# Our New Cooper (UK)



## Andrew*Debbie (Jul 2, 2004)

We drove home our new Cooper yesterday.

Here are a few quick photos I took from the dealer. Not much time for photos as we were trying to get home ahead of the weather.

I'll post more when the weather improves. UK Minis are a little different than the ones in the US. So is buying a car here. If there is any interest, I'll talk about the differences.


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## jkp1187 (Jul 2, 2008)

Looks nice - please share the details.


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## Andrew*Debbie (Jul 2, 2004)

jkp1187 said:


> Looks nice - please share the details.


There are a lot of small differences between the US and the UK version of the car. I'll cover what I know in several installments. Too much to cover for a single post.

The options are packaged differently here. The UK base car has far fewer standard items. Even air conditioning was an option. Also there are a few options available here that are not available in the US.

Here is the configuration and prices for our car:

MF32 Mini Cooper 1.6 £12,530
A63 Lightning Blue 295
FKE1 Cloth/Leather Ray Carbon Black 0.00 (part of package)

Options:

872 CHILI Pack:

255 Sport Leather Steering Wheel
2RG 16" Bridge Spoke Alloys 70.00
325 Rear Spoiler
423 Floor Mats
450 Passenger seat hight Adj.
481 Sport Seats
493 Storage Compartment pack
520 Front Fog Lights
530 Manual Air conditioning
550 On Board Computer
563 Interior Light Pack
763 2nd Remote Key

249 Multifunction for S/ Wheel £165.00
327 White Bonnet Stripes 60.00
346 Chrome Line Exterior 0.00 (part of chili pack)
382 Roof and Mirror Caps in White 0.00
4A7 Color Line Dark Grey 0.00 (part of Chili Pack)
4AU Additional Decor Rings 0.00 (part of Chili Pack)
4BF Interior Trim Brushed Alloy 155.00
785 White Indicator Lenses 50.00

Special Allowance -£970.00 (discount)

Dealer Added items:

Number Plates 25.00
Delivery Charge 420.00
Fuel 46.00 (yes £46.00 for a tank of fuel)
TLC 185.00 (Service for 3 years. Unlike the US we have to pay for service)
12 Months Vehicle Excise Duty, Band C 120.00
Vehicle First Registration Fee 55.00

TOTAL, On the road 15,181.00

Road tax in the UK is based on the car's CO2 emissions. The MINI is at the low end of the scale and pays relatively little. The MINI Diesel is in Band B and only pays £35/year for road tax. Still £120/year isn't too bad in tax happy Britain

More to follow...


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## Andrew*Debbie (Jul 2, 2004)

*100% Options*

While the base UK Mini has fewer goodies on it than a Base US Mini, there are a few 100% options on the UK version that are not available in the US. I'm not sure what all of them are but I did notice a few.

The side view mirrors are different here. The glass has two different curvatures. Imagine if the mirror said Objects in mirror are much closer | slightly closer than they appear. In practice it works well. You get a larger field of view and a smaller blind spot.


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## AzNMpower32 (Oct 23, 2005)

Yeah, those mirrors are popular in the EU and I really liked them. I'm trying to getting those on my X3 (shipment was lost  ) in the future. Here a picture of them on a 1er.










So, what's different about buying a car in the UK? I suppose folks order their cars as opposed to picking them off the lot? How do you test drive anything then?


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## Andrew*Debbie (Jul 2, 2004)

Looks like the line is less obvious on the BMW mirror than on the MINI.



> I suppose folks order their cars as opposed to picking them off the lot?


That varies by brand. For most of the European cars, yes. The local Peugeot, BMW and MINI dealers only have a handful of new cars in stock and those are inside the showroom. The lot at the Ford dealer looks more American. MINI and Peugeot dealers have access to a selection of cars in national storage. This may only be due to the current slowdown.

For MINI, there is an incentive to buy unsold cars sitting in storage or dealer stock. According to the sales people we worked with, even with the incentives (and the shorter wait) more customers order a MINI rather than take one already built.



> How do you test drive anything then?


Dealers have a demonstration unit. Everyone test drives the same car. When the demo car gets to a couple of thousand miles it is sold and a new car takes its place. People here won't accept a new car if it has more than delivery milage on it. New cars in dealer stock do not go out for test drives.



> So, what's different about buying a car in the UK?


A lot of little details. Finance is similar but not the same. Hire Purchase is similar to a traditional new car loan in the US. Biggest difference is if you miss a payment, the finance company can repossess the car, leaving you with nothing. "Lease purchase" is like traditional finance with a ballon payment at the end. It isn't like a US lease at all. Personal Contract Plan is like a lease purchase, but with an option to return the car at the ballon price. Effectively it works like a US lease with a few differences. There are ways to get out from the contract with no penalty once you've made most of the payments. In our case we can walk away anytime after payment 29.

Credit ratings work differently here. We will never have a perfect credit score because we can't register to vote!

It is impossible to walk into a dealer on a Saturday and drive home with a new car. 
Best possible time line for a MINI in dealer stock:
Saturday: Sign offer sheet. Apply for credit. Leave £500-£1000 deposit.
Monday: Credit Approval. Usually takes longer. First time around it took 4 days days. However we were already approved from the one that fell though so it went faster.
Tuesday: Dealer assigns number plates to car. Customers get to choose from about 10 available numbers. We passed on DA58 FUG.
Tuesday: Shop for insurance. You can't get insurance without the reg number.

Wednesday: Insurance documents to get to dealer. The first time around Norwich Union took 3 weeks to get the insurance certificate. This time we went with MINI Cover and they got the paper work to the dealer next day.

Dealer PDI's the car if it isn't one sitting in the showroom.

Thursday: Go in and sign the loan docs. Dealer can now tax the car. The MINI dealer here in North Wales won't tax the car same day. They gather up a couple of days worth of sales and then make a single trip to get the tax discs. One of the reasons we switched to a different dealer.

Once the car is taxed, you can drive off.

Most people take two Saturdays to get a car. One to sign all the forms and then the second one to take delivery.


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## brkf (May 26, 2003)

Sweet. You'll love it!


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## Andrew*Debbie (Jul 2, 2004)

*More differences*

Looking down at the center console ahead of the gear shift, there are several small differences between the US and UK Cooper. One seemingly small one is a not so small.

Cigarette Lighter and Ashtray are an option here. 
The Sport Button is a £95.00 option.
DSC and ASC+T are now standard in the UK.

The middle button is blank on a US spec car. Here it turns off the Automatic Stop-Start.

It works like this. Drive forward. Shift to neutral. Release the clutch. When the car stops moving, the engine shuts down. Put in the clutch and the engine starts back up. 
The blower fan slows down so you don't get hit with a blast of unconditioned air. Along with the rest of the package, the Euro Mini is effectively a hybrid without the booster motor. It has all of the advantages without the insane costs of the booster motor and battery pack. In real driving, the Cooper Diesel sold here uses less fuel than a Prius.

First thumbnail is our car. No lighter, ashtray or sport button. On the right is a car with a US market set up. Our car doesn't have the chrome line interior. While it is an option in both markets, ours is the first Mini I've seen without it. We think the standard trim rings look better with the brushed alloy surfaces.


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## AzNMpower32 (Oct 23, 2005)

You're bringing back memories of that 118i hatch we drove in D. last summer. I loved the EfficientDynamics programme that BMW has on its models........except in the United States of Americaland. One of the many phrases I had to say about the 118i was "It's a hybrid with all of the advantages and none of the drawbacks."


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## javelina1 (Apr 1, 2006)

Very nice MINI. congrats! you'll love it.


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## Andrew*Debbie (Jul 2, 2004)

AzNMpower32 said:


> "It's a hybrid with all of the advantages and none of the drawbacks."


40MPG on our first tank of petrol. Can't wait to see how it does in a few thousand miles.

a/


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