My dad's a driving instructor in Derbyshire (England) and currently drives a 1.0 3cylinder Corsa Life in aruba blue...it's not a bad car compared to the competition but it's just too small and weedy for him to use now that he's actually started his own business, so...
...We decided to look at a new Mini , first we test drove a Mini One 1.6 petrol, which is a great car and were going to order one when my parents noticed the fuel consumption of the Mini One Diesel (I should have hidden the brochure) and yesterday they ordered a Mini One Diesel in Liquid Yellow with the Salt pack (front fog lights, trip computer, passenger seat height adjuster, storage compartment pack [which includes a 12v power socket in the boot for a fridge] and the interior light pack) as well as manual air conditioning and an alarm...but, becuase they're old fogeys and have NO taste in music at all it's still gonna have the 4x5w standard cassette player (oh please!).
It's gonna have the standard wheelcovers (soon to be replaced by ones from Halfords to take the abuse) but that and the fact it's got a tape player (who listens to tapes these days anyway? Even LPs are better ) and the fact it's a diesel really disappointed me. I mean, £13,000 for a car that has 1 horsepower more than a Corsa 1.2 and does 0-60 in 13.5 seconds is (just about) tolerable seeing as it's a driving school car but that clattering sound does NOT belong in a Mini, old or new . I can understand it in my friend's Mitsubishi L200 Animal but a Mini? Jeez. Next time I'll have to order the car for him lol.
Anybody have any thoughts on this or what would make a good driving school vehicle?