Hi everyone,

Long time lurker here!
Finally got my JCW 6MT last week. Ticked nearly every customisable option sold in the USA (e.g. couldn't get heated windshield or that fancy SOS stuff w/ the embedded SIM card).

It's truly the car I've always wanted, and judging by the first several awesome days of ownership, I plan on keeping this guy for quite a while

Coming from an R56 Mini Cooper S—which I loved OH SO MUCH—this JCW is insanely fast and frankly took a couple of days to learn how to wrangle. The new car has so many new techno features that I'd swear two different companies made the cars. That's how much more advanced the F56 is to me, and I love it.

I won't bore you all with walls of text as a review, so I'll try to bucket out some points with short explanations:


[THE GOOD]
— Handling:
Holy crap. Test drove a JCW with dynamic dampers first before buying. Decided to get the sports suspension instead on mine, since I could feel unwanted body roll even in sport with the DDC model on twisty on-ramps.
I was afraid that this car would suffer from similar body roll because of its added size as compared to the R56, but nope. The sports suspension entirely removed the roll, AND even with 18" wheels, the car handles bumps and holes on/in the road leagues better than my R56 w/ 17" (both using runflats). I am truly impressed and even more so relieved.

You can throw this car into corners. When you exit, you find the car asking, "Really? Is that all you've got?"


— Technology:
This car is crammed with technological options that, at this point, everyone's pretty much aware of. The one thing that really stands out to me is the Assisted Driving feature. For example, the car has a camera-based adaptive cruise control feature that makes driving on highways hilariously simple. I tell my FJCW to "follow that car", and it does an excellent job matching its speed. Granted, in my area during rush hour, the feature isn't as useful because of how people drive; but on weekend drives on the highway, it's great.

The biggest, most welcomed change is the distance at which the key/remote works. On my R56, I basically had to be within farting distance of the car to unlock it. On my F56, the remote range is so much farther that it makes the remote actually useful. In addition to that, comfort access works much faster and more reliably.
You can also close the windows on the car w/o any necessary recoding with the comfort access button. Huzzah.

— Start/stop makes total sense to me on a manual, unlike the automatic. I found myself trying to let go of the brake whilst the automatic was "stalled" only to find the car to come back to life as I barely removed my foot from the brake. With the 6MT, after the car "stalls", the only thing that'll turn it back on is a quick tap of the clutch. I've read about some people not being satisfied with the behaviour of the start/stop feature on manual transmissions, but I can say that I love it and use it all the time—even in sport mode. So far, no hiccups either with system failures.

— Rear leg "room": The car's got actually usable rear seats! I'm of average height, and finally someone can sit behind me whilst I'm driving!
— The sound is amazing: when the car starts and if it's warm, it makes a lovely growl with some subsequent burbles that are to die for.
— The sound system is actually better than my R56. Why? Especially because not a single speaker rattles ... unlike the R56. (I had to wedge a folded McDonald's receipt in between the door speaker housings to muffle some of the rattle on the R56)
— The FJCW actually gets better fuel economy than my R56 (at least the way I drove the R56). Green mode is kind of a downer, but when you want to restrain yourself, it's a good option. (I actually stalled during a soft launch in Green Mode lol)



[THE MEH]
— The clutch pedal is SO heavy: it's like working out every time you shift the car. My R56 was like this and after a clutch change, everything was light as I expected.
— It appears that my gas tank / petrol reservoir has a significantly less capacity the R56. I get better fuel economy on my JCW ironically, but I'm stopping to refuel more frequently grr.
— The park-distance-control beeping makes me want to strangle a puppy: there's no way for me to bring the sound down to basically one tick above mute, which is how I prefer it. Yes car, I've got a backup camera, I can SEE what you're freaking out about ... so stfu please.

— The mirrors on my car squeaked after applying a protective coating to my paint and plastic. A bit of teflon lubricant however cleared that up (so far).

— The cornering lights, I'm not quite sure if I like them yet. The older R56 had adaptive headlights, which I thought were the best things ever. The spread on the LEDs is much wider, so the articulating projectors might not necessarily be ... necessary. Bendy roads still seem darker to me without the adaptive lights though. Maybe it's placebo.


[THE BAD]
— Comfort access will unlock the car if you manually opened the driver's side door. You have to cycle through the lock states if you refuse to use the powered locks when exiting. This appears to be not only avoidable but hilarious that they let something like this through :(

— The clutch's bite-point appears to be about 1 inch off the ground, which is took a lot of effort to get used to. I'm still not comfortable driving it to be honest.



Overall, the car is AMAZING and I really love him. Yes there are a couple of quirks from day one, but nothing out of expectation to be honest. I'm pretty sure the bite-point of the clutch will rise over time to a more comfortable position (or I'll just get used to it *shrugs*).



Cheers everyone!

[RANDOM PHOTOS]

 

Well damn - I keep telling myself my NEXT car will be the 340I or 435 GC i've been wanting - but then I see posts like this

GREAT write up and beautiful car - congrats

 

Congrats. The best part of that car from a multi-time MINI owner is the seats. We have yet to see a car with the 'pop tart' info display like you have. Do you like it?

 

Welcome and Congrats! That's a really great color combo inside and out. Thanks for the comprehensive review, and it's an added bonus you have the perspective of coming from an R56...and a BRZ it appears


As a fellow manual trans JCW owner, I can assure you that the clutch pedal will feel more natural as the clutch breaks in fully over the next 1500 miles or so. Mine also started with the engagement point just off the floor, and has shifted to more in the middle, with a slightly wider engagement point as well. I personally find the clutch pedal refreshingly light, but that's likely because my other car has a 6-puck ceramic race clutch in it.


Cheers,
Ryan

 

so did it cost as much as a well equiped BMW 2 series ?

 

228i coupe with every possible package/option box clicked is over $51k.

 

Thanks man!

Hehe, the pop tart display (the HUD) is actually pretty cool. It shows you your RPMs to the nearest 1,000 (on the JCW model), so that's kind of cool since the RPM gauge is sort of ... on its side to the left of the speedo.
It's great for showing you the current speed, since I couldn't find a way to make it appear on the instrument cluster simultaneously with instantaneous fuel economy like on my R56 (well, the R56 had a dedicated LED display for the digital speed reading).

Though I tend to use the navigation apps bundled with my mobile phone, when using BMWs navigation (which is pretty .. great actually), the HUD also shows you navigation directions in addition to lane guidance, which was pretty cool too.

Lastly, you can scroll through the active playlist (I've got a Bluetooth connected iPhone using Music.app for my playlists) and change the song via the HUD using the integrated controls on the steering wheel. I'm pretty sure the instrument cluster does this on cars w/o the HUD.

Long story short, it's nice, but really not necessary. It's a lot safer to glance at the HUD than the instrument cluster, since the road still remains in my field of vision. I'd recommend it for people who want a fancy gadget or who are concerned with safety.

Hearing this makes me happy. Just over the past couple of days, I've noticed the bite point moving up little by little to where it was on my R56.

This one was about $46,000 with tax, fees, and miscellaneous pennies here and there.

You've got a good point, and I did totally consider getting a 2 series, but with TONS of BMWs around the area, I wanted something with a little bit more soul and spunk

The M235i looks so sexy with the M Performance parts. Even after a test drive of the M235i w/ an auto transmission, the car still drove too much like a sedan for my tastes. Nothing wrong with it! Just still a _little_ too big for me.

So I stuck with the Mini :D

 

This one was about $46,000 with tax, fees, and miscellaneous pennies here and there.

You've got a good point, and I did totally consider getting a 2 series, but with TONS of BMWs around the area, I wanted something with a little bit more soul and spunk

The M235i looks so sexy with the M Performance parts. Even after a test drive of the M235i w/ an auto transmission, the car still drove too much like a sedan for my tastes. Nothing wrong with it! Just still a _little_ too big for me.

So I stuck with the Mini :D[/QUOTE]

I have a clubman and the new clubman is about 7" shorter then the 235I BUT the new clubman is 1" FATTER and 1" taller and the fact I can get a 6cyl twin turbo 2 series it's got me leaning more to the BMW than the new clubman since they ruined it by making it a 4 door sedan. I think I will be crossing the street for my next car. Such a shame they could take such a fun good looking car like the MINI clubman and ruin it.

 

I want a 2 series active tourer but BMWUSA in its usual wisdom says Americans can't have them.

 

I also considered the 2 series before getting my JCW but it was too big and sedan like.

 

Welcome to NAM, officially. Congratulations. I really dig that color. Glad you're enjoying it so far.

 

See, that's the right way to do the satellite grey interior - panels, seats, and color line. Nice build!

You think the clutch is too heavy, though? Damn...

Here I am thinking the F56 clutches are way too light.

 

I'm hoping that Teleservices (that SIM card thing) can be added later. The parts are available to PURCHASE in the USA, but the system isn't set up for MINI (only for BMW).