As I keep my eyes open for used Roadsters that I could trade up my Coupe for, I spotted this one.

2012 JCW, British racing green w/ silver stripes, manual transmission (yay!), driving lamps (sweet), 17" black star bullet wheels, leatherette (I think) sport seats, nav, armrest, looks like most of the rest is standard JCW stuff. Just over 22K miles.

Sticker on the car shows a price of $26,788, dealer website has a price of $21,744.

CarFax shows one owner, bought in Georgia, moved shortly after to Bay Area. Dealer has replaced 2 tires. Looks like it's been on the lot since the end of July.

A 2012 w/ less than 23K miles? Too good to be true? Is the price too good to be true too? (I bet there's no wiggle left in that latter figure--but I'd love to be proven wrong.)

 

I was toying with shipping that car to Florida. I looked at a bunch on line and that is a great price especially from a mini dealer. Dealer add on fees can quickly inflate the price so read the fine print. I bought mine from a mercedes dealer in south carolina and they waived all fees except florida sales tax. A 2012 could have a manual top if that bothers you.

 

Go look at it.

 

Pics ?

 

Here is the option sheet if we are looking at the same car. Looks to be fully loaded including leather seats and electric roof.

Vehicle Identification Number WMWSY5C51CT312639 Type SY53 Model Jcw - USA Development Code R59 (JCW) Chassis ROADST Steering LL Doors 2 Engine N14 Displacement 1.60 Power 155 Drivetrain FRONT Transmission MECH Color British Racing Green Ii Metallic - B22 Upholstery Leder Punch/carbon Black/beige - T8FP Production Plant OXFORD Production Date 2012-06-27
Options

1CA Selection Cop Relevant Vehicles Selektion Cop Relevanter Fahrzeuge 2RU Lt/aly Wheels Black Star Bullet Lm Raeder Black Star Bullet 2VB Tyre Pressure Indicator Reifendruckanzeige 226 Sports Suspension Settings Sportliche Fahrwerksabstimmung 249 Multi-function For Steering Wheel Multifunktion Fuer Lenkrad 3A2 Black Headlights Schwarze Scheinwerfer 3A9 Sport Stripes Silver Sport Stripes Silber 302 Alarm System Alarmanlage 313 Exterior Mirror Package Aussenspiegelpaket 314 Heated Windscreen Washer Nozzles Frontscheibenwaschduesen Beheizt 322 Comfort Access System Komfortzugang 345 Chrome Line Interior Chrome Line Interieur 387 Wind Deflector Windschutz 398 Softtop Operation, Electro-hydraulic Verdeckbetaetigung Elektro-hydr. 4C1 Colour Line Carbon Black Colour Line Carbon Black 405 Exterior Mirror Caps Chrome Plated Verchromte Aussenspiegelkappen 423 Floor Mats, Velour Fussmatten In Velours 430 Int/ext Rr Vw Mirror W Aut Anti-dazzle Innen-/aussenspiegel Aut.abblendend 431 Interior Rr Vw Mirror W Aut Anti-d Innenspiegel,automatisch Abblendend 473 Armrest, Front Armauflage Vorn 494 Seat Heating F Driver/front Passenger Sitzheizung Fuer Fahrer/beifahrer 5AA Rear Fog Lamp Nebelschlussleuchte 5DD Car Jack Wagenheber 502 Headlight Washer System Scheinwerfer-waschanlage 507 Park Distance Control (pdc) Park Distance Control (pdc) 521 Rain Sensor Regensensor 522 Xenon Light Xenon-licht 534 Automatic Air Conditioning Klimaautomatik 550 On-board Computer Bordcomputer 6A1 Always Open Timer Always Open Timer 6FP Radio Mini Visual Boost Radio Mini Visual Boost 6NE Enhanced Bluetooth Mobile Preparati Erweiterte Handy Vorbereitung Bluet 6NF Ext.con.of The Music Play.i.mobilph Music-schnittstelle Fuer Smartphone 6NM Mini Connected Mini Connected 6UH Traffic Information Traffic Information 6UM Mini Navigation System Mini Navigationssystem 6VC Control Combox Steuerung Combox 620 Voice Input System Spracheingabesystem 655 Satellite Radio Satellitentuner 674 Hifi Loudspeaker System Harman Kardon Hifi-system Harman/kardon 7L5 Wired Wired 785 White Direction Indicator Lights Weisse Blinkleuchten 8KL Oelserviceint. 15.000km/11months Oelwartungsint. 15.000km/12monate 8SP Cop Control Cop Steuerung 925 Shipping Protection Package Versandschutzpaket


Mine is optioned almost the exact same except for the sport suspension. Frankly the sirius sounds pretty crappy, highs and lows are just not there. The nav seems very hard to use also but maybe I just need to get the hang of it. I just bluetooth my smartphone using google maps for directions over the speakers and display the nav map on the screen for now.

You are aware that the 2012 JCW roadsters have the n14 engine? Might be why the price is on the low side of the spectrum.

 

+1

 

And give it a drive, too. BRG with silver stripes look great too. How's the N14 engine different? Is it listed with pictures?

 

See, this is why I was...reluctant...to post more details. Someone with more means that I would just snap it up out from under my interest.

 

I'm seriously thinking about making the drive down this weekend to do just that. Being on the lot since July and with cold/cooler/rainy weather and the holidays imminent, it's unlikely to be snapped up before then. (And if so, that's life.)

Should I be worried about reliability though? I had an engine light come on briefly on my drive to work, so I detoured to a local MINI shop (Mini Werks, in San Carlos CA, if anyone wants to look it up), and they hooked up the diagnostics and said it was the knock sensor--and likely it didn't need to be replaced right now. They said that they had been seeing a lot of that lately, maybe some bad gas in the area? Anyway, if it does indeed need replacing, it's a cheap (for MINI) fix.

I had mentioned that JCW Roadster I found, and he said that the turbo and more "sports car" of the JCW is likely to make it even more expensive to repair, and then said, other than needing to keep an eye on the oil levels, my Couple is one of the more reliable models out there.

 

Wow thats a great deal , nice find if thats the same one.

 

Only the 2012 JCW model roadster had the N14 motor from the 2007-2010 years. All the s model roadsters got the n18 motor. The n14 had timing chain and carbon build up problems. 2013 and above JCW roadsters got the updated n18 motor. Spark plug coils and wires are visible on the n14 motor. The n18 has a plastic cover over the coils so you can't see them.

 

That very thing happened to me on a 2013 JCW roadster on auto trader. The add was for a 2013 JCW with 22000 miles and it was only an hour drive away. I met with the owner for a saturday test drive and then settled on a price of 25,300. We were going to meet monday morning to do the paperwork and when I called he said sorry but some guy from california offered him 1000 dollars more and was having it shipped. I felt bad for my wife because she got excited about her new car over the weekend. In the end it doesn't really matter though as there will always be another deal out there. Just took me a few months to find another one we liked only a five hour drive away. The roadsters are tough to find but my guess is more will start to show up when the warranties and leases expire.

 

Is that a cue that I'd be better off looking for 2013+ models and staying away from 2012s?

 

Not really just be aware of the n14 known problems. The 2012 S roadster has the newer n18 engine. Test driving the JCW after driving a Justa is going to put a smile on your face.

 

Hopefully you'll get to this Roadster before anyone else. I have found through the last 2 years or so of looking for one that these used Roadsters develop a pretty good following, and when the price gets down to reasonable levels, they do get bought up fast.

There were 2 roadsters that came up that I was really interested in, and got away. My fault, I was just not quick enough.

Don't think about it, Go see it. Might be a good one, and you can't tell till you look it over and take it out for a drive. There seems to be a steady trickle of manual Roadsters on cars dot com and cargurus dot com. Some good deals, and quite a few not so good.