Well, already since the last update the red Cooper has found a new driver. My co-worker who wanted to take over the car was eager to start driving it, so I am now driving a rather anonymous Peugeot 307.
Last saturday, we payed a visit to Mini Den Haag, which is close to where Demelza lives, just to see what their story would be. I indicated in advance that I would like to drive a car with 17" wheels and/or the sport suspension plus and/or the automatic aircon. Well, the demo-car didn't have any of those... It was almost a clone of the red Cooper I have driven for a few days myself; red too, 15" wheels and not many interesting options (but "of course" also no sunroof and satnav this time). And of course the 2005 model. But already at the beginning of the test drive, the sales guy told me he thought I should then take their Cooper S for a spin as well, as that has all three of those options. "Just try and forget the power".
That's what I figured myself... The choice between "The Cooper might become a disappointment [after the S]" and "This is bloody cool!" was made quickly, though. Well, the drive with the red Cooper wasn't particularly memorable, but taking the Cooper S for a drive was incredible. To forget about the power for a moment won't be too much of a problem (sport suspension plus is wonderful, the 17" wheels look the business and I haven't found them to cause the vagueness I've heard about, and the noise the automatic aircon was supposed to produce was totally acceptable). Other than that: what a great little (?) car, that Cooper S. A Cooper is nice and nippy, a Cooper S is just awesome. I don't even want to think about the Works upgrade... Let's just say one always needs something to dream about.
On the classic Mini-front, I took the white Cooper for a drive last sunday, for the first time since it went into storage. New Mini's are cool cars, but it doesn't compare to the classic.