Unimpressed with MINI at London Motor Show

[Joogle]

Okay I will probably get a kicking off certain people for this but......

The last performance MINI was the GP - okay ltd edition and all that but for 22k it actually had a decent bit of kit for the price - and that included all the GP only bits! The R56 JCW does seem to be a bit plain when compared to the GP (Okay it has a back seat....) but for 1k difference for a lot of out of the box parts and nothing really exclusive to that model - what are MINI thinking?

In the current enviroment MINI's are starting to look seriously overpriced and under specced in relation to the competition. We all got excited when they said the R56 was going to be cheaper to build - but what happened to those savings? were they passed onto the customers? methinks not.....

[dalboyne]

Quote: Originally Posted by Joogle (original)

Okay I will probably get a kicking off certain people for this but......

The last performance MINI was the GP - okay ltd edition and all that but for 22k it actually had a decent bit of kit for the price - and that included all the GP only bits! The R56 JCW does seem to be a bit plain when compared to the GP (Okay it has a back seat....) but for 1k difference for a lot of out of the box parts and nothing really exclusive to that model - what are MINI thinking?

In the current enviroment MINI's are starting to look seriously overpriced and under specced in relation to the competition. We all got excited when they said the R56 was going to be cheaper to build - but what happened to those savings? were they passed onto the customers? methinks not.....

Maybe it's just getting way too expensive to build a small car (even a premium one) in Oxford?

Ian

[neilobe]

Visited today, have to say problary one of the worst ones i have been too, See what everyone means about the Factory JCW, you can easily walk past it, its that uninspiring!!
Even booked the live Honda Show, which was basically rubbish apart from seeing there expensive Robot on stage..
Best stand problary vauxhall, and Nissan.. GTR I want one...

[mister.t]

A friend of mine went today, and he was really looking forward to seeing a fully spec'd JCW... He was very dissapointed We both agreed that the best stands there were Ford, Vauxhall, and Honda

[Streeters]

Quote: Originally Posted by 118 (original)

the BARge in 2006 was way better and so was the display. they had the space invaders game outside too, which you sat in a cabrio to play

Agree with all so far.

The 2006 show was what tipped us into MINI ownership, it was fun and exciting and different a word which you wouldnt use to describe the world launch of the JCW such a let down.

I reckon they missed the boat so to speak by not having a merchandise stand too, Lotus had one and there were plenty of t-shirt type outlets with MINI related stuff on too.

[NeuroBeaker]

Quote: Originally Posted by supa-dupa-cooper (original)

This years stand was still funky and very MINI, but the cars did let it down

"Apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

[paul04]

I was at the motorshow on Thursaday. I had a look under the bonnet and I thought on the engine it will have the JCW badge but it didn't.

[brightonmini]

I didn't really bother looking at the cars on the stand, as others have said, there was nothing new, or that you couldn't see in any one of the dealerships.

Have to say I was unimpressed with the owners lounge. OK, I'm not a kid any more, but when lured in with the promise of "free refreshments" I would expect more that a selection of squashes and a handful of jelly beans.

Again, at my dealer, I can get a coke, coffee etc.

The other owners lounges seemed to have this covered, with coffee machines, cookies etc.

Lets face it, one of the fun bits of a motor show is the freebies. Nothing here on the mini stand other than a CD of the accessories catalogue which won't run on my mac!

Still, I got an ice ly from the Ford stand, so not a wasted journey.

[supa-dupa-cooper]

On our GM stands we had, Coffees and Milkshakes and all sorts

[118]

Quote: Originally Posted by paul04

I was at the motorshow on Thursaday. I had a look under the bonnet and I thought on the engine it will have the JCW badge but it didn't.

thats exactly what I said to the others while we were looking round it too - same with the exhaust as well