Retro Showdown
Mini Cooper S dukes it out with Beetle GSR.
This week, Driving’s Nick Tragianis and Jodi Lai find out which European hatchback wins over their hearts with heritage and cuteness: The 2013 Mini Cooper S or the Volkswagen Beetle GSR.
Nick Tragianis The Mini Cooper and Volkswagen Beetle have a lot in common. They were both poster children of the 1960s and their reputations precede them by a long shot. Chances
are, even if you couldn’ t care any less about cars, you could instantly recognize the Beetle’s iconic bubbly shape or immediately know that the Mini Cooper’s signature look is a lime green body with a black hood (with an armchair on the roof or a padlock on the driver’s door). In fact, today’s pony car trio notwithstanding, few cars on the market bulge at the seams because of all that heritage packed beneath their body panels.
Jodi Lai Both of our competitors are backed by a rich history and pay homage to it
with their retro vibes. The Beetle GSR (I thought it stood for German Super Rocket, but apparently it stands for Gelb
Schwarzer Renner, which means Yellow Black Racer in German) is a 40th anniversary edition of VW’s iconic little racing bug, while the Mini is, well, a Mini. Being retro comes with the territory.
This test was an exercise in logic versus emotion, however. While the Beetle at first glance is indisputably an all-around better car on paper (it’s more robust, gets better reliability ratings and has a better build quality), the Mini won my heart against the wishes of my logic because it has this weird connection to my soul.
Overdramatic it may be, but you feel connected to the Mini when you drive it. Actually, you drive the Beetle, but the Mini drives you. As my husband said, the Mini only has two speeds: Fast and get the f--- outta the way!
The Mini has more of an emotional connection to the driver — the Mini wants to you be a hooligan and you feel obliged to entertain the scoundrel.
NT The Beetle GSR is the car to get if you’re a sensible hooligan. If such a thing exists, that is. Its six-speed dual-clutch automatic makes it a suitable daily driver, but it delivers smooth and very quick shifts. Its suspension isn’t as tight and planted as the Mini’s, but it’s so much more forgiving over bumps and rough pavement. Let’s not forget about long-term reliability: We both know Volkswagen and Mini don’t have a reputation as stellar as Honda or Toyota, but I’d bet the Beetle GSR would fare much, much better than the Cooper S in the long run.
In this instance, the Mini reigns supreme, thanks to how its small packaging lends to such a bewilderingly fun drive. But the only thing stopping the Mini Cooper S from fully winning over my heart was its price. Sure, was loaded with goodies like a panoramic sunroof, GPS navigation and various performance bits from the John Cooper Works package, but it topped out at $37,305. That’s some $8,300 more than what the base Cooper S costs and $3,600 more than the Beetle GSR. That’s not exactly cheap, considering you could get a whole host of other hot hatches for far less.
JL The best part of our test though, was the two older chaps who stopped to talked to us when we were shooting the little buggers. The two gentlemen were really taken by our two retro rides, and couldn’t help but reminisce about the good old days when they were checking our cars out. That made me love these two cars even more.