I stopped by Park Lane MINI in London a couple of days ago. Lots of R56s in the showroom!

A few first impressions:
- I don't like the Rooster Red color line. Too much orange in the red. And the Red highlighted leather seats look worn already. Cheap red leather.
- The Nav looks great!
- The fit and finish looks great. Not that the Mk1 looked bad... this just looks better.
- Tuscan Beige color line looks great! Matched with the Cream White and Piano Black.... perfect! See pics below.
- Mellow Yellow looks great!
- Sparkling Silver is not beige or gold tinted as in the configurator. It is silver.

I might stop by another MINI showroom today and see if I can grab some more pictures before being asked not to

 

Great pictures!

Do you know if the radio faceplate does anything while it's removed from the radio? I'm just curious because it seems strange to have a removable faceplate on a stock radio, especially when the head unit itself doesn't look like it would fit/work in anything except another MINI.

Edit - Just noticed that when the faceplate is removed, it exposes a disc slot behind it - assuming that's where the DVD for the Nav system goes. If that's the case, I guess the removable faceplate is a space-saving measure rather than a theft-prevention feature.

 

I thought it was strange as well.... and had to look a couple of times, but the faceplate is removable to access the Nav DVD slot behind.

 

Thanks! I noticed that as well, and edited my post right as you posted your reply.

 

Great pics!!

Thanks!!

 

Nice...thanks Paul! Very much appreciated!

 

I noticed in the 5th picture there is a tweeter. Did that car have the Hi-Fi sound or stock sound?

Thanks!

 

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing!

 

So does Mellow Yellow look lighter or closer to the good old LY in person? It looks great in your picks but so far the online stuff I have seen makes it look more goldeny/orangey kinda like the center stripe on the street.

 

you only get the tweeters in the HiFi upgrade. you dont get them with the standard or the BOOST upgrade :]

 

Thank you Paulr for the pics! They are much appreciated and help out greatly!

I do like the Tuscan Beige color line matched with the Cream White and Piano Black... Very classy!

Now I have a question for you. Is the blue depicted on the MCS above, Lightning Blue? On my monitor it appears to be so dark as to be Astro Black. Can you clarify this?

TIA!

 

Great photo's....Thanks for your comments on the Rooster Red color line...I was considering ordering that, yet I'll wait to see it in person. That feature is too important not to be fully satisfied with.

Thanks,

 

OK, a couple clarification questions... by the "Rooster Red" color line with the two-tone cloth/leather seats, or are referring to the "Redwood Red" interior world?

I'm hot for the Redwood Red Lounge to go in my R56S...

 

Not so encouraging words about the Rooster Red Colorline/Two Tone seats..

Oh well they look great in pictures and im sure ill love em.

 

love that Navi!

 

that's astro black, it looks slightly blue in certain lights. lightning blue pics can be found on MINI2 at the mo :]

 

Excellent pics, thanks for posting.

 

Yes, thanks for posting. I decided to get the beige leather seats instead of the black ones now, and the color line, etc. I had already spec'ed the SatNav. I think the Gravity Tuscan will go quite well with Lightning Blue.

I'm a little disappointed Mini didn't go with a full swapout the leather for the gearshift and e-brake as well. Oh well. I do prefer the black on the steering wheel.

 

Thank you very much!

 

Sorry for the late reply! It's a strange feeling to be with out net access for so long I made it the other MINI dealer in London, but they were closed on Saturday I have a couple more photos, taken from the outside.

bamatt - under the dealer lights, MY looked deeper... almost school bus yellow

Sabre - this MINI was AB.

kayaktom - I agree with you 100%. In my initial configs, RR was on the spec. But here it's too orangy. Maybe it will look different in daylight, but I was not at all satisfied with it in the showroom. And with the seats, I really regretted not having the tartan red seats in my R53 and I originally thought the red leather seats would fit the bill in an R56. But the leather already looks worn On the other hand, the beige interior far exceeded my expectations. I really wasn't a fan of it in the R53 but in the R56 it looks great!! If I go with some thing other than black/grey, the beige will be it. And the beige leather looks great in this combo. Seems like it's high quality.

jmelrose - I think you'll be pleased!

 

Larger versions of all the R56 photos are on my Flickr page.

 

What's with the horrible gap between the bonnet and the fenders and front bumper? At first I thought that maybe the yellow car in the original post just had poor build quality, but I see the same problem on the blue car in the post preceding this one. If I wanted panel gaps like that, I'd buy a Kia.

Oh, and that new center console is butt ugly.

 

Paul,

Did that Tuscan interior also have the Chrome Line option installed?

 

I'm disappointed in the red/black cloth combo.. the leather almost looks like it's not been stretched tight enough on the seat..... glad i got the all cloth seats when I ordered mine.

 

The dark grey MCS and the blue MCS look to have the aero package? The silver MC chin looks less aggressive - I'm looking at the fog light surround. The yellow - can't tell if its MC or MCS - has a different treatment than the others. Is that the stock MCS?