Originally Posted by MrFatbooty
A Cooper S Works with LSD might be pretty nice. But at that point you're bumping up on cars like the S2000, RX-8 and 350Z. Dunno if I'd be willing to drop that much cash for a Mini.
I see your point but then again MINI is not competing with the likes of the above 3 cars. It's not even in the same class. Works package was a limited offer and I believe they are sold out in the US for now.
For 05 they are upping the HP by 7hp. So a fully loaded MINI Cooper S will be just above the 30K mark once again. (a fully loaded convertible model will be several thousand over 30K easily).
Currently fully loaded from factory MINI Cooper S is $28.8K Add the autotranny (rumored to be 1500 + LSD $600) and you have $30.9K. Personally I would skip a lot of the options and get the sports package with the navi and the autotranny + LSD and save about 5K.