Take the super-fun MINI Cooper S, add a folding denim blue soft-top, and cut out the already precious cargo space and you have the MINI Cooper S Convertible! Though our tester started at almost $28k, the base Cooper Convertible starts at just under $25k.

The loaded-up Pepper White painted convertible allowed us to bask in some of the rare Rochester, NY sun, but quickly protected us when reality kicked in and the rain came down. Like all other MINI Coopers, the convertible is attention grabbing, customizable, and spunky with a turbo under the hood.

Let's see how it did with the top down on both warm and cold days in the city, and a four-hour highway cruise.

The MINI Cooper Convertible S was in one word, ridiculous. It handled like the tires were glued to the road, with tight, linear steering feel and the perfect amount of weighting. It felt light on it's feet but a bit jittery on bumpy roads.

Power for the Cooper S Convertible came from a twin-scroll turbocharged 1.6-liter, 172 horsepower four-cylinder engine that really liked to rev. All 114 lb-ft of the engines torque is available at 4,250 rpm, which helped the MINI feel a lot faster than what the specs said.

Our Cooper S Convertible came with a six-speed Aisin F21 automatic transmission with paddle shifters that responded to taps instantly. When we left it in automatic mode, shifts were smooth but a bit pronounced in terms of noise. As for downshifting, we noticed that the MINI was dropping its gears a bit too early and causing a lurching feeling.

On the highway, our only gripes were wind noise and that the engine sounded buzzy. The soft-top definitely contributed to the first as wind noise was not an issue in a non-convertible test car. Passing power was fantastic in though, with more than enough of a boost to make the steering wheel do the tango on its own.

The sport button on the Cooper S seems somewhat pointless. There wasn't a noticable difference in steering feeling or throttle response when it was activated, which was expected given that this is the sportiest trim level. On regular MINI's though, it's a world of difference.

The braking system on the MINI worked phenomenally. We swear that it was pulled out of the BMW 740i because of how strong, reassuring, and firm the pedal and overall system felt. Working with the four-wheel disc brakes is a whole alphabet of systems that ensure the fun could stop when ever we want it to. On the roster of standard equipment are anti-lock, electronic brakeforce distribution, cornering brake control, and dynamic stability control.

Optional, and not on our tester, are dynamic traction control and electronic differential lock control. Both are designed to help the driver maintain control when they tell dynamic stability control to put a sock in it.

MINI describes their vehicles as having a "wide bulldog stance" because they're short and wide. The Cooper S Convertible is low to the ground, the wheels are pushed out to the ends of the car, and its center of gravity is quite low.

The convertible Cooper is pretty unique, so we're not sure what to make of it. You could get a lot of other cars for the money, but this is a lot of car for the money too (and better than any Sebring). The convertible stands out with the right colors, is customizable in so many ways, and is exciting to look at. It's one of the most energetic and fun to look at convertibles on the road.

Up front are auto-off projector headlights that throw an intense, far-reaching amount of bright light at night. Beneath them in the lower half of the front end are two style lights that work as good daytime lights if the "parking lights" setting is left on, and slotted below them are the optional front fog lights.

The front-passenger seat has a lever on the upper-back to slide forward quickly, but the passenger had to readjust the seat each time. The front-passenger seatbelt also affects ingress and egress to the back seat since it's directly in the way.

Out back is a fold-down door with a small storage area. Sometimes we like to put our friends back there, but unless they're under three feet, we can't do it in the MINI Cooper S Convertible.

Our first impression of the MINI Cooper S Convertible interior is that there was more focus on creativity and uniqueness than on function and utility. It all looked awesome at night as everything lit up in red, and LED "waterfall" lighting filled the doors, handles, footwells, and center console with up to six different colors.

We felt much more comfortable after only a day with the convertible though. The window switches are still a bit awkward and finicky because of the long reach to them, especially the passenger window switch. Near those switches are toy-like knobs and buttons for the radio and climate control, and towering over all of that is the massive center speedometer.

The leather-wrapped tilt/telescoping steering wheel was probably the best ever created for a sub-compact convertible (if there is a class for that). It simply felt magnificent in our hands. The texture of the leather was so good, and the wheel diameter and rim thickness were perfect.

The six-way adjustable leather sport seats on our convertible are another one of its shining factors. They offered the right amount of side bolstering, without being too constricting nor too flat. We were surprised to find a long lower cushion, which offered a good amount of thigh support and comfort. Most new, cheaper-priced cars seem to have seats designed for short, wide people.

Our friends in the back seat felt like sardines. The two-person bench was nicely sculpted but the soft-top cut into headroom and legroom was scarce. There's also a cupholder for each passenger in the back.

The cargo area of the MINI is one area that we liked a lot. It swallowed a lot of "stuff" with only 9.2 cubic feet of space, and offered even more space underneath a covered storage area. When we needed even more than that, the seats folded down and we took advantage of 32.8 cubic feet. We liked the barn doors because of their minimal effort for opening and closing, and especially because of the window wiper on each side.

Speaking of wipers, we didn't like (or atleast couldn't figure out) why the MINI only had speed sensitive two-speed wipers. They became intermittent when the car slowed down, but we wanted more control. After some online research, we found out that the driver has to go through the radio's computer to customize the intermittent speed. On cars with the rain-sensing system it's much easier to just set it and forget it, and we've read that it works very well.

The soft-top of the convertible has a rear window with defroster which helped with visibility, but it wasn't big enough to overcome some major blind spots.

The cool tech of the MINI Cooper S Convertible began right when we got the saucer-like keyfob in our hands. The funky shape has a lock, unlock, and trunk lease button. Inside the convertible, it slides in a port on the dash and the driver then taps the Start/Stop button to bring the engine to life. Though we didn't like the set up at first, we began to appreciate not having to put a key into the steering column and the simplicity of just tapping the Start button when we let go of the clutch too fast.

One unique standard feature for the MINI in its class are steering wheel-mounted audio and cruise control buttons. Checking the option box for the Bluetooth phone connectivity, adds a button on the steering wheel for voice dialing and another for answering and hanging up.

Attached below the big platter speedomter on our base MINI was a radio system with 6 speakers, a CD player, and auto speed volume control. It didn't have much punch so we'd recommend upgrading to the harmon/kardon system and adding high-definition radio.

Lastly, standard on all MINI Coopers is a computer that displays average fuel/speed, outside temperature, trip distance, and fuel range. It can all be viewed in the pod directly in front of the driver by tapping the end of the turn-signal lever, or by going through the menu in the large center-mounted speedometer. We really liked the digital speedometer function for the small pod so that we never really had to use the larger analog gauge.

The convertible doesn't sacrifice safety just because it's small and fun-to-drive. The hefty doors and solid structure inspired confidence, while the list of standard safety electronics to help prevent an accident sealed it.

The MINI comes with ABS, Corner Brake Control, Electronic Brakefore Distribution, and Dynamic Stability Control. All of them worked in unison to keep our MINI in the direction it was pointed in.

The list of passive safety equipment is nothing new anymore, as every automaker now has front, side, and head protecting airbags. An engine immobilizer is standard and and alarm system with a panic button is optional. One unique feature that MINI points out is a post-crash "sensor" that activates the hazard lights, interior lights, unlocks the doors, and cuts off the fuel.

It's perfect for anyone looking for fun, style, versatility, safety, and attention. It offers open-air cruising that's fun, enough to make you want to blast the heat and drop the top when it's 40 degrees out.

Too much power can be a pain in the as* though and we didn't like being pushed around because the Cooper S has too much power going through its front wheels. The road noise can also be a drag if you do a lot of highway cruising. If you're an urbanite though with occasional trips to the beach, this is the convertible to have.