nine grand

To hell with the wife's opinion BUY THE WRX! There is NO better car in that price range. Its scary fast out of the showroom. A few and just I mean a few bucks in mods will have you slapping around Rustang Cobras at stoplights let alone the corners. It is superb for the winter as well. My bro had one for a short while before it was totalled. Let me just say that the next $24K I have goes to Subaru.

Rodan

I take it you're not married, huh????

The WRX is still in my consideration set, but with the car's update coming up soon, I'm not sure it would be so smart to buy one of these right now.

I still have about a a month before I make up my mind, so I'd love to hear some more from people who own or have tried out the Mini.

spider

Not sure about you, but all of my lady friends said that they couldn't see me driving a Mini - it's just too cute. Why not just have your wife trade in the Volvo for a Mini, and you get a WRX?

chipperman

I test drove a Cooper S.. very hard. I raced a very heavily modified Fiat 128 from 1974 to 1980. The S has all that is right that was wrong with the Fiat, except for the horsepower. The chassis dynamics for a stock car are superb. The best balanced production front driver I've driven. Great utility value with near perfect seating position. The local autocrosses prove this out, as I am midpack against them with my s2000. I didn't see correct technique yet with the Cooper, much as I am having trouble adapting to the Honda, but it is obvious that with a 200hp package, even a stock mini on street tires would be pretty much unbeatable in any class. It is very easy to drive on the edge, which is quite high. I wanted a convertible, that is why I have the s2k, the next car for the wife (she thinks) is the mini s. I hate to go against the grain of the above posts, but except for the power of the WRX, I just didn't think the handling was close to the mini, either as far as transitions or ultimate stick. If you can, or can learn, to drive fwd quickly you will find the mini to be a blast not requiring huge sums of money or aftermarket mods.