Best Rural MN Commuter: 2008 Clubman vs. Golf TDI?

Considering something more fuel-efficient than the old, marriage-straining W126 300SE. We're also moving to my small hometown 25 miles from my work. I remember the roads getting pretty drifted over in the winter (it's rural and it's Minnesota).

I thought about a Fiat 500, but our wee one is five now and wouldn't fit back there for very long. Plus, it's all two-lane roads, and crash safety is a concern.

I recently saw a very nice 2009 "justa" Mini Clubman with about 50,000 miles at a Chevy dealer for $9500. I didn't know they had fallen into my realm already. They have plenty room in back for a kid, and get gas mileage comparable to a TDI.
Am I nuts? I've read the 2008+ Minis are more dependable than earlier ones and TDIs still seem to command crazy money.

What part of MN, if you don't mind me asking?

I live 40ish miles west of The Cities and don't really consider it to be too "rural" until I start cruising gravel roads on a sunday afternoon..

What he said (I'm normally just outside Minneapolis, but drive plenty of rural areas).
South eastern MN rural is different than Northshore rural etc. Also, budget?

Anyway, for all but the nastiest, deeply rutted dirt roads, my Fiesta ST with snows has been great. My brothers TDI gets better mileage than advertised if that's a concern, and the prices are low thanks to dieselgate.

I did drive a Mazda 2 down a 4x4 only trail in northern MN so maybe my opinion on what cars can and cannot do is skewed.

MacDubois wrote: I did drive a Mazda 2 down a 4x4 only trail in northern MN so maybe my opinion on what cars can and cannot do is skewed.

This sounds like a case of "what it can do" vs "what it can do every day without me being super careful not to break it"

rslifkin wrote: This sounds like a case of "what it can do" vs "what it can do every day without me being super careful not to break it"

That's mostly true. We use it for some pretty aggressive gravel tsd rallies on a semi-regular basis. But the trip down that trail was just for fun. I'd want a skid plate and some taller tires to do it daily.

I didn't realized we had so many people from MN on here.

Back on track, I'd be more inclined to suggest an CUV/SUV (shocking, right) depending on how far in the sticks the new town is. Another thing, do you know how bad the roads will get and how often it will happen? maybe the new town won't get as much snow as you are expecting. I'm amazed at the weather difference between rochester and the cities since moving down here.

In reply to novaderrik: We currently live in Rochester, which is 75 miles sough of The Cities. We're moving to Plainview. It's where I grew up, and figured it's a little more wholesome and pleasant than a city undergoing such rapid growth as Rochester.

It's rural. It's unspeakably beautiful with the Mississippi River 13 miles away. It's hilly to the east and north, prairie to the west and south. The main road heading west from Plainview is Minnesota Highway 247, 13 miles arrow-straight, but it gets pretty slick due to blowing and drifting snow. I've always been fine, even in my RWD Benz with snow tires, but those trips were once every couple weeks, not twice a day everyday.

You know, W126s have great ground clearance and road-hugging weight. Plus, I sometimes approach 30 mpg in my 300SDL....

http://daytona.craigslist.org/cto/5498763594.html

I'm fairly confident any of the cars I'm thinking about would do just fine with a set of Hakkapeliittaas; I'm far more a snow tire guy than a 4WD guy. I was wondering the Mini Clubman's suitability as a commuter car and in general in terms of reliability, fuel economy and crashworthiness.

Don't the transmissions self-destruct with almost boring regularity?

In reply to Tom Suddard: I sometimes approach 20 mpg in my 300SE.

I've got a 2012; and commuted in it for a year.

Dunno about the gearbox... hope it'll be good for more than 50k. Then again, it's a BMW, so the prices on anything can be annoying.

Two other annoyances...

in a bit of cost-engineering the wheel controls are a round center-pivot four-button. Same button, left is radio controls, right is cruise control. I don't know how many times I've changed the radio volume instead of slowing down. Also, the ergonomics of that button sometimes miss button presses and it can be difficult to tell if you're "on" or "engaged/disengaged"

finally, I dunno if it's just me... but the upright windsheild is an absolute magnet for rocks. I'm on my third at $1k a pop, and it has a small chip a year old.

I can't speak from experience with either car but I'd go for the one you could get the best service for (I assume the BMW dealer in Rochester sells MINIs but am not sure about that; however, I have heard they're not the greatest dealership around.)

Another SE Minnesota guy here - I'm in Minneapolis, but grew up in Chatfield. Small world

My cousin moved to Rochester last year.. he says there are Pontiac G8s everywhere.. he has one with the 6.0 and an auto trans, claims 30mpg if he manages to drive it nice..

So get one of those..

Clarty wrote: I was wondering the Mini Clubman's suitability as a commuter car and in general in terms of reliability,

Thanks for the morning laugh... MINI and reliability are words you won't hear together very often. The Justa has a better reputation than the S, but it's still not stellar. Not sure I'd want to be putting a kid back there all the time either. Even the Clubman is somewhat tight (I used to own an R56 S, and looked at the Clubman heavily). On the plus side, reports on the Justa's MPG are amazing. They can be super efficient. From what I've seen, they do just fine in crashes.

Won't even comment on VW stuff...ugh.

For less than the clubman I could be there before lunch with a '14 Mirage with 28k miles and a set of snow tires. I thought it was a great commuter, but apparently it isn't very cool.

0'14. Mitsubishi Mirage? I've already had that car.

Klayfish wrote:

Clarty wrote: I was wondering the Mini Clubman's suitability as a commuter car and in general in terms of reliability,

Won't even comment on VW stuff...ugh.

So, VW's worse than a justa R56 Mini? I've had a bunch of VWs. How bad can a Mini be?

I commuted for a year from Brainerd to St Cloud in an 09 Mazda 3 w/Blizzaks back when the winters were bad. Better highways, but never had a problem except boredom.

I'm partial to Mini's and unlike internet lore that says they all explode 1/2 mile after the warranty expires I don't know anyone personally who's had issues and I know of three of various ages including a midland 5 speed 03 cooper that's still on it's original trans. But then it's the same with VW's no real issues with those either.

What is your budget? could you swing for a Fiesta ST, hard to beat for smiles per mile.

In my resent search for a car I drove one of these:

and liked it alot. I ended up not getting one but I came very close. I was surprised that it was not all that hard to find one with a turbo and a stick. In my opinion these are way nicer than the price would leave you to believe.

The budget will probably be around $10,000. That makes a TDI of recent vintage unrealistic. I'll have to see what a Fiesta ST brings. I have some time.

Another Rochester Minnesotan here. How about a 07+ civic si sedan. I have one and it is boring when you need it to be and exciting when you want it to be. You probably will get 30+mpg.

However, if I was in your shoes and had the space, I would get a Prius and something cheap and fun. We also have a prius and with the altimax artics it is pretty much unstoppable. I prefer it to the civic on x-ice i2 except for the noise. The Arctic's are Noisy!

Plainview is a nice place I drive through there often. When cruising around.

I worked at peer-to-peer used car sales company and saw MINIs come through a few times a week. We processed about a 100 cars/week in the Bay Area, so a lot of MINIs, BMWs, Priuses, Mazdas, Civics. We did all the inspections and repairs on cars to get them ready to be sold, and the MINI (and BMW) always needed more money than any other car to get it up to snuff. The repair bill was usually twice to three times the other cars and they were always leaking.

I wanted to buy one before, now I will likely never touch one. VWs needed less, and less costly repairs in comparison.

Why not get a Mazda 3? Still fun to drive, way more reliable/cheap to fix, and if you get the SKYACTIV the mileage will be great.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I'm partial to Mini's and unlike internet lore that says they all explode 1/2 mile after the warranty expires I don't know anyone personally who's had issues and I know of three of various ages including a midland 5 speed 03 cooper that's still on it's original trans. But then it's the same with VW's no real issues with those either. What is your budget? could you swing for a Fiesta ST, hard to beat for smiles per mile.

Second this. I never had any issues with my R53 either. In fact it was a great car that I spent nothing on in terms of failures. I think I did brakes once and changed the timing chain tensioner and thermostat housing as maintenance items. It had 100k on it when I sold it last year.

I have a friend with an '09 Justa that she bought new, and it did have it's first failure a few weeks back; it had a spark plug fail. New plugs and it's like new again. They were the originals put in back in '09.