[BESM]

I am eagerly awaiting my F56 MINI Cooper. Apparently it is on the ship, off the coast of Cornwall as I write.
This is our second MINI, the first a 2005 S was wrecked a month ago by a man who ran a red light. It was a great car but did start having mechanical problems around 75000 miles. These included camshaft failure, power steering pump, crankshaft damper etc. We kept it going in spite of these difficulties and got to 85000 miles with it.
We elected to go with the base Cooper plus winter package and sports seats only.
I think we will get ours just before the official launch date in the US.
We needed a replacement MINI quickly and considered getting a new 2013 from the dealer's stock. It turned out to be cheaper to buy a 2014 since the dealer's 2013 stock was all highly optioned.
Will post again once it is in our hands

 

[RalphR56]

Welcome to the forums! I think you'll be one of the first in the USA to take delivery of an F56.

I am hoping the F56 will be more reliable than my own troublesome R56.

 

[MJCW]

Welcome to the forum.
at least you guys stayed loyal to Mini! Did you try expanding your options before deciding to go with the new F56?

 

[italianjob]

welcome to the forum!

 

[BESM]

Welcome to the forum.
at least you guys stayed loyal to Mini! Did you try expanding your options before deciding to go with the new F56?

As to expanding our options, we stayed with MINI because 1) the wife loved her R53 Cooper S and was very attached to it, 2) originally we considered the S version but felt that the extra power was unnecessary since it is really a run about car used largely in a suburban environment. The 3 cylinder engine looks interesting and it has a high torque at low revs which makes it quite brisk I should image. One advantage in our selection is that we will not have run-flat tyres which I detest. On the R53, I removed them as soon as we took delivery and fitted normal tyres instead.
I am fortunate in having a spouse who loves her cars - will only have manual shift ones. We bought a 1991 ALFA 164 new for her and kept it running for 220,000 miles but it still took me a year to wean her off it and give her a new MINI!
Oh yes the new one has the same colours as the old one.
The car is due in New York on April 2 so we may have it about a week later.

Bruce

 

[Metalpetal]

Hello and welcome Nice to see a few more faces around these parts!!