Ekona

Here for sale is our 2009 MINI Cooper S Convertible on 62000 miles with the following spec: Midnight Black metallic paint Red leather and black cloth interior Manual gearbox Fully electric roof in both sunroof and convertible modes Black Star Bullet wheels iPod connection Sport mode (turn on for some fruity noises from the exhaust...!) CD player Rear parking sensors BMW & Specialist Independent service history MOT until June 2016 We're the 3rd owner of this car, purchased from MINI Colchester in July '13. She had 33K on the clock when I picked her up, but looked like a 3K mile car which is what caught our attention in the first place. Since then, she's been used as a daily drive by my wife who is a primary school teacher for the motorway commute, and also for some top-down fun at the weekends. Well, it's too much fun not to borrow the other half's car sometimes! Servicing has been carried out at MINI Rochdale before our ownership, and at MINI Colchester and Braintree Motor Works (our local BMW/MINI specialist). The last service was carried out in June '15, so she won't need anything doing for at least another year. I have also carried out 6 monthly oil changes myself as well, using Mobil 1 oil only. She sits on stunning Black Star Bullet wheels, and the two front tyres are brand new as they were replaced at the recent service. Some Cooper S cars have been known to have chain tensioner issues, and as we noticed the beginning of a slight rattle from that area recently, we had the chain tensioner replaced in June as a precaution. This is a must-have on a car of this year, please check this has been carried out on any car you look at. The car was professionally detailed in November of last year, with a stage 1 paint correction carried out to bring out the very best of the metallic flake in the paint and to remove the vast majority of swirls that are the bane of any black car. The car has been maintained using a combination of Dodo Juice, Swissvax and Envy products, and looks as deep and glossy as you'd hope for. Even the photos uploaded here don't really do the finish justice, when the sun catches it just right the reflection is like a mirror. The car does have finance outstanding on it, and a couple of the wheels could do with a refurb if I'm honest. There are the usual stone chips you expect on a car of this age, however the above maintenance work ensures these are barely visible. The interior is in superb condition, with no rips or tears to the seats at all. We currently have official MINI rubber mats fitted, but we do have the original carpet mats as well which will of course come with the car. As you can tell, we love this car and have spent a lot (both in terms of money and hours) making sure she looks as good as she runs. The only reason for the sale is because my wife has a new job practically within walking distance, and it's not fair to leave a car this good doing nothing during the week. Any inspection is welcome, but test drives only with proof of licence and fully comp insurance please. Any questions or queries welcomed. Thanks for looking

You make it sound like a bad thing!

The market was all about diesel 10 years ago, now it's all turbocharged petrols. The market changes that quickly, and if Tesla can't make their cars get to mass market soon then that's not a sustainable model. As Ilogikal alluded to, if they keep bringing updates out then where's the incentive to buy a car today? I don't really think hydrogen is the future either, I'm just pointing out that the big guns aren't 100% set on elastictrickery as the solution right now. Plunging everything into that is, again, a risky move. We still have in theory 20% increase, rumours of 100kWh batteries etc. What's the real-world range on a P85S, after a couple of full-bore starts in the middle of summer when the AC is on? More power just means more usage of fuel and decreased range, whether that's an M5 or P85S. One of those has dealers in just about every big town across the EU and U.S. and the ability to increase the range in a way that electricity will never be able to manage to in my lifetime, and one has a handful of dealers worldwide with a range that drops significantly the more stuff you turn on. EVs actually make a lot of sense as a city car. As an uberbarge or GT, currently they do not.

Genetics.

What's the biggest issue with EVs? Range and charging times. Solve those, and these things will take off. Musk knows that the cost to do that is huge and unfeasible, so instead he puts money into giving the cars headline performance figures that do nothing except DECREASE the available range if you use them as intended. Drive the headlines, hope to increase sales that way instead of solving the actual engineering problem. Clever marketing. Good piece in CAR this month on BMW's foray into hydrogen powered cars. Just sayin'.

With regards to a Nismo making or not making much power over a stock 370 with an exhaust fitted, let's not forget that the Nismo brand is more about the looks than the actual extra go you get from any add-ons. That's not even me being an arse about it, that's how Nissan themselves describe the Nismo brand these days, hence tagging up Jukes with it. Glad you're happy with the end results though Sipar, always handy to have a bit of extra go

Can a mod not combine all these Tesla/Leaf threads please? Good debate is fine, but we keep treading old ground because it's all over the place.

Very cheap. However, you can get a Picanto/Up!/500/Aygo/Micra for the same £108 a month, which then leaves you £80 a month (£70 for the battery and £10 for electric) to buy fuel for it. Assuming they're for local use and no long trips, I reckon financially you could still be better off not going for the EV option. How does the insurance compare with an ICE car? Genuine question, I've no idea.

And this, ladies and gents, is why storming over and smashing the guy's teeth out would've been a moronic thing to do.

0-60 in under three seconds and all for just £90K wrapped up in a big bodyshell with 4WD is impressive. It's just a shame that the GT-R has been doing that trick for a while now, for £12K less. That buys A LOT of petrol.

Really? I'm not shocked at all, it was a horrendous accident and he was lucky to survive as long as he did. RIP Jules.

True, however that's not what I said.

Good cars always are.

Without stating the obvious or sounding like a parrot, almost certain it's the tyre.

They're a little bit better than what you can buy off eBay But you're right, they're really not very useful at all unless backed up with people on the ground using the mk1 eyeball to confirm.

I'm totally the black guy in that

Drive it like you stole it.

*high five*

I bet the shemale one was your favourite. Filth!

It's impossible to read that without hearing it in Luke's voice. Same as if I tell you that this was written by Morgan Freeman. I bet now you're reading the rest of this, in his voice, with the pauses he leaves. Oh yes.

That's 'cos you're a 'tard who read it wrong

Don't be mis-quoting me, you young ragamuffin!

Even in the day, at a distance it's going to be mighty hard to be sure it's him. Unless he has a green mohican or something, or just the one leg.

DBS? Interesting, likely to be a mobile chicane more than anything but worth it for the noise alone

Bad advice. Even if the footage was good enough to prove it was him, there's no such thing as a 100% win in court. All it takes is to get the wrong person on the wrong day after the night before and you can lose. The camera footage would have to be excellent (as in broadcast quality) to get a win IMHO, I've seen it happen too many times before. The CCTV should act as a deterrent, not as your proof to take him to court. If he scratches it at night, wears a coat, the sun is in the wrong direction etc then that footage will be useless.