Test Driving This Weekend :)
 

Hello! I'm in Sacramento, California. I do not own a Mini yet. There's two cars that are sitting on the lot at the one Mini dealership (which is better than no Mini dealership) that I'm considering test driving this Sunday if they're still there:

Mini #1 - 2-Door Hardtop
Color - black, white roof/mirrors, white bonnet stripes
16" victory spoke black wheels
extras - premium package, roof rails, shorty antenna, white turn signal lights, some other stuff

Mini #2 - 2-Door Hardtop
Color - black, black roof/mirrors, black bonnet stripes
16" victory spoke silver wheels
extras - premium package, white turn signal lights, some other stuff

I may check out a few other cars if they're still there just to experience features as I'm also considering going for a custom built one, even though it means waiting approximately twelve weeks for the car.

Welcome to NAM, Rebecca! Hello from SoCal! :) What gen MINI's are #1 and #2? I do love the black on black look. Be sure to post some pictures up of them for us.

Have fun doing a test drive. Be prepared to become obsessed though. The test drive is the gateway drug...

Test drive them both and good luck. Early congrats. :)

Both are gen 3, 2016 models (new) / F56. There's pictures of the black on black one online on the dealer's website and can be seen here that I'm linking only because they seem to enjoy taking lots of pictures, like even the headliners and engines. There's no preview pictures for the black and white one.


In case I decide to go custom, I'm going to look at two other cars for specific features:

One has sports seats because similarly if I get the white turn signals, LED headlights and 16" wheels and it would be only $250 more on top of what those cost for the sport seats (which are normally $300) if I go with the sport package. (My current car has 15" wheels, and aftermarket shops around here have been increasingly less enthusiastic about even carrying 15" tires such that I had to go to three different places before I found any in stock the last time.) However I'd want to make sure they are actually comfortable.

The other has the off white interior style because if I go custom and go black & white, it might be nice to have that extend to the interior of the car too thus a way to preview what this actually looks like beyond looking at pictures online.

The main reason to go custom is that almost all the prebuilt new ones come with heated front seats ($500) and if I'm going to waste money on features that are useless most of the year and barely ever use, I'd rather have front/rear fog laps ($350 total for both) even though this is also usefulness based entirely on the rare occurrence of Tule fog.


Considering that I've been considering features for about a month now, I'm not sure how I can get even more obsessed than I already am.


Thanks!

Get exactly what you want; 12 weeks will go by fast and you won't be kicking yourself down the road. Enjoy the test driving!

Are both of these cars new?

Good luck to you! These cars are a lot of fun to drive!

Hey Sacramento is NoCal...

I agree show us the pictures!

I will certainly get pictures of the test drive cars when I go Sunday, maybe even of some of the other cars. In terms of custom, I'm leaning towards this:

2016 Cooper Hardtop 2-Door
Midnight Black w/ Black Roof/Mirrors
Black Bonnet Stripes
Anthracite Headliner
16" Black Victory Spoke
LED Headlights
White Turn Signals
Front/Rear Fog Lights
Sport Seats
Dynamic Damper Control
Center Armrest
6-Speed Steptronic Automatic
Harman Kardon Sound System

It sure is! But we are in SoCal. :wink:

Again, love the black on black with the black stripes and the Anthracite headliner. Looking forward to the pictures. :grin:

LOL! Well I can show you pictures of the black on black at the dealer's website as they took a lot of pictures which can be seen here, but the fiber alloy interior style is a total deal breaker for me as I find herringbone patterns very challenging to look where they seem to move and shimmer - don't know how else to describe it.

Be sure to see the special finance/lease offers at MINIUSA before buying at that one and only dealer. They won't give them to you if you don't ask.

http://www.miniusa.com/content/miniu...rs.html#/start

Eight weeks is more likely if they give you one of their upcoming build slots. See below.

I was quoted eight to twelve weeks, but I'm going to assume twelve that way I'm not disappointed if I don't get it in eight weeks and pleasantly surprised if that happens. I'm not worried about lease/financing as I was already aware of those.

The issue that's just popped up though is that someone else told the person who is actually buying me the car that oil changes on a Mini Cooper are about $100 resulting in her telling me to find something that is cheaper to maintain. >.<

False. The oil changes should be in the neighborhood of $60-70 with labor/oil/filter/etc.

Anyways, the oil changes are included in the boot-to-bonnet no-cost maintenance for the first 3 years/36k miles (whichever comes first).

Yep, if you buy a new MINI you will get free oil changes for the fist few years.

I just had a frank discussion with my financer about what I'm actually paying to have my 1999 Saturn SL1 serviced. Oil changes run about $70-$80 and occur every 3,000 miles on this car. Assuming that it is true that all Mini Cooper dealerships charge $100 for an oil change and knowing they should occur every 5,000, then the Mini Cooper is the cheaper car to service.

For every 15,000 miles driven, the Saturn is costing me $350 to $400 in oil changes wheras a Mini Cooper would cost $300 if taken to the theoretical $100 oil change dealership and less than that if taken elsewhere.

As for the posts she found about major servicing (every 50,000 to 60,000 miles) costing about $900, major servicing isn't going to be cheap with any car that is worth owning. The Saturn has cost me $500-$600 to service in the past. Her Mitsubishi Mirage may be cheap to own and maintain, but it also feels like a car that is very cheaply made to the extent that I'm also convinced that they cannot be all that safe.

Anyway, test drive Sunday is back on.

Good luck with the test drive tomorrow!

The MINI dealer will tell you that the oil change interval is 10,000 miles / 1-year; some NAM members do not agree with this.

Nevertheless, the MINI dealer will treat you like a queen as long as you're under warranty. When I purchased my 2015 from a MINI dealer as a MINI NEXT CPO (with 5,000 on the odometer) the MINI dealer sealed the deal by extending the warranty to 4-years / 75,000 miles.

If you buy a new MINI you should not have any maintenance costs for the first few years...please ask the sales person about this.

Are you going to give us a picture?

Yep, but it's still Saturday here in California (3:29pm) and the test drive is Sunday thus no pictures yet. :(

I was in a similar predicament when I was shopping for my MINI but I couldn't find one with all the options I wanted so I went with a custom '16 build. Make sure you ask about their current offers/specials because they aren't as high as the 2015 ones (but any discount is better than no discount).

They quoted me it could be anywhere from 6-8 weeks for it to arrive because I did the HK audio upgrade as well as some other options but it arrived in around 5 weeks. I'd advise you to test drive a Cooper with AND without the dynamic damper control before you commit to that option because it's rather pricey. I ended up leaving it off my build because the stock suspension on a rather lengthy test drive wasn't that bad to me (and the roads in SC are pretty bad in some parts).

So we went for the test drive today, and I took some pictures. I apologize for the size of the images. I cannot quite figure out how to post thumbnails or I would. Anyway...



So the first thing that greets me upon going inside is this classic MINI. It was a lot smaller than I expected to be and perhaps as a consequence, all of its modern relatives looked very, very large.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...45d9f1b9ae.jpg



There was this really nice looking 2015 MINI Convertible that was being marked down to $26,000 as they're trying to clear out the few 2015s that are left. Although it met all my expectations for a convertible - cute to look at with no backseat - my mom (who was buying the car for me), said no convertibles.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...3be0cd9e4b.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...2886c17360.jpg



2016 2-Door Hardtop: British Racing Green w/ white roof, mirrors and stripes
This was the first car that I test drove. Unfortunately the sunshade the MINI comes with wasn't sufficient such that I felt heat coming from above to the extent that I was baking in the car. I ended up having to pass up on this one.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...0b281fe944.jpg



2016 2-Door MINI Cooper S: Chili Red w/ white roof, mirrors & stripes
This was the second car that I test drove and as you can see, this was the one that I took home.

Apparently naming MINIs is a thing around here, like all the sales people do it; people will even refer to their MINIs by name in yelp reviews and stuff. I'm not really a car namer though, so will simply be calling mine "The MINI" - which I feel is appropriate as it has two companions (one of which can be seen in the first picture), and The MINI makes the garage feel bigger on the inside.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...943c666b13.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...4f4aee22d7.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...29fc898390.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...74ee39f493.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...41ca70a988.jpg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...a8d8796956.jpg

Wow! Thanks for sharing your story and congrats on your purchase.

Congrats and again nice story.

Well, it looks like you nailed down the one you wanted and would be most happy with. That's the most important thing. Congratulations. :thumbsup: