Mazdaspeed Miata vs Mini S

2Billion said:
It's probably a question of how many drunks, old people and minors you have in your life. I have some of each :p.
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Let's see: Drunks, there's public transportation and taxis for that around here. Old people, see previous, plus the ones I know have their own cars. Minors, they have their own caretakers. Granted, my life is quite different from yours, so not all of this applies. Plus rear doors are a must for old people and minors, but your Matrix has that covered; not sure a Mini would though, even with the half-door of the Clubman.

As for snow, equiraptor is in Texas and they don't get much of that around here. Around Boston, everything gets plowed and with good weight distribution and snow tires, small cars do fine in anything but huge drifts. I do remember the icy and sanded roads that Saskatoon would be cursed with for the winter, but my parents survived five winters with normal tires and a 1990 Corolla, so it can't have been all that bad.
 
Seats: I don't really care. Yeah, its nice to be able to throw a backpack, jacket, or wet umbrella behind you as you get in but its rare for me to have rear passengers (and actually want them there) so its not a big deal if I don't have a back seat.

Snow: I've driven a Miata in snow before and it was fine. I spun out a LOT but then again I was trying to out-drift the car's owner around a parking lot...
 
Labcoatguy said:
Let's see: Drunks, there's public transportation and taxis for that around here. Old people, see previous, plus the ones I know have their own cars. Minors, they have their own caretakers. Granted, my life is quite different from yours, so not all of this applies. Plus rear doors are a must for old people and minors, but your Matrix has that covered; not sure a Mini would though, even with the half-door of the Clubman.

As for snow, equiraptor is in Texas and they don't get much of that around here. Around Boston, everything gets plowed and with good weight distribution and snow tires, small cars do fine in anything but huge drifts. I do remember the icy and sanded roads that Saskatoon would be cursed with for the winter, but my parents survived five winters with normal tires and a 1990 Corolla, so it can't have been all that bad.
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I survived three Saskatoon winters and their... unique approach to snow removal in an '84 Civic with all seasons. If that can work, anything can. Minors don't need back doors either, my nephews could climb into my old ZX2 easily, though it is essential for old people.

Also, if the biggest thing that has been in your backseat in the past year has been a jacket, yeah, you can live without (and don't Miatas have some sort of parcel shelf back there anyway?) I just figured it was something worth thinking about, just in case.
 
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equiraptor said:
Something like this:

Version one:
Do you need four or more seats?
No.
Get a Miata.

Version two:
Do you need four or more seats?
Yes
Get a Miata anyway.
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Nooooooooo! Some of us need more trunk space for { ahem } bodies.

I like both, but haven't driven the Mini and have only driven other peoples' modified Miatas. We used to go EVERYWHERE in a dang Mini, though, and to a small group of college kids, the back seats were fine.

The Mini owner eventually got a Miata, though, and one of the first things he showed me with that car was "dude, I can do smoky doughnuts now!" :D
 
The more I think about this, the more obvious it becomes.

MSM is:
-One of the most nimble and best handling cars ever.
-One of the most feedback-rich and best-feeling cars ever.
-One of the fastest cars for the money.
-One of the most reliable cars ever.
-Parts are cheap.
-Huge aftermarket.
-RWD
-Beefed up from the factory over a regular NB.
-Turbo! I love me some turbos, that's for sure.
-As comfortable as I need a car to be.
-Autocross monster.
-200whp+ is pretty easy to achieve. That's STi-chasing power-to-weight.
-Good gas mileage.
-...
-I want one.
 
I've been looking at that, as well. I've had a lot of small 2 seat sports cars over the years, and yes, you CAN use them as DDs and grocery getters in a pinch. But even when single, I've ended up gravitating back towards larger cars when I want both a fun car and a daily driver. Miatas are great, but MCSs are great AND more useful more often, in more situations. If you need that, then it's a no-brainer as to which of the two I'd choose. If you don't, then a Miata is reliable enough to use as a daily and a fun car all at once.

In my own situation, I'm looking at consolidating two convertible sports cars, an SUV, a full size sedan and two trucks down to just one truck, one sporty daily driver and one cruiser convertible. Since I want to keep the diesel dually to do truck duties (towing, home improvement and dump runs, etc), then the range rover will go, the E38 may go, my MGB project and my '63 Comet convertible project all need to go, and in all their place would be a Mini Cooper S as the daily driver/autocrosser/closed "sedan" for all weather driving, and carrying stuff that's too big for a sports car but not big enough to need the pickup truck, and something like a Jag XKR convertible for top down fun and be the "nice car." The MCS is simply a great, fun car and I love driving it.
 
LeVeL said:
The more I think about this, the more obvious it becomes.

MSM is:
-One of the most nimble and best handling cars ever.
-One of the most feedback-rich and best-feeling cars ever.
-One of the fastest cars for the money.
-One of the most reliable cars ever.
-Parts are cheap.
-Huge aftermarket.
-RWD
-Beefed up from the factory over a regular NB.
-Turbo! I love me some turbos, that's for sure.
-As comfortable as I need a car to be.
-Autocross monster.
-200whp+ is pretty easy to achieve. That's STi-chasing power-to-weight.
-Good gas mileage.
-...
-I want one.
Click to expand...
Now that you've decided...
Buy the Mini. :)
 
I'd get the Miata. It's RWD, and that's the only decider left when I compare the two. Both are insanely fun little 4 cylinder sports cars, both are cheap, both are frugal, both are easy to insure, both are reliable, both are adorable little things, both are fairly easy to work on, both are available with manual transmissions, and both of them have a unique charm about them.
 
Miata. The only thing the mini has on it is rear seats and a trunk and both are even smaller than the ones on my car (seriously, I am tiny and I doubt I could fit) so they're pretty useless.
 
katwalk said:
Miata. The only thing the mini has on it is rear seats and a trunk and both are even smaller than the ones on my car (seriously, I am tiny and I doubt I could fit) so they're pretty useless.
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I'm 6'2" and I've fit in the backseat of a Mini. That being said, I would have been equally as comfortable in a Miata's trunk.

Yeah, it's that bad.
 
Yeah by "fit" I mean not require contorting yourself to fit.
Like when I had to put a huge rocking chair in my car and had to try to flatten my seat all the way to fit it from the front to the back in an odd angle. I got it in there but I had to have help putting it in and pulling it out again. :lol:
 
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It's all in the proportions. I'm 5'7" and fit perfectly comfortably in the back of a Mini, so unless kat's torso or legs are freakishly longer than mine, she'd be fine back there.
 
:blink: really?
It looks even more cramped than my car in there and my back seats are pretty useless.
 
Your car has that ridiculously arched roof that cuts off headroom. The Mini is a rounded box on wheels.
 
I had to deal with this same question years ago. Single guy, living in Philly, and the only two new cars I looked at were the Mini S, & the Miata. It was going to be my only car, so the extra utility of the Mini won out. The back seat is fairly useless, I took it out two years later when I bought a daily driver/beater. Still have the Mini, 6 years later, still love it to death. You can fit a lot of stuff in there, my wife & I have taken lots of road trips, and vacations in it, we can fit enough stuff for a week long trip, no way you could do that with a Miata. Don't get me wrong, I love Miatas, and I've been looking for a first gen at the right price. Here in the Philly area the local clubs do a joint run every summer.

S7006062.jpg


My rear seat delete, with full size spare tire mount.

008.JPG
 
The mini seems to have a low reliability record, where as the Miata's don't have that trouble. I will say this about the Mazdaspeed, it's not a good base to start with if you want to mod the shit out of it. Sounds odd, but if you're going to mod and go crazy turbo get an NB with a sport package.

The Mini's better utility does sound nice, but thats why I own 2 cars :p
 
Like I said before I had the first gen new Mini and there were 4 people on the back seat at its best. That wasn't comfortable but It was quite usual to have two sitting there for shorter trips. Sure I had to move my seat a little forward but it wasn't impossible to drive like that.
The point is it's not impossible to fit there and it can be used for shorter trips.
I'm 186 cm's, no idea how you convert it to those weird American numbers that don't make any sense at all. :)
 
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