Buying a Cooper S - considerations

C

cj10jeeper

Lifer
 Lichfield, England
OK so wrong forum but my daughter has set her heart on a Cooper S
Reason I ask is so many of you Zedders have come from the Mini and especially Cooper clan and know a lot more than me.

She's looking at a facelift (which I think is sensible for the turbo instead of supercharger and of course residuals) with I think Chilli pack and JCW bodykit, from a BMW main agent

Anything we need to consider, avoid, beware of?

Fire away
Thanks
 
We have a Cooper S as well as the Z4 and the 1 series :D

We also had the previous Supercharged Cooper S before :oops:

To be honest I don't get to drive it much, but it is a rappid little machine, but my Mrs hates it, she'd swap back in an instand to the old model. She says it was just more fun... I can appreciate that, the new model is quite a grownup car when you drive them back to back...

Ok the downsides....

The new PSA engine sounds horrible at tickover, it rattles and you can hear every click of the injectors, infact we took ours back at one point.
Some of the early models suffer from clutch / flywheel issues, this can cause a rather loud rattle from the gear box at times.

Also there have been at least 3 recalls, turbo pipes, heat shield and I forget the other, check they have been done.

The interior can suffer, and is still a right rattle bus, again ours has been back twice to have the dash removed and de-rattled

The boot can be bl00dy hard to close..

The Chilli kit gives you almost everthing you need, aircon, cd, 1/2 leather, mats, and bigger wheels.

The new clamshell is ok, but there have been reports of the trim around the arches coming off.

To be honest I think there are better cars, if it was me I'd look at the Fiat 500 Abarth ( spelling ) as the minis are expensive for what you get.

Just a quick list as i'm off to bed now !!!

Oh yea I forgot one..... RUNFLATS :thumbsdown:
 
That's a great start and some pointers for her (read that as me...) have to look at.

So your implication is that the pre facelift could be worth considering even though it's an older car, different technology, etc.
Forgot about the bloody runflats...
 
Another thing to consider,,,there are plenty of aftermarket parts floating around for the older model :wink:
 
I had a mini clubman as a courtesy car last week. Whilst I've always liked the mini (well atleast the Cooper S) from the outside. I just didn't like sitting in it and driving it.
The seat felt too short, like the seat back was pushing me off and I couldn't find a comfy position. The main problem I had though was that great big centre dial, I found the reflection comming off it just caught my eyes and was very irritating :thumbsdown:

As for the clubman itself.... whats the point of an "estate" with no sizable boot :? I also found the drivers side door (for the UK version) a pain to open from the outside, I think the fact it was the side with the extra half door meant the latch wasn't as accurate and easy to open.

My sister looked at older models and thought she wasn't getting as much for her money as other cars and the interior wasn't practicle enough for her with the tiny boot. She bought a nearly new VW Polo in the end and seems happy with it, the Mini would of been 3-4 years older.
 
Well my daughter tested the Cooper S today and to cut a long story short she loves it and has reserved a soon to be traded in facelift model. It's got the lot on it from Chilli pack to JCW bodykit, piano black interior, part red leather, chromline, manufacturers warranty, TLC package, tinted windows, upgraded alloys. Seems the original owners just ordered the lot and is going for a 1 series diesel due to travel. Basically the deal is unbeatable and £2000 less than any other S on the BMW dealership market. Normally that would worry me but backed by BMW I have no concerns, so all going well she'll pick it up in a couple of weeks :D

Thanks for the comments guys and if you really want I'll post pics in the future.
 
Will do once it arrives.

In the meantime here are some of the outgoing 206GTi after a bit of detailing today.

Not bad for an 8 year old, just 35,000 on the clock and pretty much mint. It'll make someone very happy when they buy it and I'll be sorry to see it go as we've had it from day 1. She was prepped by Peugeot as a show car so out of the factory was resprayed to the highest standard with multiple layers of paint, glazing, more glazing and pc'ing. Going on Ebay in a few days.

What do you think and how much is it worth? I reckon around £3,000

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The 'S sounds great, looking forward to the pics :thumbsup:

The GTI is a tidy wee car, I reckon you're not too far away at £3k, it's certainly going to be sought after by the right person. Have you tried a 206 forum at all yet, might be worth a thread?
 
Good idea Mike - I'll take some decent shots and perhaps post it on one. In no rush to sell so that's a real bonus.
 
Try http://www.206info.co.uk and this one http://www.peugeot-gti.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=12 you seem to need to register for it though.
 
cj10jeeper, bump! Since it now appears that your daughter has the car, we want pics! Feel free to include the lovely daughter(s) too :D
 
OK - here we go then - enjoy:

Cooper S with JCW kit.
Chilli Pack
New dealer fit alloys and continentals

Gets her first proper detail at the weekend if I can get time and hopefully remove all the dealers tacky polishes and excess spray of whatever they had to hand and remove the first motorway dirt and grime

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pvr said:
The state of the X5 ... shocking :o

Nice mini though :D
Click to expand...

Good spot - left that one open for you..lol
Had to drive up a farm track yesterday and it has to wait to the weekend to get a clean. At least I can prove I need a 4x4
 
Nice MINi although I still can't get on with the revamped shape!
Has that got the JCW minor upgrade or just the body kit as the full on 220BHP JCW has only just come out and visually has a different exhaust.
 
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