After looking at and living with my new Thunder Grey F56 MCS I have the following thoughts on the cars design.
Love:
1 - The new engine. Torque is awesome. Seems to have power in all the right places.
2 -Auto Stop/Start. If I was more deaf I wouldn't notice it. Perfect!
3 -New sunroof. I know both windows don't tilt but the thing is so quiet and I like the darker sunshade compared to the R56.
4 - Quiet. Yep like someone slapped on the "Quiet Comfort's". Relaxing during a noisy commute. Love the new insulation and the fact I can barely hear the wipers
5 - Steering. Really precise - a huge leap forward.
6 - Seats - Really these are stock. They are pretty great!

Dislikes:
1 - the car is now bigger and this makes the wheels look too small. I know the stock wheels are now 205's but they need to be higher and wider to work with the new increased size. My wheels look silly small. Being black does not help this problem
2 - Center display. Give it up. It made some sense as a speedometer but now it is just stupid. Round dial with rectangular shapes stuck in it. there is lots of wasted space. IMO a rectangular design would look better and would make way more design sense.
3 Rear Truck door. Feels like you are doing serious damage every time you close it. They could have and should have put in rubber stops and pistons that actually work.
4 - HK Sound feels under powered or the speakers are not very efficient. Room for improvement here. I bet there will be tons of post on how to do this within a year.
5 -To me it feels like the manual gearshift is too far back compared to the R56. I am constantly banging my arm on the side of the seat and it feels to close but I am sitting correctly in relation to the peddles and steering wheel.
6 - The LED lights. God I have read how everyone is blown away with these. Honestly mine don't seem much better than my R56's headlamps. The cornering aspect is cool but IMO not worth the $1250 extra. Am I missing something here?
7 - DDC . Honestly how many Mini owners are going to use Green mode on a Cooper S? I can see Green on a Non- S. So why buy the bigger more powerful engine and dumb it down? An S should have sport suspension and maybe non-sport like the R56 had. The DDC range should be stiffer...IMO

I still love this car...it is fun to drive and quiet and powerful and the interior finishes are great if not a bit busy....but it feels like BMW have made some poor design choices especially by increasing the body size and basically keeping the same wheels. I almost starts to feel like one of those huge American cars from the 60's that had the small cross-ply tires!

 

Nice Additional thoughts Greg I'm still working up some more opinions with mine.

For the HK system (I have it as well and am tweaking it to try and find the best balance I can). I would say though that the speakers may just need some break in time. Any new speaker just needs some usage time on em to really get the voice coils happy. I know it was much the same in my R56 with the HK option. After about my first month the system came into its sweet spot.

 

Why did you buy the car?

 

@GregoryK

Hi buddy........
I have had a great time with you before, laughs, funny posts, great sense of humor.
Let me just say.........I saw dpcompt's post from miles away!
Not sure if it's as good with the hidden humor I have seen in the past, but you had to know someone would post it!

Other than that, enjoy your new ride......I know you are!

 

I continue to love pretty much everything about my MINI S. Sure, the center display could have been rectangular and have resulted in a larger overall screen (especially for navigation), but I'm fine with it as it blends more nicely with the speedo/tach. A rectangular screen just wouldn't flow with the rest of the instrument panel design.

I find the HK radio exceptional. As good as the optional audio system in my old '11 Buick LaCrosse. Plenty of punch with great distribution of sound.

I assume you went with the 16" wheel/tire package. While the new MINI is bigger, (4.5" in length, 1.7" in width, and .3" in height), I find that my 17" wheels/tires proportionally are just fine with the body. They don't look small at all, and they're black. I chose the 17" because the 16" did look a tad small. And I didn't want the increased unsprung weight of the 18s.

I agree that the new MINI is a lot quieter than the R56. I was told that the run-flats increase the noise level from the road, and that is probably true. However, mine are acceptable, especially on a smooth road. I wonder what the comparisons would have been with a 16" or 18" wheel compared to the 17" that I have. Ride quality, of course, can be adjust with the Sport/Mid/Green modes. After experimenting with each, I found the Green mode is no-man's land, LOL. I would ONLY use that when cruising long distances on a freeway. You just lose so much of the fun factor. So sluggish. Mid mode is my default and it works for me 90% of the time. When I want optimal handling and off the line punch, I quickly go into Sport mode.

Love my MINI S!

 

1.) In the US, the stock tire size is 195/55R16 and the next size up is 205/45R17, but the overall tire diameter is the same. If you go to the 18s, overall tire diameter is almost 2 1/2" greater.

I'd think black wheels could look smaller. I went with the stock silver 16s on my MCS mainly because I was concerned about ride quality. Time will tell, maybe the car will develop fewer rattles and my kidneys and teeth will be better off. I really like the looks of the silver Cosmos, and even asked the dealer how much extra to switch to the Cosmos when my car was in transit --- $2000!


7.) The green mode may have been primarily intended to boost the MPG figures for BMW's corporate average. Maybe on a rough highway, I may go Green, but that's the only time it would make sense to me.

 

Different opinions about the same car, isn't that one of the reasons we participate here. I believe most of us are comfortable enough to understand and appreciate this, I know I really do. I've had my new MCS for three days now, yes, still trying to experience the car and attend to routine stuff, that I haven't put anything in writing or taken pictures. It really amazes me that we are from so many different environments and backgrounds yet, experience this car in much the same way. Dislikes are well, the person's opinion and just because they dislike something doesn't change my opinion or make me second guess anything.

GregoryK's "Love" comments, I agree with everything except I don't have a sunroof.

MotorMayhem on the stereo, yes, it will need break in, just as other stuff on the car does.

CobraBob fellow BRG II MCS owner, I selected the 17" black wheels for the same reason and at least for now I find the noise and ride from the run-flats acceptable.

As far as why did I buy this, I wanted to and it is, in my opinion, the best, most fun, and overall enjoyable car in it's price range.

 

OK interesting I have the 17" Black wheels.
Why did I buy the car. Mid life crisis perhaps back in February when there were just a few reviews.
I honestly feel my opinions are valid and I think I have the experience and credentials to back them up. These are only my opinions. I think the wheels look too small especially compared to my past 2 Minis. In fact this would logically make sense right? Bigger car and the same wheels...wheels look smaller!
As far as the HK stereo goes. I realised something this morning while driving my wife to the airport. There is a lot of heavy sound absorbent material inside the car. They have insulated everywhere. My wife and I were having trouble hearing each other and having to repeat ourselves and ended with my wife saying "it's hard to hear in here". From my experience with sound engineering that means that the interior is absorbing lower-mid frequencies. This would why I'm am thinking that the stereo is not sounding right. There is a missing mid-range and this would explain why. I have played with the tone settings but these do not help. A change of amp will help.
Once again I don't really think the LED lights are that good in fact I was just in an underground parking lot and I still think they are not as good as my 2010 MCS. Also they are have lots of patterns in the beam. Maybe there is something wrong with them?
I really feel like I am objective. I am a designer and realise everything is a compromise. Just like this new car.

 

I took another look at mine, I see what you mean, the 17s leave open space, maybe a little too much between the body and the tire. I'll be interested to see how whatever you do changes the appearance. The biggest thing I've noticed about the LED lights is how all reflective material, road markings and signage glows, interesting to light things up with the high beams.

Everything is a compromise and we all are making judgements without really long enough exposure, so maybe it is what we expected or not. It would be interesting to see how our initial opinions hold up over time.

Cheers, Tom

 

Great review...I have no idea why someone would ask why you purchased the car for sharing your ownership experience and personal prospective.

Thanks...

 

I suspected we would need bigger wheels to look "right" with the F56. My guess was it would be 18's or 19's now. I'm sure my Cooper on 15's is going to look comical until I can find something better.