R56 MINI Cooper SD John Cooper Works
Discussion
As a kick off, this is a car for the better half rather than myself.. however.. as I'm taking the time to write a RC thread about it, it's safe to assume that I'm actually quite fond of it too. 
Settle in, I've become fairly bored during lockdown, so this is a wordy one!!
Bit of background to the purchase.. her previous car was a 2015 Audi A1 that she bought new and kept for the full 4yr PCP before handing it back and using my E91 320d to run around in instead. In the meantime she decided to open her own hair salon (I know, a hairdresser with an Audi A1.. how stereotypical?!) and after starting to miss having her own car/being worried that she damages my car in some way; the decision was made to get hold of a cheap runaround for her.
The only 'essential requirements' that were laid out were 'bluetooth connectivity, reliable (as a used car can be), a decent boot, no big engines, petrol powered and a purchase price of £2000; I had assumed a budget slide of between 10-20% if we saw a really nice example. So I loaded up the usual eBay, Gumtree, PH, AT and Facebook listings armed with a reasonable list of requirements and a fairly decent budget for a small hatchback of some kind.
After a good trawl through the adverts I found a few decent examples and the ensuing conversation went something like this:
Me: "What about a Honda Civic?"
Her: "No."
~Browser Tab Closed~
Me: "What about a Ford Focus?"
Her: "No."
~Browser Tab Closed~
Me: "What about a VW Polo?"
Her: "No."
~Browser Tab Closed~
Her: "What about a Mini?"
Me: "No."
Her: "Look at this Mini..."
Me: "No."
Her: "I want a Mini."
Me: "FFS..."
~My Eyes Closed~
TL:DR - We bought one... the spoiler below outlines the journey there.
So anything for an easy life and having reminded her of friends who have had cheaper, higher mileage R53/R56 Minis cost them a lot of cash to repair and keep on the road; we started looking at R56 Mini 1.6 Coopers in Pepper White within a 100 mile radius of us. Having discounted a few because of dodgy MOT history/failures or rubbish adverts; we organised viewings for a few local ones and started to make our way round them.
- First car was up for £2500 and for sale by a Facebook 'trader' locally. It had been in an accident, the paint quality on the bumper and bonnet post-repair wasn't great; although the rest of the car was good and it was low mileage.. but the poor paint put us off.
- Second car was up for £2250 and actually a friend of a friends car; but as soon as I pulled away it was clear the clutch wasn't long for this world and the repairs to the chain etc listed in the advert were all missing... but he could give the garage who did it a shout and try to get copies if I wanted them. No thanks.
- Third car was at a local garage for £2995 (note the increased budget slide please..); it was a little stone chippy on the front end and the tyres were no-namers but it drove great and was a nice spec. This one was to be revisited once they put the car through a fresh MOT to check everything was as it should be.
Sitting having something to eat before we went home, I mentioned that I had seen another MINI advertised but the advert was rubbish and the guy might struggle to sell the car with it.. Aimee asked me what the car was like and I said that it was basically double the budget, diesel, etc.. and that I was just mentioning it because of the advert:
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
She asked me where it was and when I said it was on the way home, she said we might as well stop for a look at it.... I think you can probably see where this is going now.
I phoned the owner and arranged to drop by within the next hour, perfect.
So we pulled up at the guys house and saw the MINI nestled in beside a new RR Sport, Discovery, B7 RS4 (in yellow
) along with a couple of work vans. I must admit that after seeing three 'normal' MINI Coopers that day, seeing the Cooper SD with the 17" Challenge wheels and JCW bodykit made a big visual difference!!
The car was up for sale because his partner was going to start using the RR and/or Discovery to ferry the kids around since the boot on the MINI was too small for all the stuff she needed to carry around for the kids/work. So after being tossed the keys and told we could take the car out for a drive wherever we wanted, as soon as I drove off the driveway it felt tighter than all the others by some margin and after a 15-20 minute drive we were both convinced that it was worth the extra money.
It came with a nice folder of receipts and service history too, which I think is a good indicator about how a car has been treated prior to your purchase. amongst the paperwork is a vehicle order form with the spec and options selected from Snows in Portsmouth where the car was bought new and spent a lot of its life.
This is a rundown of the spec:
Model SW72: MINI Cooper SD 2.0
Colour 850: Pepper White Non-Metallic
Upholstery T8E1: Leather Punch Carbon Black
Option 2P8: 17" Cross Spoke Challenge Light Alloys
Option 329: Black Bonnet Stripes
Option 383: Roof and Mirror Caps in Black
Option 4CU: Interior World Carbon Black
Option 4C1: Colour Line Carbon Black
Option 420: Sun Protection Glass
Option 473: Armrest - Front Centre
Option 493: Seat Heating Front
Option 502: Headlight Wash
Option 6ND: Bluetooth Hands Free Function with USB
Option 872: CHILI Pack
Package 7HN: Sport Pack
As you can see, it's got the bluetooth connectivity which had been part of the original 'essential' search criteria.. although misses out on the decent sized boot, small petrol engine and there is the small matter of it costing 215% of the original budget. Ah well, c'est la vie... cheap runabout aquired. Tick.
I haven't actually taken many pictures of the car because I've not actually got near it, Aimee had been using it daily and since the lockdown it's been the delivery car for trips to drop off food/medication to her elderly relatives. As a result, there has been very little opportunity to take any pictures of the car, but I'll stick in the couple that I've taken so far...
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
From what little I have managed to drive the car though, I've gotta say, it's a really great wee thing. The performance is slightly better than my 320d to motorway speeds, the handling is fantastic and the steering is absolutely brilliant. It's really impressed me with the standard 143bhp 2.0d engine, so the bigger powered petrol tuned/JCW/GP models must be an absolute riot to drive.. must admit to taking more of an interest in the JCW/GP cars for sale adverts after getting hold of this for Aimee, but as yet I can't find a way to man-maths it into my garage at present.
Settle in, I've become fairly bored during lockdown, so this is a wordy one!!
Bit of background to the purchase.. her previous car was a 2015 Audi A1 that she bought new and kept for the full 4yr PCP before handing it back and using my E91 320d to run around in instead. In the meantime she decided to open her own hair salon (I know, a hairdresser with an Audi A1.. how stereotypical?!) and after starting to miss having her own car/being worried that she damages my car in some way; the decision was made to get hold of a cheap runaround for her.
The only 'essential requirements' that were laid out were 'bluetooth connectivity, reliable (as a used car can be), a decent boot, no big engines, petrol powered and a purchase price of £2000; I had assumed a budget slide of between 10-20% if we saw a really nice example. So I loaded up the usual eBay, Gumtree, PH, AT and Facebook listings armed with a reasonable list of requirements and a fairly decent budget for a small hatchback of some kind.
After a good trawl through the adverts I found a few decent examples and the ensuing conversation went something like this:
Me: "What about a Honda Civic?"
Her: "No."
~Browser Tab Closed~
Me: "What about a Ford Focus?"
Her: "No."
~Browser Tab Closed~
Me: "What about a VW Polo?"
Her: "No."
~Browser Tab Closed~
Her: "What about a Mini?"
Me: "No."
Her: "Look at this Mini..."
Me: "No."
Her: "I want a Mini."
Me: "FFS..."
~My Eyes Closed~
TL:DR - We bought one... the spoiler below outlines the journey there.
So anything for an easy life and having reminded her of friends who have had cheaper, higher mileage R53/R56 Minis cost them a lot of cash to repair and keep on the road; we started looking at R56 Mini 1.6 Coopers in Pepper White within a 100 mile radius of us. Having discounted a few because of dodgy MOT history/failures or rubbish adverts; we organised viewings for a few local ones and started to make our way round them.
- First car was up for £2500 and for sale by a Facebook 'trader' locally. It had been in an accident, the paint quality on the bumper and bonnet post-repair wasn't great; although the rest of the car was good and it was low mileage.. but the poor paint put us off.
- Second car was up for £2250 and actually a friend of a friends car; but as soon as I pulled away it was clear the clutch wasn't long for this world and the repairs to the chain etc listed in the advert were all missing... but he could give the garage who did it a shout and try to get copies if I wanted them. No thanks.
- Third car was at a local garage for £2995 (note the increased budget slide please..); it was a little stone chippy on the front end and the tyres were no-namers but it drove great and was a nice spec. This one was to be revisited once they put the car through a fresh MOT to check everything was as it should be.
Sitting having something to eat before we went home, I mentioned that I had seen another MINI advertised but the advert was rubbish and the guy might struggle to sell the car with it.. Aimee asked me what the car was like and I said that it was basically double the budget, diesel, etc.. and that I was just mentioning it because of the advert:
Untitled by Grant F, on FlickrShe asked me where it was and when I said it was on the way home, she said we might as well stop for a look at it.... I think you can probably see where this is going now.
I phoned the owner and arranged to drop by within the next hour, perfect.
So we pulled up at the guys house and saw the MINI nestled in beside a new RR Sport, Discovery, B7 RS4 (in yellow
) along with a couple of work vans. I must admit that after seeing three 'normal' MINI Coopers that day, seeing the Cooper SD with the 17" Challenge wheels and JCW bodykit made a big visual difference!!The car was up for sale because his partner was going to start using the RR and/or Discovery to ferry the kids around since the boot on the MINI was too small for all the stuff she needed to carry around for the kids/work. So after being tossed the keys and told we could take the car out for a drive wherever we wanted, as soon as I drove off the driveway it felt tighter than all the others by some margin and after a 15-20 minute drive we were both convinced that it was worth the extra money.
It came with a nice folder of receipts and service history too, which I think is a good indicator about how a car has been treated prior to your purchase. amongst the paperwork is a vehicle order form with the spec and options selected from Snows in Portsmouth where the car was bought new and spent a lot of its life.
This is a rundown of the spec:
Model SW72: MINI Cooper SD 2.0
Colour 850: Pepper White Non-Metallic
Upholstery T8E1: Leather Punch Carbon Black
Option 2P8: 17" Cross Spoke Challenge Light Alloys
Option 329: Black Bonnet Stripes
Option 383: Roof and Mirror Caps in Black
Option 4CU: Interior World Carbon Black
Option 4C1: Colour Line Carbon Black
Option 420: Sun Protection Glass
Option 473: Armrest - Front Centre
Option 493: Seat Heating Front
Option 502: Headlight Wash
Option 6ND: Bluetooth Hands Free Function with USB
Option 872: CHILI Pack
Package 7HN: Sport Pack
As you can see, it's got the bluetooth connectivity which had been part of the original 'essential' search criteria.. although misses out on the decent sized boot, small petrol engine and there is the small matter of it costing 215% of the original budget. Ah well, c'est la vie... cheap runabout aquired. Tick.
I haven't actually taken many pictures of the car because I've not actually got near it, Aimee had been using it daily and since the lockdown it's been the delivery car for trips to drop off food/medication to her elderly relatives. As a result, there has been very little opportunity to take any pictures of the car, but I'll stick in the couple that I've taken so far...
Untitled by Grant F, on FlickrUntitled by Grant F, on FlickrUntitled by Grant F, on FlickrFrom what little I have managed to drive the car though, I've gotta say, it's a really great wee thing. The performance is slightly better than my 320d to motorway speeds, the handling is fantastic and the steering is absolutely brilliant. It's really impressed me with the standard 143bhp 2.0d engine, so the bigger powered petrol tuned/JCW/GP models must be an absolute riot to drive.. must admit to taking more of an interest in the JCW/GP cars for sale adverts after getting hold of this for Aimee, but as yet I can't find a way to man-maths it into my garage at present.
My wifes and a very similar story. Hers is the cooper sd with jcw interior and kit, i love it!
Only complaint is the noise, i know its a diesel and goes well but just wish it had a petrol burble.
Currently looking at part exing this for a proper jcw - however she wants exactly this car!
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