[ELISEBOY]

k had the car for a weekend and truely love it
done 500 miles now, been careful with the revs and speed
the potential of the chassis is huge, and love the SSP, reminds me so much of the Elise drive, very little roll and nice levels of grip

It does pull to the left, however this is intermitant, and is NOT down to the camber, however only seems to appear under 50mph.

Had to take the car back on the Saturday as the CD Multichanger did not work, it now works but rattles like mad so will have to pay another visit to the dealers

Was dissapointed to find that the front grill was badly scratched on delivery which they will change

The front Spot lights are tremendous, and turn night into day, have to find out the wattage but they are very powerful although not imppressed with the fit, as i have a loose wire hanging down which i have not seen on others

had the bonnet strpies fitted but they are not the bmw ones as i was told which i was dissapointed with

Overall i love the car
the stereo is superb and has not distored at all yet even at volume which i love
shame about the lack of detail on the MD player but it plays well
the Auto air con is great!!!

Comfort opening and follow you home settings work well
shame you cant close the windows with the remote too
Does it show how much i love the car??????

I am dissapointed with the issues on the car and will be complaining to BMW customer service about this even though the dealer has been pleasant, i feel there has been a matter of fact attitude about the issues i have raised
am i being over the top or do you think these points are valid and i should raise them?

well thats enough rambling
love the car
few issues
smashing super great

[ELISEBOY]

oopps
also had the flat tyre indicator on all weekend even though the tyres are fine

also, did you all get a warning triangle in the boot? as i did not

[ravensaxo]

Ummmmmmm i didnt either where would it be in the boot ?
know anything about chrome wing mirror covers ?

[ant]

As far as I remember, you have to spec (and pay for!) a warning triangle, first aid kit, etc. They don't come as standard.

I haven't got my brochure to hand (lent it to my mum so she can see the error of her ways in choosing a Ford Ka ) so I can't check.

Could be wrong though - anyone want to confirm what I think, or shoot me down in flames?

Ant

[Paul]

Triangle is a cost option

[scott]

Comfort opening and follow you home settings work well
shame you cant close the windows with the remote too
Does it show how much i love the car??????

elise boy what do you mean by "comfort opening" and "follow you home" seetings you got me a bit confused.

[mr.bill]

I think someone mentioned that there is a button on the center console that will reset the low tyre pressure warning light. It should be in the manual.

[Paul]

Scott, comfort opening. This is the windows and sunroof opening either via remote or from holding the key in the unlock position and holding it there. Looks cool in action, and also useful on hot days to cool the car before you get in. This is a programmable option.

Follow you home. Another programmable option where the lights remain on after you take the keys from the ignition and leave the car. This is basically a safety/convenience feature so you can find your way to the front door and unlocl it in the dark.

Well, it's been 2 hours since I parked the car in a real classy (not) neighbourhood ten minutes walk from our city-centre office and to say I'm nervous is an understatement. Well, who really can afford £130 a month for a personal NCP parking space in town? I've only had the car for 69 hours, so I'm bound to be a little paranoid, but what a great weekend it's been.

Before I committed myself a couple of weeks ago I test-drove a Chili-Cooper with 16's, but as my dealer had one in stock ready for March 1st delivery, I took the 8-spoke 17's (which everyone refers to as 'S's' - though I can't see why?) without trying them first. Silly thing to do I know, but they did look gorgeous (205/45/17's are identical in size to those on my wife's Celica but they still look bigger, must be a proportionality thing?). I think the loss of comfort is marginal for normal driving, but hit a few ridges or ruts in the road at speed and I honestly think all four wheels come off the ground. Now I know why there's all that spare head-room up front! (I thought it was for the convenience of baseball wearing neds - or pikey's, as my English friends and Snatch fanboys might call them).

Turn-in on corners and roundabouts (my town is famed for them, so much so that back in the heady days of cb-radio it's handle was 'polo-mint-city'... s'true!) is dizzyingly addictive. However, it rained most of the weekend so I left the ASC+T on (blouse behaviour I know, but as I keep saying, it's only new!).

Does it pull or not? My previous 200SX pulled to the left almost as soon as I collected it from the dealer and despite repeated visits they identified no faults. 'It's my imagination and the camber of the road' they said. It was only a year or so later when I had to replace the front brake pads at a service that the pull completely disappeared. Within the first couple of Cooper miles I swore blind it pulled left, but slowly over the whole weekend, the more I started thinking... maybe it's the sharpness of the steering picking up the camber of the road, and not a real physical pull. Who knows? Not wanting to constantly drive on the wrong side of the road just to prove a theory correct - I ignored the pull and enjoyed the car. Too many 'surprise and delight' features to mention (probably thoroughly covered on the forum before anyhoo) but for a first time BMW owner this was something I wasn't expecting - aren't they famed for being tight b*stards? (or is that Mercedes?). I've got the cd-boost set up but was wondering about what it's like round the back, are there any audio inputs spare? I know there's ports in the boot for a cd changer or md changer but I was thinking more along the lines of hooking an Apple I-Pod Mp3 player? Anybody got photographs of the boost unit or suggestions about wiring one up?

32mpg averaged over the weekend, though I've not thrashed it much past 4750rpm yet. I guess everyone blips the throttle that bit more than genuinely necessary as the fat little exhaust burble is really lovely... What about a suggested run-in period, any ideas? It has been back to the dealer to get my 'mislaid' warning triangle (arse that I am, should've read the manual and options-list properly before jumping in with both feet, doh!) and to have my seat looked at (squeaked like a bugger and the mechanic remedied it n a couple of minutes, 'dry joints needing oiled' apparently) but nothing else to report so far. Before I signed the paperwork on Friday I had a good fifteen minute chat with one of the BMW mechanics out in the carpark, for a more balanced view on it's faults (more than I'd get from my suited salesman with the shiny Mont Blanc pen anyway). Yes, he'd seen a couple with the famed electrical faults, and yes a couple had been brought back because they pulled left (which he believed was a brakes related issue - surprise surprise!). Only one he knew of had been rejected completely by a customer, who'd went on to pick another Cooper anyway... So on the whole it was a very positive response from him, but as so few have been back for repair or servicing - maybe time will tell?

First impressions? I love it to bits; it makes my heart ache when I look at, and grin like an idiot driving it. Ok, I miss the Nissans turbo'd grunt and presence - but the Cooper has so much cheeky charm, so much style and delightfully sharp steering I couldn't swap it back… .

I take it this is quite a common response from a newbie?

[smiffy]

Quote:

Originally posted by Paul_Mullett
Triangle is a cost option

So is the MINI safety vest

[minimart]

Is the cheesy grin standard? -
whenever I sit in mine, I can't help it, I start beaming!

Picked her up on saturday in the blazing sunshine- -laughed all the way home.
She seems really well built - high quality stuff
handling's PHENOMENAL, Stereo's FAB
S-Spokes are the bizness, too! (but they're getting covered in brake dust really fast)

A few questions -
Where's the toolkit?
Is My alarm set up correctly? - 1 flash when system arms, then no flash when it disarms (LED on stalk flashes OK)
If it's a slight pull to the left, should I get it checked out?
Also - I'm fitting clear side repeaters - do these need orange bulbs?

Good luck to all you new MINIers out there

[MrCooper]

Quote:

Where's the toolkit?

Look in the boot - there's a false pannel to the right and left, mines in the left one.

Quote:

Is My alarm set up correctly? - 1 flash when system arms, then no flash when it disarms (LED on stalk flashes OK)

Mine flashes the same way

Quote:

Also - I'm fitting clear side repeaters - do these need orange bulbs?

Yes but these should come with the repeaters

As for the rest of it I LOVE THIS CAR!!!!! I have a squeaky seat and a bit of a pull at low speeds (again not camber) but I'm very happy.

[ELISEBOY]

you can have the alarm flashing reset at the dealers

mine flashes once when i unarm it and twice when i arm it

got the tool kit in a little pouch thing, not a box as i was expecting!!

is this right?

[MrCooper]

Yeah mine too. I assumed this was standard.

[ELISEBOY]

didnt look like that in the manual though!!!

[MiniCooperS]

Picked it up Saturday. Seems very well made and drives well. Very slight left pull but no where near as bad as the demo we tried. Plagued by the tyre pressure alarm which kept going off approx. one mile into every journey. Reset the sensors in the end and all now o.k.!? Boot open light keeps coming on and it takes a couple of slams to turn it off. Apart from that, all seems o.k. Thought I would buy some top up engine oil only to find that the grade wasn't listed in the manual!!!!!