[Christien]

I've spent a fair amount of time in a Cooper S - my dad has one and often leaves it with us for weeks at a time when he goes out to the east coast. It's a 6-speed. I've never measured the gas mileage, but it's pretty damn good. It's an exceedingly fun car to use as a daily driver, and fairly practical. It'll take a child seat in both rear seats, or with them folded down can store a fair amount of stuff. I loaded my entire guitar rig in there - a 4x12 speaker cabinet, medium size combo amp, 2 guitars and 2 bags of cables, etc. The sound system isn't the best I've heard, but adequate.

Some of the little idiosyncrasies get on my nerves, though. You have to pull the door handle twice to open it after driving (once to unlock, once to open). The window switches, etc, while appearing cool, are annoying. The sunroof only has a screen to block the sun, rather than a full panel. A few little things like that.

My only major complaint was the stock tires - way too little grip for the car's handling capabilities. I haven't tried it out on the track, but there are some fun twisty roads around my house that I got a little slippery in where I'd expect better grip.