Mini Owners - Advice Please

Madamemorty

Hi all,

I am about to purchase a new Mini Cooper thanks to the scrappage scheme. I'm a bit confused about which options to choose for the car.

I'm trying not to get too carried away as I want to keep the cost down. The Chilli pack looks good but is too pricey at £2k.

So can anyone offer advice as to which options are actually useful and which ones I can do without?

Thanks in advance.

hewhoisnotintheknow

just a quick question - what car are you chopping in, what deal will they give you outside of the scrappage scheme

Anihilator

Will there still be money left when your car is eventually ready. Minis especially certain types take a while to be delivered and they may not make the deal for scrappage til nearer that time.

emmell

Madamemorty wrote: »

Hi all,

I am about to purchase a new Mini Cooper thanks to the scrappage scheme. I'm a bit confused about which options to choose for the car.

I'm trying not to get too carried away as I want to keep the cost down. The Chilli pack looks good but is too pricey at £2k.

So can anyone offer advice as to which options are actually useful and which ones I can do without?

Thanks in advance.

Will you qualify for the extra £500 towards customising your mini as this offer ends tomorrow I think. Chilli pack seems quite popular with 2nd hand buyers (me included) and may make the car easier to sell on eventually. TLC pack is also popular. I don't know what the cooper has as standard as mine was used and has
black roof and mirrors, black bonnet stripes, aerodynamic bodykit, half leather, chilli pack, tlc pack and 17" wheels. It's probably got other things that I'm not aware of yet. Ask the dealer what extras people look for when buying used or look on the approved used website and see what have been the most popular extras.
Good choice by the way as it was near impossible to get a discount before scrappage unlike some of the other manufacturers who would happily lop a chunk off to make a sale, but because of scrappage are now sticking to list price, so not the bargain they seem to be.
Enjoy your new Mini.
ML.

Lemonade_Pockets

Madamemorty wrote: »

Hi all,

I am about to purchase a new Mini Cooper thanks to the scrappage scheme. I'm a bit confused about which options to choose for the car.

I'm trying not to get too carried away as I want to keep the cost down. The Chilli pack looks good but is too pricey at £2k.

So can anyone offer advice as to which options are actually useful and which ones I can do without?

Thanks in advance.

I'd go for at least a pepper pack but ideally a chilli, as this will help with residuals apart from that only get what you need/really want. As others have said there is £500 off mini's (not sure how this translates if your doing the scrappage scheme).
I got over a £1000 of a cooper S without scrappage if that helps.

Also as someone else mentioned make sure you get the TLC pack as that actually is money saving but most dealers add this automatically anyway.

Lemonade_Pockets

Anihilator wrote: »

Will there still be money left when your car is eventually ready. Minis especially certain types take a while to be delivered and they may not make the deal for scrappage til nearer that time.

Not sure about a cooper but i factory ordered a new mini in August and have just picked it up so you should be ok.

madcow2006

I went for the pepper pack, metallic paint, double sunroof, sports steering wheel with cruise control, reversing sensors & black jack side scuttles on a MINI 1 & have no regrets. The dealer can quite heavily discount the extras I think by approx 50% so use it as a bargaining area. I bought from Yeovil Mini who were great, speak to Alex in sales.
Cheers Madcow

vikingaero

I agree. Pepper as the bare minimum.

Try asking on https://www.totalmini.co.uk

It's easy to get carried away with MINI options and spend £20k+ on a basic Cooper.

AdrianHi

Ha ha, as others have said get at least the Pepper pack (includes alloy wheels) as the next owner of the car will want them and expect a big enough discoutn to cover the cost if they are not on the car already.

Madamemorty

Thanks for the responses everyone. Sadly the £500 of extras that Mini is offering is not combinable with the scrappage discount so it's good to know that I can, at least attempt to, haggle on price. The dealers here don't seem too interested in discounts and wouldn't even discount their stock.

The pepper pack on the cooper doesn't come with alloys. At the moment I'm thinking of just upgrading the alloys to 16", getting the on-board computer and a rear Cooper S spoiler. This alone takes the price up by £800-900 which is more than the pepper pack but they are the things I really want.

I'm not overly concerned with resale as I'll be keeping this car for a long, long time. I was just wondering if I was missing out on some really useful accesory e.g. will I really miss a storage or interior lights pack?

On another note, what about the best colour for a mini? I've always liked red but am currently taken with the much rarer british racing green with white bonnet stripes.

AdrianHi

Madamemorty wrote: »

The pepper pack on the cooper doesn't come with alloys.

Ah, it was the Mini One Pepper Pack I looked at for my sister in law and it was some months ago.
Looking at the Cooper S colour there is no wrong colour there IMO (unlike the metallic mud brown you can have a clubman in), my favourite is Laser Blue but Racing Green and stripes is the way to go if you like it - especially if your keeping it a long time where the market opinion on the colour matter less.

3 year residual value 54% projected. Unusually high, that's why getting a discount it tough, strong demand.
Seems a lot to spend on such a small car but you get a lot more of you money back that you would with Ford/Vauxhall etc.