2019 Mini Cooper JCW Hatchback F56
Discussion
I thought I would create a thread for my current car and see if there is any interest. I’ve created threads for my previous 2 cars on here over the past few years.
Previous car threads
2016 Ford Focus RS: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
2015 Ford Focus ST Estate (and a few of the cars I had before the ST Estate): https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
My Focus RS was MOT’d in late 2021 and I realized that, mainly due to the COVID lockdown, the car had only done just under 1000 miles since the previous MOT. As 2022 began, I also started to hear a few stories on Facebook and WhatsApp groups about the engines in other Focus RS’s going bang and with no warranty left on mine a bit of the fear crept in. When I approached a local’ish car dealer known for buying RS’s and asked them for a price to buy my car I would have been daft (or, certainly, dafter than normal) if I didn’t bite the hand off the guy with the offer he gave me.
So off went what was, for me, probably the best car I had ever owned. The new owner is on Instagram, we’ve spoken afew times, and he’s made a couple of changes to the RS and plans to make more in the future, so it’s nice to see it being looked after.
Anyway – the purpose of this thread – the MINI. My first car after passing my test in the late 80’s was a MINI, an A-registration brown thing that I managed to forward-roll into a ditch several months into ownership after aquaplaning and losing control at 2am on a cold & very wet December morning, so my previous MINI (or, in this case, Mini) history wasn’t glorious!
I started looking around at what I could replace the RS with, I looked at various things (including a car I WILL own one day – an Audi S8) and a few listings on AutoTrader for MINI JCW’s caught my eye.
The Mrs and I went to see a few, all less than 4 years old, but they were all a bit ‘rough’, unsure if it’s the quality of the materials used on the inside & outside trim that makes them easy to mark or if these cars tend to be bought by people who don’t look after their cars to quite the standard I do, but we eventually went to view this, a 2019 (69-plate) MINI Cooper JCW 3-door automatic hatchback in (I think) Starlight Blue with red roof and red mirror caps that was for sale at George Mackay cars in Edinburgh:
Now here is the best bit – the car was, at this point, 2 and a half years old and it had only done 89 miles. I was told the first owner bought it brand-new from a MINI dealer up in Dundee in September 2019, drove it down the Motorway back to Edinburgh, put it in his garage and then suffered some health issues for the next couple of years and never drove it. It was in, as you would expect, perfect condition.
A deal was done, and on Saturday 19th March 2022 I became the 2nd owner of the MINI.
The Skoda Octavia vRS I owned back in 2011/2012 was an auto (or DSG) but my cars after the Octavia had all been manuals, so it was quite pleasant to be back in an auto again. My wife only drives autos so she can drive this, although she prefers her own Puma.
Spec
The car with a fairly good spec as standard; heated seats, heated windscreen, Apple CarPlay, nav etc but one thing that is missing from the spec of my car (that I wish was there) is the heated steering wheel. My Focus RS had one, my wife’s Puma has one, and I REALLY REALLY wish the MINI had one too.
What’s been done to it
At the date of writing this thread I’ve owned the car for exactly 13 months, I wasn’t planning on doing much to the MINI (I moved into a new house in May last year so had to be sensible with money) but I’ve:
a) Changed the awful run-flat Dunlop tyres for Michelin Pilot Sport 4’s, in 215/40/18 size. I managed to sell the 205/40/18’s on to make a bit of money back though. The sidewall on the PS4’s isn’t as stiff as the runflats so much comfier!
b) I removed the chrome ‘beltline’ around the car and replaced with the proper mini-sourced piano black beltline kit (around £300).
c) I added a piano black petrol cap and door handle covers, these – along with the beltline kit – then matched the piano black trim that was already around the front grille and the front + rear lights.
d) Biggest change – retained the standard stereo but upgraded the under-seat and door card speakers to Audison units, along with an Audison amp and Audison subwoofer in the boot. I also had the standard A-pillar covers changed for the ones with the Harmon Kardon tweeters in them. Work was carried out by Skidz in Falkirk. What a difference.
e) At the same time the audio was being changed I had a front & rear dashcam (Pioneer) fitted.
f) I removed the matt black stripes up each side of the bonnet a couple of weeks ago, I prefer the look of the car without them.
g) I fitted the JCW corner splitters to the front & rear bumpers, I did this myself and wish I’d paid someone, my hands looked like I’d had a 4 hour fight with a herd of cats afterwards!
h) I fitted the ‘stubby’ aerial onto the roof in place of the longer spiral one, and added the red clip-on parts to the front bumper vents to match the red strip above the number plate.
i) Changed the plates over to my private registration number.
Performance, suspension, brakes etc are all standard and almost definitely will be staying that way, I keep toying with the idea of putting some different springs on it but I don’t think I’ll bother, my eye keeps being drawn to Audi S8 listings on AutoTrader and there’s no point modding the car further when there is even a 0.001% chance I’ll be looking to move it on. George Mackay cars, which is where I bought this MINI, had an Audi S8 for sale a few months ago and it was the perfect colour, spec etc but it just wasn’t the right time for me financially unfortunately at the time.
I did buy, though, a few months back, a BimmerCode app and a Veepeak OBD adapter which was worth the money purely to keep the car in Sport mode all the time, allow the mirror fold on lock/unlock function to work, turn off the fake engine sound through the speakers (Acoustic Sound Design) etc.
What’s it like as a Daily?
I work from home so I don’t do a lot of miles in the MINI, if we go anywhere as a family we tend to use the wife’s Puma, so the MINI is mostly used for taking my teenage daughter to and from school. It’s on a limited mileage insurance policy (think it’s 4K miles per year) and in the 13 months I’ve owned it I think I’ve done approximately 3,400 miles.
When I do drive it, it always feels ‘fun’, it is comfortable, has great brakes, has a decent noise without being too loud and annoying, it’s as comfortable cruising on the motorway as it is when chucking it (safely, always safely) around A and B roads. It also feels quick, constantly.
It CAN be a little impractical at times, when my daughter needs her parental taxi service and the wife’s Puma isn’t around then the MINI isn’t the best when her friends decide they need a lift too, and – as already mentioned above – the lack of a heated steering wheel is a minus point for me.
Some more pics:
Previous car threads
2016 Ford Focus RS: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
2015 Ford Focus ST Estate (and a few of the cars I had before the ST Estate): https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
My Focus RS was MOT’d in late 2021 and I realized that, mainly due to the COVID lockdown, the car had only done just under 1000 miles since the previous MOT. As 2022 began, I also started to hear a few stories on Facebook and WhatsApp groups about the engines in other Focus RS’s going bang and with no warranty left on mine a bit of the fear crept in. When I approached a local’ish car dealer known for buying RS’s and asked them for a price to buy my car I would have been daft (or, certainly, dafter than normal) if I didn’t bite the hand off the guy with the offer he gave me.
So off went what was, for me, probably the best car I had ever owned. The new owner is on Instagram, we’ve spoken afew times, and he’s made a couple of changes to the RS and plans to make more in the future, so it’s nice to see it being looked after.
Anyway – the purpose of this thread – the MINI. My first car after passing my test in the late 80’s was a MINI, an A-registration brown thing that I managed to forward-roll into a ditch several months into ownership after aquaplaning and losing control at 2am on a cold & very wet December morning, so my previous MINI (or, in this case, Mini) history wasn’t glorious!
I started looking around at what I could replace the RS with, I looked at various things (including a car I WILL own one day – an Audi S8) and a few listings on AutoTrader for MINI JCW’s caught my eye.
The Mrs and I went to see a few, all less than 4 years old, but they were all a bit ‘rough’, unsure if it’s the quality of the materials used on the inside & outside trim that makes them easy to mark or if these cars tend to be bought by people who don’t look after their cars to quite the standard I do, but we eventually went to view this, a 2019 (69-plate) MINI Cooper JCW 3-door automatic hatchback in (I think) Starlight Blue with red roof and red mirror caps that was for sale at George Mackay cars in Edinburgh:
Now here is the best bit – the car was, at this point, 2 and a half years old and it had only done 89 miles. I was told the first owner bought it brand-new from a MINI dealer up in Dundee in September 2019, drove it down the Motorway back to Edinburgh, put it in his garage and then suffered some health issues for the next couple of years and never drove it. It was in, as you would expect, perfect condition.
A deal was done, and on Saturday 19th March 2022 I became the 2nd owner of the MINI.
The Skoda Octavia vRS I owned back in 2011/2012 was an auto (or DSG) but my cars after the Octavia had all been manuals, so it was quite pleasant to be back in an auto again. My wife only drives autos so she can drive this, although she prefers her own Puma.
Spec
The car with a fairly good spec as standard; heated seats, heated windscreen, Apple CarPlay, nav etc but one thing that is missing from the spec of my car (that I wish was there) is the heated steering wheel. My Focus RS had one, my wife’s Puma has one, and I REALLY REALLY wish the MINI had one too.
What’s been done to it
At the date of writing this thread I’ve owned the car for exactly 13 months, I wasn’t planning on doing much to the MINI (I moved into a new house in May last year so had to be sensible with money) but I’ve:
a) Changed the awful run-flat Dunlop tyres for Michelin Pilot Sport 4’s, in 215/40/18 size. I managed to sell the 205/40/18’s on to make a bit of money back though. The sidewall on the PS4’s isn’t as stiff as the runflats so much comfier!
b) I removed the chrome ‘beltline’ around the car and replaced with the proper mini-sourced piano black beltline kit (around £300).
c) I added a piano black petrol cap and door handle covers, these – along with the beltline kit – then matched the piano black trim that was already around the front grille and the front + rear lights.
d) Biggest change – retained the standard stereo but upgraded the under-seat and door card speakers to Audison units, along with an Audison amp and Audison subwoofer in the boot. I also had the standard A-pillar covers changed for the ones with the Harmon Kardon tweeters in them. Work was carried out by Skidz in Falkirk. What a difference.
e) At the same time the audio was being changed I had a front & rear dashcam (Pioneer) fitted.
f) I removed the matt black stripes up each side of the bonnet a couple of weeks ago, I prefer the look of the car without them.
g) I fitted the JCW corner splitters to the front & rear bumpers, I did this myself and wish I’d paid someone, my hands looked like I’d had a 4 hour fight with a herd of cats afterwards!
h) I fitted the ‘stubby’ aerial onto the roof in place of the longer spiral one, and added the red clip-on parts to the front bumper vents to match the red strip above the number plate.
i) Changed the plates over to my private registration number.
Performance, suspension, brakes etc are all standard and almost definitely will be staying that way, I keep toying with the idea of putting some different springs on it but I don’t think I’ll bother, my eye keeps being drawn to Audi S8 listings on AutoTrader and there’s no point modding the car further when there is even a 0.001% chance I’ll be looking to move it on. George Mackay cars, which is where I bought this MINI, had an Audi S8 for sale a few months ago and it was the perfect colour, spec etc but it just wasn’t the right time for me financially unfortunately at the time.
I did buy, though, a few months back, a BimmerCode app and a Veepeak OBD adapter which was worth the money purely to keep the car in Sport mode all the time, allow the mirror fold on lock/unlock function to work, turn off the fake engine sound through the speakers (Acoustic Sound Design) etc.
What’s it like as a Daily?
I work from home so I don’t do a lot of miles in the MINI, if we go anywhere as a family we tend to use the wife’s Puma, so the MINI is mostly used for taking my teenage daughter to and from school. It’s on a limited mileage insurance policy (think it’s 4K miles per year) and in the 13 months I’ve owned it I think I’ve done approximately 3,400 miles.
When I do drive it, it always feels ‘fun’, it is comfortable, has great brakes, has a decent noise without being too loud and annoying, it’s as comfortable cruising on the motorway as it is when chucking it (safely, always safely) around A and B roads. It also feels quick, constantly.
It CAN be a little impractical at times, when my daughter needs her parental taxi service and the wife’s Puma isn’t around then the MINI isn’t the best when her friends decide they need a lift too, and – as already mentioned above – the lack of a heated steering wheel is a minus point for me.
Some more pics:
Edited by oobster on Wednesday 19th April 21:17
t.
oobster said:
tvrfan007 said:
Why not just fit the steering wheel?
I'm not sure it's possible. I've looked on various MINI forums and no-one seems to have retrofitted a heated steering wheel. I'm not sure the red roof works for me but I love that blue, and often fancied a jcw. Hoon it whilst things like this are still an option!
I found https://www.minif56.com/ had some pretty knowledgeable people. Might be worth a look if you’ve not tried already.
Lovely looking car! Shame it’s not in the best colour which is BRG of course 
The most active groups I’ve seen for these are on Facebook. There’s a general one called ‘Mini Owners Club UK’ which has a bit of everything in there and then there’s ‘F56 Owners UK’ which has been quite helpful and seems to be full of decent people.
The most active groups I’ve seen for these are on Facebook. There’s a general one called ‘Mini Owners Club UK’ which has a bit of everything in there and then there’s ‘F56 Owners UK’ which has been quite helpful and seems to be full of decent people.
Yea I am a member of quite a few facebook groups and also on mini56.com, there doesn't seem to be any content regarding swapping a standard steering wheel for a heated one.
I also fitted the shaped ppf film to the inside of the b-pillars on my MINI, I did see on various fb groups other owners posting pics of the paint rubbing away and the exposed metal rusting due to the rubber on the edge of door rubbing against the pillar.
I also fitted the shaped ppf film to the inside of the b-pillars on my MINI, I did see on various fb groups other owners posting pics of the paint rubbing away and the exposed metal rusting due to the rubber on the edge of door rubbing against the pillar.
Cracking looking car, quite an unusual colour too. Very nice.
You must be in the same vicinity to me if you used Skidz, they have a good reputation. I’m not really into audio these days, but was a bit miffed that the HK system had been discontinued on the new cars.
My other car is an S5 Sportback, it’s fantastic. I’m sure when the S8 dream is realised you won’t be disappointed!
You must be in the same vicinity to me if you used Skidz, they have a good reputation. I’m not really into audio these days, but was a bit miffed that the HK system had been discontinued on the new cars.
My other car is an S5 Sportback, it’s fantastic. I’m sure when the S8 dream is realised you won’t be disappointed!
North American motoring is a better forum for mini’s, all of the Uk ones have headed towards book of face
As for the retro fit, you will need to upgrade to the current steering wheel…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QID_MCy6pE
If the video doesn’t show just search for it on YouTube.
As for the retro fit, you will need to upgrade to the current steering wheel…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QID_MCy6pE
If the video doesn’t show just search for it on YouTube.
stevemcs said:
North American motoring is a better forum for mini’s, all of the Uk ones have headed towards book of face
As for the retro fit, you will need to upgrade to the current steering wheel…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QID_MCy6pE
If the video doesn’t show just search for it on YouTube.
Thanks for that steve, i'll watch that YouTube video tomorrow As for the retro fit, you will need to upgrade to the current steering wheel…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QID_MCy6pE
If the video doesn’t show just search for it on YouTube.
Nelka said:
Cracking looking car, quite an unusual colour too. Very nice.
You must be in the same vicinity to me if you used Skidz, they have a good reputation. I’m not really into audio these days, but was a bit miffed that the HK system had been discontinued on the new cars.
My other car is an S5 Sportback, it’s fantastic. I’m sure when the S8 dream is realised you won’t be disappointed!
Not sure if you’ve seen but you can get the HK system on a new car at the moment.You must be in the same vicinity to me if you used Skidz, they have a good reputation. I’m not really into audio these days, but was a bit miffed that the HK system had been discontinued on the new cars.
My other car is an S5 Sportback, it’s fantastic. I’m sure when the S8 dream is realised you won’t be disappointed!
Anyway OP, nice car
They are fun things to tool around I - agreed - enjoy it on the way to your S8
My MINI just ticked over 5000 miles today. It's due it's 2nd MOT in a month, so nearly 4 years old now.
I had to travel down from central Scotland to Cheshire last week for a work trip so decided to take the MINI, I was a bit concerned how comfortable it would be on a long'ish trip (230 miles each way) but turns out my concern was unfounded, it was absolutely fine.
One annoying thing though, my indicator stalk doesn't self-cancel when I straighten the steering wheel after a left indication.
Decided to give the MINI a thorough clean and polish/wax at the weekend, the front end was covered in dead bugs:
I'm not currently planning on doing anything further to the car, I've thought about - and then dismissed - adding some 10mm or 15mm spacers, I got a quote from the guy on the Youtube video (linked above) for the heated steering wheel and it was 1500 euros which I think is OTT so I'll go the cheaper option of a pair of wooly gloves when the winter comes around
I had to travel down from central Scotland to Cheshire last week for a work trip so decided to take the MINI, I was a bit concerned how comfortable it would be on a long'ish trip (230 miles each way) but turns out my concern was unfounded, it was absolutely fine.
One annoying thing though, my indicator stalk doesn't self-cancel when I straighten the steering wheel after a left indication.
Decided to give the MINI a thorough clean and polish/wax at the weekend, the front end was covered in dead bugs:
I'm not currently planning on doing anything further to the car, I've thought about - and then dismissed - adding some 10mm or 15mm spacers, I got a quote from the guy on the Youtube video (linked above) for the heated steering wheel and it was 1500 euros which I think is OTT so I'll go the cheaper option of a pair of wooly gloves when the winter comes around
Nelka said:
What made you decide against the spacers? (been thinking about them myself)
Purely due to being unsure if they’d be a waste of money by making the handling worse. If I did put spacers on then it would be purely for aesthetic reasons and I’d rather the car has the current handling characteristics and forgo the ‘look’ being improved. Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff