The week after I had my BMW 5-series in for service, my R53 MCS needed a new clutch so June has been very expensive as far as car maintenance is concerned. The BMW service gave me a BMW X1 as a courtesy car. I will not be reviewing it here but will draw some comparisons with the Paceman as the chassis is of the similar size, and I am of suspicion the X1 and Countryman/Paceman share chassis. I had a Paceman Cooper (not an S, and FWD only) as a courtesy car. Up close, it's a BIG car. Inside the bonnet, it looks like any other MINI Cooper. Even the Cooper S as there is a heat shield hiding the exhaust manifold, just with no turbocharger underneath. Fit n finish was top grade. Exemplary. Quirks: They moved the window switches to the doors.:nonod: In words of their own ad campaign, "That's NORMAL!" The accessory rail are two separate short rails. One for the front one for the back. It doesn't matter. The cheap plastic of the accessories ruin the who idea of this design scheme anyways. The doors are way too big for style reasons only. The actual opening for passenger ingress and egress is much smaller. The big door make it hard to get in and out of the car in parking spaces. The back seats do not fold down flat. Driving, I did like the handling of this car. I liked it better than the Countryman Cooper S I had last time, and I liked the handling better than the BMW X1 I had last week. It was hard to tell in the driving that this was not an AWD powertrain like the Countryman I drove before. It felt the same. Very competent handling and I would say the best of any small SUV on the market. The most carlike of them all, but certainly not "go-cart" like the smaller MINIs. For most intents and purposes, the Paceman Cooper had adequate (if barely) power. The X1 certainly wins on power in this comparison. It goes even better than the Countryman Cooper S. But the X1 handles like a small SUV. The Paceman would be a decent commuter car, though I had trouble getting it much over 70mph on the climb up one of the highway bridges on my way home. I had the pedal floored and the needle would not move up any further. So not a long distance highway burner. Having said that, it also was very frugal on the fuel. Would I buy one with my own money? I like the exterior looks, but I think the inside is too BMW. To me, a MINI is different and the Paceman is not. For the same money or not much more...or even less, you can get a whole lot of other similar vehicles that might better suit the purpose of this type of car better. Is it competent? Yes....but not MINI enough for me. Personally, if I wanted this type of MINI, I would get a Clubman. Others may disagree and that's okay. The Paceman would bring others into the MINI family. I hope MINI is successful with this. Paceman owners will likely have a different lifestyle than me so it would be great to read reviews from a real owner perspective who appreciate this kind of vehicle better....and welcome to the MINI family.
Yes, they are built on the same platform. It's been mentioned on MotoringFile several times. In the US, even the base model X1 has a 2 liter engine with 240 hp. You'd need the Paceman S for something approaching a proper comparison.
The next generation of X1 and Mini will share platforms but the current ones definitely do not - little things like one having a longitudinal engine and the other a transverse engine.
The handling was noticeably different and I preferred the handling of the Paceman. I felt it far more balanced over bumpy and curvy roads than the X1. The rear of the X1 felt like it lightened up too much going over certain bumps. I didn't think it was just a matter of suspension tuning that would do that.