This is the correct approach to Peugeots. Look at them. Then back away and try something else. Loathsome shitboxesā¦
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Thatās shocking eco - my long-term (>10K) average on the fucking Hilux is 34mpg and thatās a 3.0L (diseasel) 4WD housebrick on off-road tyres that weighs two Golfs! 
Itās not great butā¦ itās a two litre petrol engine with 143bhp/litre. If you were to perform the same drive I did today in various two litre turbos of old (usually throwing out less power and moving a car that weighed less), youād not get 39mpg out of them.
This being said. You do need to be fairly delicate to get that. Put it in twat mode and it does rather less;
(The 34mph average includesā¦ some*ā¦ minutes stationary in a car park)
*40
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Yebutt, can it tow a horsefloat?
S Max for that. there was a horrible moment a couple of months back where i thought i might have to get a smallish 4x4 like a sportage or one of those posh spice range rover thongs, but i had the prescience to check out the towing weight for Claireās car.
Suprised you could get those past Claire 
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Need to clean my search historyā¦
How many seats do you need? If youāre serious about using the S Max for all your family trips, consider an Audi TT. Itās a bit left-field but the interior is a nice place to be, there are a number of engine options to balance performance against economy and they are all pretty capable. If you fold the rear seats thereās a surprising amount of luggage space too - think 2 large + 2 small suitcases, a couple of golf bags or equivalent. Might look too much of a mid-life crisis car?
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Might occasionally need a proper back seat, mostly for the dog, but sometimes for human adults. I did put a strong case forward for a 2 seater ie a Boxster, but she invoked the ānominally practical ā clause. Then I tried to up the game to a 911, rear seats and all that, but a Ā£20k 911 is a risky propositionā¦
As for midlife crisis, I currently drive a BMW convertibleā¦
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Iām not being flippant here; go and look at a Fiesta ST. They are better to drive than the Mini, more reliable than the Mini, have more stuff than the Mini and have cheaper spares. You can also fit an amazing amount of shit in them. Going back to these wise words;
Itās not really nice to look at but it doesnāt do a bad fist of the other two.
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Iāve had 4 adults in my old 3.2 TT Mk1. Ok, itās way too small for a long trip, but for a short hop to the pub it was a hoot ā¦ made a lovely noise too with the VR6 
In the same way that the ambulatory dogfood 
was inevitable, so too is a Mini. His mind is made-up, just needs one person to agree that itās a good idea.
I sense a sore back, spray tans, and age-inappropriate haircuts in someoneās futureā¦
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Minis are great.
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Have you considered a nice RX8?
It has reasonable size boot, and 4 seats and doors!
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This would be the principal of many objections Iād have with the Mini. And this is coming from someone who was heavily involved in leading its original chassis and body design /development, albeit over twenty years ago.
The Cooper S in particular was designed for a younger demographic to rag around town in whilst being fleeced for OEM custom foo parts especially on the rag and fluff side.
It was not designed for the,ahem, more mature gentleman, and definitely not for journeys lasting over an hour. Even at 30 years old at the time the suspension was too hard for me and we deliberately backed off the Cooper non S to be far less likely to shake your spine out of my your mouth.
Great on German roads but utterly ridiculous on British tarmac.
@Tons_of_fun suggestion of an ST Fiesta is the most likely suggestion to span the 3 criteria I proposed.
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Rob,
Iām now on my second mini cooper. I tried the āSā and for me, it wasnāt worth the (lots of) extra money. I was doing weekly trips to Glasgow (3.5 hours each way) in my old one before lockdown and it was fine, I do monthly trips to Bristol and itās not a big stress. Comfy enough, pretty quiet and 44+ mpg (mine is an DSG style auto, well worth a look). Youāre welcome to pop up and have a go.
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Yep, love it.
Havenāt done a great deal of mileage in the last year but I donāt understand the bad back comments. Recently Iāve driven to Dover, Margate and Leamington Spa and back in the same day, all journeys that are around 280 > 320 miles and was fine when I finished.
Managed to get a weber smokey mountain and gear for lopwell in the back, can also get a standard fridge in the boot 
Iāve got the 2015 Cooper S so it doesnāt have apple carplay but it does have the Chilli pack, Media and Nav so the large screen with sat-nav etc (itās the BMW sat-nav so is very good and has the traffic notifications)
Itās only 192 bhp but is very nippy, I tend to potter along at around 75mph on the motorway as this is the comfort speed but when I was in Germany got it up to 150mph (on the speedo) and it sucked itself down to the road, it was more stable than a V8 BMW 545 I had up to 165mph when I lived in Germany
Passengers do complain that the ride is hard and bumpy but I guess youāre more anchored as a driver so Iāve never found it an issue.
Iām 6ā tall and have the seat all the way back so the back seat behind me is a right off.
This is my fifth Mini (1000CC mk IV (1979), 1275 GT, Cooper D (2010 new), Cooper (2011) and the current Cooper S (2015)) and have never had anything mechanical go wrong with the newer models, this one has never had a single advisory in its MOTs
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Itās not, Iām open to the Fiesta ST option*, or maybe some kind of warmed over Focus, in fact a Ford might bring a brand new car into reach because FiL worked for Ford and gets a discount voucher.
*Partially, the fact that FoL2 has a Fiesta (albeit it an older model, obvs) about to arrive might put me off a bit, in a driving around in a similar car to my 17 year old daughter sort of way.
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