Who here owns a Mini?

[Gaygle]

The fronts made no difference, I assume as the rears were just expanding still but now the rears are done too the pedal is much nicer. After fitting new rear discs and pads I went for a hoon trying a new tactic to bed them in... Came back and the disc had gone slightly blue and everything was smoking... Did the trick though. The rears actually have some bite!

Excellent. I've got new Brembo discs and pads coming today and was debating whether or not to get the rear braided brake lines also. Did you ever work out why yours was a 12mm banjo and not 10mm? I'm assuming 10mm is what it was meant to be?

I'll save those though for if I ever track it.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

I was comparing the 2016 Cooper vs 2016 Cooper S The price difference between the two like-for-like really isn't that big.

We test drove a 3 door Cooper S tonight so that she could see if she likes it, and predictably she did. Now the real hunt for a 5 door begins...

I think the current Cooper S is quite a good ride considering how it handles. Firm but refined and certainly not hard, or at least not what I would consider hard (IE clio cup).

That said we didnt opt for run flats. I havent been in an S that has them but my google fu leads me to believe they make the ride a lot more harsh and the handling worse.

Also we have 17's which are an extra as the base spec has 16's AFAIK which should give a bit of a softer ride.

We didnt opt for adaptive suspension as we didn't feel we needed it as we have mini driving modes for better MPG and the ride isnt too harsh to begin with. I suspect a lot of folk would make the same decision. We put the money into more useful stuff like parking sensors, sat nav and heated screen/seats.

Hope you find a Mini that suits though. After being quite against the idea of a Mini I have to say I am in love with the Wife's. Superb car.

 

[thewanted]

Thanks for the comments BuffetSlayer Glad you're enjoying the S! I didn't find the brief test drive in the 3 door Cooper S too bad. It's stiff but definitely felt more compliant over speed bumps than my S1 ever did.

I found a very well spec'd 5 door Cooper S last night for an exceptionally good price given the fact that it's not even 6 months old. I said to my girlfriend at the time that I suspected that it was mispriced. I called up today the minute they opened to see if it was still available, and as soon as the sales guy pulled up the car on his system he said "Wow, that's a lot of options. The price seems low". He came back a few minutes later and confirmed that the car will be at their dealership soon, and that it was priced £1k too low. They've since increased the price on the website.

They will honour the wrong price, so I put down a deposit which is refundable pending us seeing the video they will take when the car arrives. I have it all in writing

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Thanks for the comments BuffetSlayer Glad you're enjoying the S! I didn't find the brief test drive in the 3 door Cooper S too bad. It's stiff but definitely felt more compliant over speed bumps than my S1 ever did.

I found a very well spec'd 5 door Cooper S last night for an exceptionally good price given the fact that it's not even 6 months old. I said to my girlfriend at the time that I suspected that it was mispriced. I called up today the minute they opened to see if it was still available, and as soon as the sales guy pulled up the car on his system he said "Wow, that's a lot of options. The price seems low". He came back a few minutes later and confirmed that the car will be at their dealership soon, and that it was priced £1k too low. They've since increased the price on the website.

They will honour the wrong price, so I put down a deposit which is refundable pending us seeing the video they will take when the car arrives. I have it all in writing

Awesome sauce. What kind of spec is it? Sounds promising - good luck!

As an aside I am really pleased with the fuel economy so far. The wife has been driving in green mode and only been doing 8 miles a day but half a tank (till fuel light) has lasted a fortnight. Think its at around 38mpg at the moment and still climbing.

 

[thewanted]

Awesome sauce. What kind of spec is it? Sounds promising - good luck!

From what I can tell on the site, it has:

Manual gearbox
Chili Pack
Tech Pack (Harman Kardon hi-fi, reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors, heads up display, parking assistant, Media XL, etc)
Tinted rear windows
Thunder Grey with black 17" Cosmos Spoke alloys

I'd have preferred silver alloys but it's not that important. The only other thing I wish it had are the adaptive dampers, but those are as rare as rocking horse poo in this price range.

 

[wingman]

Our 2014 Cooper S is shod with the 18" run flats

That's what you call firm. Can't wait to shot of them.

The 2013 Cooper is the older model with the 1.6 N/A, not the 1.5.

IMHO the current Cooper is so good it makes you wonder what the point in a Cooper S is. It's far quicker than you expect, yet the Cooper S isn't all that.

With the previous model though the Cooper S is considerably quicker than the Cooper which really is quite lethargic at times.

I found that the 1.5 wasn't quite as fast as you'd expect given the performance figures, especially compared to the 2.0 Cooper S after driving them back to back.

There is a considerable difference that isn't simply highlighted in the one second difference 0-62 time.

That's not to say the 1.5 isn't a great combination of efficiency and power, but it's simply not a 'hot hatch', whereas the S is IMO.

I'd have by all means gone for the 1.5 too, had the right model came up, we had a list of spec we wanted and simply waited for the right petrol model to turn up at the right price.

The prices between the Cooper and Cooper S were actually very close by my approximation, too.

 

[Ryan-3]

Our Mini Countryman Cooper S is 3 years old and MOT due in a week. Drove it last night to see a chip has turned into a crack so booked Autoglass to repair as per MINI insurance.

Any experience with glass replacements? Do A pillar trim pieces tend to come off and go back okay?

Different car, but it was a piece of cake to change the windscreen in an R56, so it should be just as easy.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

From what I can tell on the site, it has:

Manual gearbox
Chili Pack
Tech Pack (Harman Kardon hi-fi, reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors, heads up display, parking assistant, Media XL, etc)
Tinted rear windows
Thunder Grey with black 17" Cosmos Spoke alloys

I'd have preferred silver alloys but it's not that important. The only other thing I wish it had are the adaptive dampers, but those are as rare as rocking horse poo in this price range.

Sounds good. I like thunder grey (also like the melting silver one too) but we bought it for the wife and she wanted pepper white. Cant say I find it offensive but I prefer other colours

Ours isnt as well specced as the one you are looking at but we have some nice extras.

We added:
Chili pack
Visual boost radio
Sat nav
Arm rest
Mini yours lounge leather (black)
Heated seats
Heated windscreen
Privacy glass
17'' cosmos (black)
Rear parking sensors
Roof rails (seemed a better and cheaper option for getting our mountain bikes about)

We also added black jack indicator plates and black jack dust caps from the accessories range.

Kind of sucks that we were a month late to get pepper white for free and had to fork out £475. Cant help feeling its a bit of cynical pricing from Mini. Bit naughty charging metaillic prices for a base solid colour in my opinion. Whiffs of profiteering.

That said we are really pleased with the car. The one gripe so far is the bluetooth is terrible. Connects for calls fone but will only connect for music playback in like 1 in 20 attempts and even then it often crashes. I sat in the car for 2hrs the other night and only got it successfully connected without it crashing out once!

Might have to send it in to the dealer to look at. From what I read it seems to be a common issue as they use shoddy BT units.

 

[[TW]Fox]

From what I can tell on the site, it has:

Manual gearbox
Chili Pack
Tech Pack (Harman Kardon hi-fi, reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors, heads up display, parking assistant, Media XL, etc)
Tinted rear windows
Thunder Grey with black 17" Cosmos Spoke alloys

I'd have preferred silver alloys but it's not that important. The only other thing I wish it had are the adaptive dampers, but those are as rare as rocking horse poo in this price range.

Has it got the proper lights?

 

[thewanted]

Has it got the proper lights?

I asked the sales guy twice if he could send me a screenshot or copy/paste the details of the car from the BMW/Mini system and he did me the honour of copying/pasting it from the website When I was shopping for my A4, I found that the Approved Used site often had loads of things missing from the spec sheet, so I always got the sales person to email me a copy of the car's details from their internal system.

He did say on the phone that the system says it has LED foglights but he couldn't confirm if it has LED headlights. I went onto the Mini configurator and when you add LED fogs (without the Chili Pack), it forces you to add the Bi-LED headlights which is a good sign.

What confuses me though is that the Chili Pack includes LED headlights, but I've seen loads of cars on the Approved Used site that allegedly have the Chili Pack yet they have halogen headlights. Do you know why that is?

 

[BuffetSlayer]

How do you know they are halogen and not LED?

Ours has LED lights as they were included with the chili pack. However - i have read that you can specifically request lower spec lights if you want them if you have the chili pack.

The other thing may be that the features inuded in the chili pack are subject to change and at some point it may not have included LED lights all round, but dont quote me!

 

[thewanted]

How do you know they are halogen and not LED?

Ours has LED lights as they were included with the chili pack. However - i have read that you can specifically request lower spec lights if you want them if you have the chili pack.

The other thing may be that the features inuded in the chili pack are subject to change and at some point it may not have included LED lights all round, but dont quote me!

Here's a November 2016 car with the Chili Pack that quite clearly has halogens.

https://www.approvedusedminis.co.uk...0402C69802.16309&dl=false&mstk=44053129164!12

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Right I see what you are saying. Interesting.

According to a couple of websites I have visited, chili pack started including full LED headlights in around March this year. So a couple of scenarios come to mind.

The car in the photos could be a representative model and not the actual car (it does not show the reg plates on the actual car)

It could be the original owner specifically asked for standard lights (perhaps for easier / cheaper maintenance? Or perhaps because they knew they would primarily be driving in daylight hours only).

Or the car was manufactured pre march 2016 and has been sat as dealer stock until november (perhaps it was a cancelled order or something)

 

[--Mike--]

I seem to see a lot more S models with halogens onthe F56 compared the R56, so it must be more of an option with the 3rd gen Minis.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I seem to see a lot more S models with halogens onthe F56 compared the R56, so it must be more of an option with the 3rd gen Minis.

Xenons were standard on the R56 S but Xenons are not available on the F56. It's either terrible looking reflector lenses with halogens or the upgraded LED lights.

 

[thewanted]

Right I see what you are saying. Interesting.

According to a couple of websites I have visited, chili pack started including full LED headlights in around March this year. So a couple of scenarios come to mind.

The car in the photos could be a representative model and not the actual car (it does not show the reg plates on the actual car)

It could be the original owner specifically asked for standard lights (perhaps for easier / cheaper maintenance? Or perhaps because they knew they would primarily be driving in daylight hours only).

Or the car was manufactured pre march 2016 and has been sat as dealer stock until november (perhaps it was a cancelled order or something)

It is all a bit strange to me. When spending this much on a car, I can't imagine why someone would be worried about the cost of replacing an LED bulb. Then again, the general public worry more about VED than depreciation. Aren't people obsessed with nice looking DRLs these days anyway?

Fingers crossed the car we're interested in does have LED headlights since I'm not sure that I could buy it if it had halogens.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

That is the problem we discovered when considering a mini - every one is slightly different and finding one with the spec you want isnt always easy. Thats why we went new in the end because prices being asked for 2nd hand were not far behind what a new one is.

For example we were quoted 22k for a cooper s that was only registeted in november. It didnt have the lounge leather. It didnt have heated seats. It didnt have roof rails. It was also 11%ish apr on a PCP too (vs 5.9% on a new car)

In the end we got ours for 25k just the way the wife wanted it. Have you considered new?

 

[thewanted]

That is the problem we discovered when considering a mini - every one is slightly different and finding one with the spec you want isnt always easy. Thats why we went new in the end because prices being asked for 2nd hand were not far behind what a new one is.

For example we were quoted 22k for a cooper s that was only registeted in november. It didnt have the lounge leather. It didnt have heated seats. It didnt have roof rails. It was also 11%ish apr on a PCP too (vs 5.9% on a new car)

In the end we got ours for 25k just the way the wife wanted it. Have you considered new?

A new one is much more than we want to spend since we're not doing this on PCP. We're looking at a maximum of £17k for a 5 door Cooper S. The one I have a deposit down on is a July 2016 car with ~3400 miles. Coast2Coast want £22500 for the same spec, so it's not an insignificant saving.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

A new one is much more than we want to spend since we're not doing this on PCP. We're looking at a maximum of £17k for a 5 door Cooper S. The one I have a deposit down on is a July 2016 car with ~3400 miles. Coast2Coast want £22500 for the same spec, so it's not an insignificant saving.

Yeah fair enough. Well best of luck with it, I hope the car is spot on for you

 

[thewanted]

Yeah fair enough. Well best of luck with it, I hope the car is spot on for you

Thanks man Really looking forward to having it! I really love small, quick hatchbacks.