan to Florida on the 40 side of a 60/40 third row seat in a Buick Rendezvous. There was nothing but luggage to one side, and a view approximately this size to the other side as the rest of my family kept raving about how beautiful the Carolinas were -_-

F10M5 > Pabuuu, JDM car enthusiast & Italian parts hoarder 03/01/2015 at 17:21

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Are you sure it was a 1.6? Thought that the new Mini only had 3-cylinder 1.3 and 1.5 as well as the 2.0 for the Cooper S.

BTW, cool review. Wonder if the 5-door version gets more space in the back.

Pabuuu, JDM car enthusiast & Italian parts hoarder > E. Julius 03/01/2015 at 17:22

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The Mini was one of the nicest cars I've been in. The best was probably a first gen Lancia Ypsilon. I also had the entire third row of a Kia Joice to myself often on road trips when I was 10.

Pabuuu, JDM car enthusiast & Italian parts hoarder > F10M5 03/01/2015 at 17:24

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Probably the 1.5 then, it was a guess.

I hope it gets more leg room, but it isn't that much of a problem if you don't need it often for people.

Alex Zapata > Pabuuu, JDM car enthusiast & Italian parts hoarder 03/01/2015 at 17:47

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I have the answer to the audio complain, having had a Mini with the optional Harman/Kardon sound, you could set it up so the back speakers went all bassy and the front handle more of the mid-to-top range of sound, in the manual it's specifically stated that you should not use this mode when people are in the back as it is a douche move to make their audio experience worse, as was your case...