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Thought I'd start a new thread as the servicing one was getting a bit big.
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Anyway.......... me bird has got one ordered, £500 deposit went down last Thursday, and they say we WILL get Sept delivery.
Only problem was you can't get a Cooper without a different coloured roof. Wanted all metallic black but you have to get a feckin white roof with it, no choice! You also have to buy the "pepper" option pack - which isn't optional! They won't sell u a Cooper without that either - it consists of alloys and some chrome trim - another 300 notes.
I'm not really complaining tho as options are cheap e.g. ASC (stability control etc.) is only £100 !! Half-leather sports seats £450 mmm... metallic paint £250 .... all much cheaper that in a big beemer.
And of course the 5yrs servicing for £100...... I bet it only needs 1 oil change in that time, but what the hell - FSH for £100 !!
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A worrying discrepancy between what you've been promised and the notes that John has on this site. (go up to the front page and look under news for stuff on the mini).
If I had ordered something where I had reason to suspect was the commitement was iffy. I would be looking for written reassurance and some promise of compensation if things turned out otherwise.
Like John, I doubt that they will agree, but whether they do or not, it might give you either a level of comfort or a degree of warning about the likelihood of the delivery times.
I wonder if they'll start buying and registering the cars themselves and then selling them at a premium ? That would put delivery back further.
Lastly, my only doubt about the mini is I remember how much I liked the new [sic] beetle when I first saw it, but it now looks very dated only a couple of years later. Hope the mini doesn't do the same.
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Mark - I'm not really bothered if it's two weeks or a month late - car is for girlfriend. I've got a nice Accord R to play with!
I don't think it'll go the way of the new Beetle as it's a car in its own right , rather than a blobby golf. The Beetle is pretty much a style w@nkers car - but the Mini is so good to drive you can forgive it for looking so stylish if you know what I mean.
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If any of you have trouble ordering your new MINI, by which I mean things like having to pay for option packs you don't want so the prices aren't £10,300 for a One or £11,600 for a Cooper.
HJ
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I quite fancy the Chilli pack - the seats have leather edges which stops them looking tatty, the wheels are nicer. When I went through the list of what my missus wanted the pack saved a few bob over the options seperately. I think Air-Con is steep at £600 but will buy it anyway as I wouldn't buy a secondhand car without it (also most effective demister I've ever used - better than heated screens) if there was one available that had it, if you see what I mean. And a single slot CD player for £70 isn't bad but should be standard. So far looking at about 11600 + 1000 + 600 + 70 = £13270. Not too expensive but close to the ball-park cost of the Cooper S that's been bandied about (15 - 16k). But as the missus drives a 0.9L shopping car I think an S might be overkill.....
I'll ask about ordering a totally standard one but was told that everyone built for a while would have an option pack fitted - but most people go for at least one or two options when they buy a car.
The other thing I'm considering is getting a Tracker type device fitted. Has anyone got any feedback on the different ones available and their performance in a theft situation (both the device and company backing it up)?
Piers
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Piers - We got it almost fully specced - Chilli Pack A/C ASC Metallic erm... heater washers, think that was it. It becomes a near £14k car pretty easily!
Glass sun-roof is the biz - just couldn't justify another 500 notes, which as you say takes it close to Cooper S territory.
This is a replacement for a 1.0 Citroen AX so I also think the Cooper S would be overkill - for a bird like ;o).........
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The rumours going around are that the car is making a loss without option packs fitted. Apparently, the production line at Cowley which was re-jigged from Longbridge was a huge investment and in the re-design they had to remove a large section of the flexible manufacturing bays where all the added extras are fitted. Hence the fixed options 'packs'.
To be honest, I hate the car. It's look like a Mini that's eaten all the pies. Another cop-out in memoriam to the revolutionary original, like the revised Beetle. The new car has been designed by focus groups not by a genius. Built by a company that stitched up the workers and their suppliers that made the original.
I'd rather have seen Iggy's design brief for the Mini (10 ft floor pan, 2ft engine bay, economy and cheap motoring) taken up and then design something really revolutionary. I wonder if Rover will ever manufacture the Spiritual ?
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The new Mini is a great looking car, made in this country by british workers. The old mini was great in its day (the 60's) but should have been evolved and developed by british leyland when they had the chance, instead they gave us the Metro. If this car raises the stakes in the small car market and causes other manufacturers (including Rover) to respond with even better cars then it is all the better for us, the consumer.
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I agree to disagree on the new Mini and I agree that the original should have been developed further. Iggy had the X90 car ready to go into production in the early 70's but the BL Board quashed it which in hindsight was a very bad idea.
I'm no expert on design but I really don't like this trend to boiling things down to have mass appeal. Great design came from being radical. Look at the Citroen DS, love or hate it but it's a great design. Very few cars today are radical. At least the Fiat Multipla tries, I personally don't like it but at least it provokes a reaction.
The next major car purchase I'll make will be a classic, very few cars move me these days. I'm only 30 but all I see are CAD-CAM, wind tunnel, focus group inspired lumps. No-one has the balls anymore to be radical or to take risks which is a shame.
Driving a certain type of car used to make a statement about who you were, the only statement it makes now is now much cash you have in the bank.
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>Iggy had the X90 car ready to go into production in the early 70's but the
> BL Board quashed it which in hindsight was a very bad idea.
Any idea what it looked like ?
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Mark,
I had the project designation wrong, it was 9X.
try: jyanet.com/cap/1999/0919fe2.htm. Nice article on why the Mini was a success.
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Thanks, it was an interesting article.
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Having owned an old Mini a couple of years back I was douptful about the New MINI. I remembered how much fun it was to drive with its 40 bhp, direct steering and chuckability.
But when I saw the new MINI in the flesh I remembered the crash that wrote off my old mini - a Sierra estate ran into the back of it in a motorway queue. It ended up about 2.5 feet shorter with buckled door frames. The drivers seat snapped, and I was chucked around the cabin collecting cuts and bruises. I bought the wreck for £25 - to get the bullet racing mirrors and stereo out. Even though the car looked good on the surface it was totally rotten underneath - 10 years old at the time. The Sierra had a broken bumper and a buckeled bonnet, the Granada it pushed me into had a crunched rear valance and bumper. I bought another mini afterwards but had to sell it a couple of weeks later as I wasn't happy driving it.
I afraid I had to remove the rose tinted spectacles.... The old mini was and is great but isn't any more than a fun novelty compared to current cars. I agree with the classics being best sentiment though - I've got a Mk I Escort and a Caterham Seven (1950s design but with 1990s running gear). I'd love an original Cooper S 1275 as well.... And I'm only 25! (I do listen to Radio 2...)
I think the new MINI looks good, and should be considered an evolution of the old mini rather than the revolution the old mini was. It's much better built than the old mini, safer in a crash, much better value and has captured the spirt as well as could be expected. Got a test drive tonight so might have changed my mind by the morning..... I don't trust magazine road tests much.
Piers
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