Sidewalk's never on sidelines; The new Mini convertible won't fail to impress

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), July 20, 2007

Byline: BY PETER HAYWARD

NAVIGAT ING your way out of a strange city can be like trying to fold gravy.

If you have some sense of direction it helps, but sometimes, even when I think I know where I'm going, the old interior compass lets me down big time.

It was in the gorgeous city of Edinburgh where I was putting the latest Mini Convertible - the Sidewalk - through its paces.

I wanted to get over the Forth and head up towards Gleneagles, but had been told the main bridge was a huge bottleneck because of the dreaded cone men.

So I tried to go west out of the city and instead found I'd gone east. You may describe that as totally bonkers but in fact a very clever mistake because I drove along the southern side of the Firth of Forth on lovely roads and some of the most beautiful lowland Scotland anyone could wish.

It produced the best out of this open-top Mini is no uncertain terms.

The Sidewalk is a standard Mini Convertible under the skin, available in One, Cooper and Cooper S spec, with 90, 115 or 170bhp from its variously breathed-upon 1.6 engines.

These are the old engines, since the Convertible will not get the latest engines or other changes we have seen on the latest Minis for another year or so.

But that's not a problerm to me, especially when it comes with such a huge amount of extra kit.

I drove the pounds 17,975 Cooper which has more than enough power and performance, with 115bhp on tap and very good urge, as long as the revs are not allowed to drop too low.

Top speed is a claimed 120mph, it can accelerate from standstill to 60mph in 9.8 seconds and will average more than 38 to the gallon with exhaust emissions rated at 175g/km.

It's smooth and quiet too - in fact a little too quiet for me - I'd rather have a bit of engine note to tell me what it's doing.

The five-speed gearbox is a delight but I found that the clutch was a little heavy in the stop-start traffic we encountered trying to get out of the city.

The suspension system delivers superb handling and roadholding, allowing the car to be thrown at corners in complete safety.

It grips forever with huge tyres on very special wheels - of which more later - and the steering is full of feel, inspiring confidence .

The hood goes up and down very easily at the touch of a button in about 20 seconds. But when it's up, rearward vision is seriously hampered by the rear headrest/ rollover bars, which seem to fill about three quarters of the back window.

If you add up all the extras which come as standard with the Sidewalk, it becomes very good value indeed, saving more than pounds 1,600 over buying all the items from the huge extras list.

And some of them are not available separately, adding to the model's exclusivity.

The Mini Sidewalk is a great driver's car which opens to the air in a few seconds and represents pretty good value for your cash. It also depreciates less than anything else on the market which makes even more sense.

MINI value

THE Mini comes with midbrown leather upholstery, special mats and interior trim, a sport steering wheels with stereo and cruise controls, big alloys with run-flat tyres and air conditioning - which is oddly not normally included.

Add a paltry pounds 150 'TLC package' when you buy and you get five years' servicing included, which can be extended to eight years for another pounds 300.

Well worth the outlay.

CAPTION(S):

OPEN-TOP STYLE - the Mini Convertible Sidewalk is a pleasure to drive, even when completely lost in a strange city; SMART - the interior of the new Mini Convertible