Ok so I had a lease for a 2013 R56 non s for about 6 months, went way over the miles I should've driven in that time period and was gonna be in trouble very quickly if I didn't do something soon. My tire pressure sensors were going off from the temperature drop and I decided to stop in to get them topped off. While I was there I was chatting with the original salesman who I bought it from about how I wanted to trade out of my lease for an S. We walked around the lot looking at different hardtop S models to no avail. We walked back to the building when I spotted a R56 jcw which had just been marked down. Went over and find its 2010 model with a manual tranny. Discouraged as I never learned to drive one. He tells me he would teach me if I wanted. I came back the next day to run some numbers on the car. After a long time I finally learned to drive a manual and I'm loving it. Traded my lease for a jcw, probably the best decision I've made since getting a MINI in the first place. My apologies for the wall of text

 

Congratulations on your move... to the JCW and the manual. Sounds great!

 

Congratulations and good job of negotiating. You will continue to love the manual transmission.