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2014 Mini Cooper

If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone from Mini refer to 'go-kart-like handling,' I'd be retired, living on a beautiful piece of coastline somewhere in the Caribbean. Perhaps even on the shores of Puerto Rico, where Mini chose to launch its latest Cooper and Cooper S hatchbacks. As with so many frequently used phrases, though, there is indeed some truth to the cliché - while the Mini Cooper has never actually handled quite like a go kart, it has always had a certain directness in its movements, reacting to steering inputs with an immediacy and fervor unlike most any other automobile meant primarily for the street.
Combine those unique driving dynamics with a sense of fun that permeates the entire brand from pre-sales marketing to the actual sales process itself and you end up with a marketplace success. As an ex-Mini owner myself (a 2009 Cooper S Convertible), I can attest to the kinship felt between fellow Mini drivers who share in the knowledge that they are having more fun than the poor appliance-driving masses sharing the highways and byways of these United States. It's no surprise that the style-conscious US continues to be the marque's single largest market year after year.
This enviable brand perception hasn't been attained without its own fair share of flaws, however. Though the quirky design and massively customizable bits and pieces that have made up the Mini brand's interior philosophy since it was reborn in 2001 have proven somewhat endearing, the Cooper Hardtop's ergonomics have always been an unmitigated disaster. Plus, this is a very small car, with a rear seat that's practically uninhabitable by adult-size occupants. While that adjective seemingly goes hand-in-hand with the brand's name, the modern Cooper has never been as ingeniously packaged as its 1959 forbearer, which offered up as much interior space as possible through innovative engineering and minimalist design. Further, parent company BMW has positioned Mini as a premium brand, so the Cooper's diminutive size has never equated to low prices. And for being such a small car, the Cooper historically hasn't been well-known for its fuel efficiency.

New Mini Cooper only just now being delivered due to EPA certification

The Mini brand and its products have typically been a runaway success for BMW, but sales of the retro hatchback dropped a drastic 20.5 percent last month, and have been doing such pretty much all year.
The reason, according to Jalopnik, is that the new model has been held up due to EPA certification. Mini told our compatriots, "Sales have dropped because our supply has been so limited. MY 2015 Mini Hardtops have also not been able to go on sale pending the final results of federal fuel economy certification."
Mini goes on to clarify that "as of October 1st, three out of the four 2015 Mini Hardtop 2 door models, the Cooper with manual transmission, the Cooper with automatic transmission, and the Cooper S with manual transmission, have been released for retail sales and deliveries."

Psychology can wipe out 20-25% of your EV's range

There are two primary takeaways from a recent study of electric-vehicle driving habits in Germany. One: an electric vehicle with 25 percent of its battery charge left creates the same reaction in drivers as the fuel needle on "E" in a gas-powered car. Two: familiarity breeds comfort. The study, conducted by Germany's Technische Universitat Chemnitz and funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, put some real numbers on the concept of "range anxiety." According to Green Car Congress, that anxiety truly kicks in when there's less than a quarter of the driving range left on an EV's battery and the study found that a typical car's range is "shortened" by a 20 to 25 percent "psychological safety buffer." If we take the popular Nissan Leaf as an example, the official 84-mile single-charge range is really closer to 63 miles in the head of the driver. The longer the driver spent in the EV, the shorter his mental buffer became. The study was culled from data involving just 79 drivers who tooled around Berlin in Mini E EVs for about six months, collectively putting a quarter-million miles on the electric vehicles. The good news is that the longer the driver spent using the EV, the shorter his mental buffer became, which meant he could comfortably get more miles from the car. So, to all you EV advocates out there, know that once drivers spend some time with an EV, they get more and more used to what the car can do. It's a lesson we've learned before. Just remember that to new EV drivers, the single-charge range is a lot smaller than the one old-timers see.