Couldn't stay away...

[N16SHP]

Morning folks, just wanted to pop my head in and say hi to everyone. Been a while since I last posted on here and almost two years since I got rid of my R56 S due to having companies cars. However, I am pleased to say that I'm finally getting back into a Mini and it's an F56 Cooper in Deep Blue with Chili pack. Only additions over the standard spec are the LED headlights, headed windscreen, upgrade to the infotainment system and also an armrest. Due to take delivery mid-January so cannot wait to get it.

Kirsten's Countryman is still going strong. It's been abused within an inch of it's life by the two kids in the back and still it cleans up well and looks great. Sadly it is going in March to make way for a new Skoda Superb Estate as we simply didn't have enough room any more in the Countryman.

Anyway, look forward to catching up with all the old faces and also looking forward to getting to know all the new people who have joined in the time I've been away!! I've spent the last hour or so looking through galleries etc and it's clear that a lot has changed and there are some stunning Mini's on here as you'd come to expect.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5632/23474235202_5d32697fa9_b.jpg

[MINI William]

Fantastic news Neil. Looking forward to seeing your new car and seeing you at runs and meets to come

[gauldrymini]

Lovely new F56 Coop :thumbs up:

It's a cracking wee engine in the Cooper...

[Craig]

Welcome back Neil. Looks like the car will be great and Mrs S can drive "The Bus" while you have some fun in the MINI. :). Be great to see you and the family at a meet again ;)


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[EcosseGP]

Great news Neil and welcome back ... Looks good and you'll love the LED headlights [emoji106]


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[badwolf340]

What a really nice colour .never saw one like that,not long till you get it :thumbs up:

[Blueboy]

Lovely car that :cool:

[Crombers]

Many happy motoring miles :motoring:

[ELFMAN]

Welcome back Neil! Sorry I missed this thread.
Great could combo, reminds me of my previous Indi Blue/Black Minis...

[Coop1]

Yup, LEDs are excellent. F56 Coop is a properly rapid little thing.

[N12 JLK]

Hello

[N16SHP]

Morning folks, thought I would give you an update on my car.

Still waiting for delivery however there appeared to be some kind of a mix up. Sales were saying the car was in production and was almost complete (we all know it takes about 24 hours to produce a Mini so shouldn't take that long) and finance were saying the car was still waiting to enter production and not going to be ready until end of Jan. Not ideal getting two answers however John Duncan at JC Aberdeen very kindly agreed to give me a loaner at no cost until my Mini arrives so I'm currently hooning about in a new Cooper D which is pretty nice. (Will see if I can upload a picture later!)

Now, for those of you who know me will know that John Clark and I don't exactly have the best of relationships however I have to say it appears they have turned a corner. We've had really excellent service as far as our Countryman goes from both sales AND service, the later being the people who always caused the most grief and certainly cannot fault the sales team again when it come to my F56. Fingers crossed I don't have to wait too much longer but quite happy now that I've got another Mini to play with for the time being.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1470/24088706509_4a6788f481_b.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1635/24160904820_9bf3c76acf_b.jpg

[EcosseGP]

Excellent news Neil and it's always good to hear that dealers can change. I'm never too sure where they get the build dates from but fingers crossed its in your possession for the end of the month.

[GreyRacer]

My car was confirmed by Mini last Monday with delivery Week 7. as it only take the 24 hours to build I suppose due to numbers ordered that it's just in the system with build end Week 6. My experience with Lloyd Newcastle has been very good so far but then I've not encountered any after sales or service yet. Time will tell.

[N16SHP]

Excellent news Neil and it's always good to hear that dealers can change. I'm never too sure where they get the build dates from but fingers crossed its in your possession for the end of the month.

Thanks Davy. If I get it before the 26th I'll be delighted as my private plate retention needs to be renewed by then otherwise it'll be another £80 to the DVLA to then stick it on the vehicle a few days after. Strangely though I noticed my renewal this year gave me the option to put it on retention for 10 years, never noticed that before.

[EcosseGP]

That's only just changed tail end of last year for retentions. You can also do everything on line too which saves you waiting on the paperwork coming through.

[Craig]

Fingers crossed you get it soon Neil, but good in JC's for putting you in a car in the meantime :)

Yeah your retention cert now lasts up to 10 years for the same £80. Be careful if you do the transfer of the plate online as it happens immediately so you need to get your insurance etc sorted ;)


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[N16SHP]

Well picked up my new Coop yesterday. (Sorry about the rubbish pic, I'll do proper ones at the weekend once I get some time and it's not blowing a force 10 hooly!)

Feels very different to drive than the Cooper D I had as a loner but in a nice way. Power delivery is very smooth and the 1.5 engine is deceptively quick when you give it beans. I would also say the handling of the F56 is better than the R56 in terms of that go-kart feel. To me it feels much more like an R50/53 than anything else which is great as far as I'm concerned. I can only imagine the S and JCW would be really great to drive on the twisties!

John Clark have been really good throughout (still amazes me I'm saying that). My only moan currently is the state of the paint work. The finish is particularly poor with lots of swirls and yes that'll happen on a dark car but Kirsten's car and even my R56 which was second hand was delivered in a better state so I'm waiting for a response from them regarding that. Everything else is great. Only thing left to do is fit my stripes, as those of you who know me you'll all know my MINI's pretty much stay stock as I don't have the time or funds to fiddle with them sadly...case and point being the youngest in the picture with me whilst at the same time her big sister Jessica quite rightly oogled inside a rather nice looking Cooper S haha (She's got the bug already)

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1604/24123117533_85a8e1e516_b.jpg

[Craig]

Nice car Neil - look forward to seeing you again sometime soon.

Fingers crossed the paint issues can be fixed by then without too much pain... [emoji2]


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[gauldrymini]

Really nice car Neil

...always saddens me how cars get prepped for customers, my new company Golf had many a swirl and our supposed new Clubman a dent in its roof :frown:

[Blueboy]

Lovely car, sorry about your woes and the paintwork not being up to par, hopefully they'll get a detailer to sort out. As said above, very annoying getting a brand new car from a garage and paint being like that, mind you some of the stories I've heard from friends who work as salesman in some top marque dealers would make you shudder, most employ the same firm who supply guys on the minimum wage. There is a detailing business up past Aberdeen, Polished Bliss and I know they specialise in going into dealers and pdi-ing new vehicles because of this.

[Blueboy]

One friend who is a valeter at a Jag garage down south told me that they hardly get any time to pdi a brand new £40k+ car

[N16SHP]

To be completely fair to John Clark, without a moments hesitation they've agreed to take the car back and have it properly done and provide a courtesy car at the same time, really cannot complain about that. I remember watching a chap in the forecourt when Mini was joined up with the BMW garage in Aberdeen, not only did he use a sponge but he used the same bucket and sponge for an entire row of cars and dropped it once, quick dip and back to it. I totally understand that we are the minority for car care and 99% of people wouldn't even have noticed it, but again, hats off to them for offering to put it right.

I watched an episode of Undercover Boss and it was a director from Hyundai. His decision at an operating level gave the guys something like 15 minutes to completely valet a car inside and out and when they handed him a bucket and mitt to do it when he was at the dealer he'd not even finished rinsing it when his 15 minutes were up.

Polished Bliss are brilliant but in a way a victim of their own success. As they are now so busy you can no longer pop in to speak to them about advice (I'm not talking 30 minutes and a coffee and cake) simply, can you look at this mark or car you assess the car and give me an idea about what process and products to follow. They can do this over the phone but it won't be as good as letting them physically look at your particular car. I must add though, I've not phoned recently to ask any questions and perhaps on occasion they'll decide it's best to look at before giving advice?

[EcosseGP]

Cracking looking wee car Neil and think that it's just the norm now new cars with swirly paintwork. Mine was or should I say still is horrendous but I'm happy to sort it myself. I'm glad everything has run smoothly and that JC have been accommodating in at least trying to resolve the issues you've highlighted.
I'm not so sure about the F56 and R53 being similar though. I jump between the two and I think the F56 is so refined it's unbelievable. I think both have their place though and I can see why some folk prefer one over the other.


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[N16SHP]

I'm not so sure about the F56 and R53 being similar though. I jump between the two and I think the F56 is so refined it's unbelievable. I think both have their place though and I can see why some folk prefer one over the other.

I never owned an R53 but drove plenty of them and it has been a while so I will very much trust you're judgement on it. Maybe it's just my time spend 'rolling' around in the Astra company cars that I had so the moment I sit in the F56 it feels like a go-kart again!! (Worth pointing out I never rolled an Astra but it had a fair bit of body roll when going round corners :hand:)

- - - Updated - - -

Took some quick pictures on my mobile when the sun was shining yesterday. As bonkers as it sounds I'm still not 100% sure about the black alloys now I see them in real life but wheels are easily changed if I decide I want something different. Never had black before so wanted to try something new.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1599/24651073272_aa40e023c2_k.jpg

I had to crop this one because my banana hand fingers appeared along the top of this one :)
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1637/24742645466_3c43d70c3e_k.jpg

[KenL]

The car looks fantastic! That colour was one I considered when ordering. I like the black wheels BTW.

I have had my f56 Cooper for 18 months and 23k miles. It has been absolutely fantastic, the best of my 5 MINIs by quite a distance. The 1.5T engine ticks all the boxes for me. Quick enough, with excellent in gear pick up. I average 48mpg in heavy traffic. 55mpg or more is easily obtainable on a run.

- - - Updated - - -

ps I insisted the dealer do nothing to the car except remove the stickers on it for transit. No swirls when I collected it.

[MINI William]

The new car looks great

[EcosseGP]

The car looks brilliant and if you're looking to change to silver wheels I might be able to assist [emoji106]


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[N16SHP]

Thanks for the kind words folks!

Ken, I was the same when Kirsten's CM arrived but that was before I had two kids and enough time to do the prep myself. However, I still didn't expect it to be as bad as it was but it appears we're getting a resolve so fingers crossed.

Getting used to the power delivery now. The Cooper D loner that I had I found very difficult to drive, as in although it was quite well refined, the power still came all in one big lump and unless you were on it, driving it like a nun wasn't really an option. The Cooper is a much smoother delivery and when it hits and 3000rpm you feel the rest of it letting go which is awesome. Driving cars without turbos or superchargers for two years makes you really appreciate them when you get back into one!

[gauldrymini]

...we are getting black alloys on the new Clubbie, and like you have never had black alloys before and wanted a change from silver :popcorn:

[N16SHP]

Well good news folks, got the car back yesterday and I'm pleased to say it's spot on. Had a good look at it last night with an inspection lamp and there is very little to no swirl marks and no sign of any hologram effects which was what really brought my eye to it initially. When I drove back into JC my car was sitting out front and looked amazing sitting on show so it finally brought a proper smile to my face :cool:

Leaving the past in the past, I cannot say a bad word about John Clark Mini with this whole process :thumbs up:. Whether they've listened to feedback or someone higher up has made changes (less likely) they've really up'd there game. Still to experience the service department properly but when we've had Kirsten's CM in for routine work it's been fine.

Finally got my personal plate back on a car for the first time in 2 years so it's nice to see that on the car also. Once the weather picks up I'll start a proper thread in the gallery section.

[Craig]

Great news Neil - ;). Now to enjoy it :)


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[Blueboy]

Great news all round :thumbs up: