Who here owns a Mini?

Looking at replacing the Fiesta, only because the headlights have been absolutely shocking.

Fiestas with the Matrix LED headlights are as expensive as Mini Clubman’s with LEDs, so thinking about picking one up in the next 3-6 months.


Was inclined to go 2L but recent posts suggest the 1.5 is decent.


Spec wise, only XL nav and LED headlights are a must, as I want CarPlay.


Anything I should look out for? Is it 2017 onwards for CarPlay hardware?
 
MrRockliffe said:
About £15,000 ish, on the basis I think cars will drop a little by the time we come to buy
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Fair enough.
Came across this decent example with high spec and main dealer.

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kona786 said:
Fair enough.
Came across this decent example with high spec and main dealer.

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Yeah that looks to be a decent spec, but being a 2016 model it won’t have CarPlay :(
 
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With a new electric-only Mini Cooper due to launch in a few months what does everyone think this will do to the second hand values of the older engine versions? Normally you'd expect older shape cars to drop in value but with no new engine powered cars rolling off the lines could prices rise?
 
jonchaz said:
With a new electric-only Mini Cooper due to launch in a few months what does everyone think this will do to the second hand values of the older engine versions? Normally you'd expect older shape cars to drop in value but with no new engine powered cars rolling off the lines could prices rise?
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There is a new petrol version as well.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Was inclined to go 2L but recent posts suggest the 1.5 is decent.
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It is.

We have a 2018 (2017 manufactured, so the last month of production before the facelift) Cooper 1.5 and it's excellent. The engine has more than enough performance - it's surprisingly quick for a normal hatchback (and has a reasonably loud exhaust, I am not sure its much quieter than the one on my M340i!) and very efficient for the usage it gets - I think its averaged 50mpg over the last few years. That said, it's a smaller and lighter car than the Clubman and I've not driven a Clubman.

It's a brilliant car, nothing has ever gone wrong with it, it's incredibly cheap to run. There are only two things about it which I don't like:

The stupid black plastic began to fade about 2 years after we got the car (Which we ordered new) and its constant work to apply various products to it to keep it looking black not faded grey plastic.

As it is a 2017 produced car it doesn't have Car Play - this wouldn't bother me much as I don't like Car Play, but it also means it has no Connected functionality at all. Despite paying £2k for the XL Navigation system when we ordered the car the first 4 years of production had none of the connected functionality that was fitted to every BMW with the same system since 2012. This means the navigation has no real-time traffic which is really annoying. I don't understand why Mini did this - my 530d had an older version of iDrive and full connected functionality including real-time traffic.

Other than these two issues it's a great car and I'd recommend it to anyone. The LED headlights are particularly good. You'll want to find one with the head up display as well, the standard instrument cluster has a very small screen and the head up display is therefore really useful for displaying additional information.
 
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jonchaz said:
With a new electric-only Mini Cooper due to launch in a few months what does everyone think this will do to the second hand values of the older engine versions? Normally you'd expect older shape cars to drop in value but with no new engine powered cars rolling off the lines could prices rise?
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I hope prices go down cos I’d like a current shape one. :D Not too keen on the new design. That one will have petrol models too.
 
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jonchaz said:
With a new electric-only Mini Cooper due to launch in a few months what does everyone think this will do to the second hand values of the older engine versions? Normally you'd expect older shape cars to drop in value but with no new engine powered cars rolling off the lines could prices rise?
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I hope so as well, the Mrs is just about to put hers up for sale :D
 
kona786 said:
I have the HUD. Tbh I wish it wasn't specced. Its tacked on like an afterthought and an eye sore and I have no need for it.
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It's like that because of the angle of the front windscreen on the Mini. It's still the same projection system as you get on a BMW, but it has to have the plastic screen to project onto because of the design of the car.

Without it, you have only that small screen on the instrument panel which isn't very good for things like music selection, navigation instructions or easy at a glance speed limit notifications. I'm surprised you don't like it - I've got to the point where I dislike driving a car without a head up display. They are so much safer and better.
 
[TW]Fox said:
It is.

We have a 2018 (2017 manufactured, so the last month of production before the facelift) Cooper 1.5 and it's excellent. The engine has more than enough performance - it's surprisingly quick for a normal hatchback (and has a reasonably loud exhaust, I am not sure its much quieter than the one on my M340i!) and very efficient for the usage it gets - I think its averaged 50mpg over the last few years. That said, it's a smaller and lighter car than the Clubman and I've not driven a Clubman.

It's a brilliant car, nothing has ever gone wrong with it, it's incredibly cheap to run. There are only two things about it which I don't like:

The stupid black plastic began to fade about 2 years after we got the car (Which we ordered new) and its constant work to apply various products to it to keep it looking black not faded grey plastic.

As it is a 2017 produced car it doesn't have Car Play - this wouldn't bother me much as I don't like Car Play, but it also means it has no Connected functionality at all. Despite paying £2k for the XL Navigation system when we ordered the car the first 4 years of production had none of the connected functionality that was fitted to every BMW with the same system since 2012. This means the navigation has no real-time traffic which is really annoying. I don't understand why Mini did this - my 530d had an older version of iDrive and full connected functionality including real-time traffic.

Other than these two issues it's a great car and I'd recommend it to anyone. The LED headlights are particularly good. You'll want to find one with the head up display as well, the standard instrument cluster has a very small screen and the head up display is therefore really useful for displaying additional information.
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Thanks for this :-)


As it happens, my sister just purchased a 2017 Cooper S, so I asked if I could borrow it in return for a very clean car.


Initial observations:

It is really quite nice to drive. Properly fun and very nippy. I would definitely want the 2L. I was surprised it does auto rev matching as well.



The headlights are as I expected. Decent, but the main hint they aren’t going to be excellent is the lack of headlight washer - they can’t by law exceed 2000 lumens. Definitely better than the fiesta though, by a long way.



Overall, it’s a really really nice car. Will 100% be picking up a clubman this summer.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Decent, but the main hint they aren’t going to be excellent is the lack of headlight washer - they can’t by law exceed 2000 lumens
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The headlights in the Mini are excellent, very good for a small car. Not many cars have headlight washers these days, my 3 series doesn't and it has the best lights of any BMW I have owned, all of which had headlight washers :D
 
[TW]Fox said:
The headlights in the Mini are excellent, very good for a small car. Not many cars have headlight washers these days, my 3 series doesn't and it has the best lights of any BMW I have owned, all of which had headlight washers :D
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I think I’ve been spoiled indefinitely by my S5 with Matrix LED system. Nothing else has been as good :(


Though my Porsche with PDLS (cornering lighting) is really quite good.
 
I came from an Gen 6 celica to the F series MINI range so yeah the lights were a big step up. Mine has the optional cornering lights with the darker trim inside the light.

Plus the rallye spots. £1k extra... Shudder.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Thanks for this :)


As it happens, my sister just purchased a 2017 Cooper S, so I asked if I could borrow it in return for a very clean car.


Initial observations:

It is really quite nice to drive. Properly fun and very nippy. I would definitely want the 2L. I was surprised it does auto rev matching as well.



The headlights are as I expected. Decent, but the main hint they aren’t going to be excellent is the lack of headlight washer - they can’t by law exceed 2000 lumens. Definitely better than the fiesta though, by a long way.



Overall, it’s a really really nice car. Will 100% be picking up a clubman this summer.
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if auto then put the gearbox into sport mode makes a large difference to the drive of it - I am sure you’d do this!

The 2L (anecdotally) is a quite a bit more thirsty. Friend of mine had a Clubman S manual and was seeing about 33mpg, vs 39.5 which is what we are getting from our 1.5 Auto Countryman. Obviously it’s not apples to apples, but personally I’d be happy (and I am) with performance of the 1.5.

Not sure if there is a large weight penalty you’d notice in the handling of it or not.
 
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