After a very long 8 week wait, my Countryman S finally arrived at the dealership yesterday, so my fiancé and I went to pick it up today.

Our salesperson, John Heppler at East Bay Mini, was great. He kept me up to date on the status of the car and guided me through the functions of the Connected system. We did have a couple snafus: the navigation code wasn't inputted properly (apparently) so the navigation didn't work (so he'll send me the code tomorrow and i'll input it myself) and he forgot to grab the floor matts that he threw in (so he'll mail them to me). Overall, we were really happy with the customer service at East Bay Mini.

So, about the car. We went with Surf Blue with white stripes and white roof, and anthracite 17" wheels. It's a rather striking combination, I must say.

As for options, we stuck with the leatherette interior, but went with xenon headlights, Connected+Nav, Convenience package, auto trans, split rail, and checkered interior surface.

I'll have a detailed review after a couple thousand miles, but I can tell that I'm going to love Connected and that it's going to take a little bit of time to find the sweet spot for driving position. Ride quality seems quite good and the the throttle and handling are grin-inducing.

Here're some photos for now; I'll post some bright daylight photos when I can.

 

Love it! COngrats!

 

+1 Looks great! Congrats!

 

Great look, thanks for the pics!

I have the exact same with silver wheels and was wondering what aftermarket dark wheels would look like. Now i know !

Enjoy your new toy....

 

Very nice. My dealer told me when I looked at getting that color they had discontinued it. Looks like you got in in time.

 

Looks awesome! Great color combo! Congrats!

 

Wasn't it the Surf Blue interior color they were having trouble with?

First I heard about exterior Surf Blue issues...

 

Looks great. Love the color combo. Welcome to the family!

 

Looks great, very nice!

 

Great color combo!!

 

Congratulations! We ordered our Surf Blue CMS from East Bay MINI as well on 4/21. It's due to arrive in port on 6/8. We can't wait! Yours looks great - just the color combination I wanted, but I compromised with my husband (who will be driving it as well) and went with the Surf Blue, black roof, and black stripes. I'll post pictures when we pick it up!

 

Looks great. Let the modding begin.

 

Looks Great.. congrats..

 

It's beautiful!! All the best with it!!

 

Looks my evil twin, lol

 

Thanks all!

There are a lot of grin-inducing cars out there, but this is the first I've driven that makes me grin like an idiot before i even get in.

As for mods, I'm not sure what I'd do. I love the way it looks, so I'd probably leave the exterior mostly alone; maybe at most get some driving lamps (though the xenons are awesome and I certainly don't need any additional lighting). I'm very happy with the acceleration, as well, and the ride-handling compromise is quite nice, though I'm absolutely putting on non-runflats when I replace the tires. The ride is probably going to get a whole lot cushier then, so I might think about modifying the suspension some then. I'm of course open to ideas

 

Wow, love that color. Would have been my second choice after all black.

 

Great looking car!!!! I am considering ordering nearly the same thing. I'm also in the Bay Area. How are the wheels for keeping clean? That (and the fact that my speedometer isn't accurate) is my least favorite feature about my 2008 Clubman -- those wheels are a *pain* to keep clean!

 

This is the color I'm ordering and Surf Blue has not been discontinued, either exterior or interior. Thanks for the great pic!

I'm not getting stripes yet, but I'm thinking about getting the sport stripes for just the sides of my car. And I'm definitely getting the stubby antenna and some Go Badges.