[BlackPearl]

Congratulations turbowhistle on your Mini Cooper S! I had been waiting for this ownership thread from the time you had posted about your acquisition on my thread. The car looks in fantastic nick and the first picture is epic. How did you click it? You too bought the first car you saw!

Originally Posted by turbowhistle

I read blackpearl's review of his 2006 Cooper atleast 10-15 times

Thanks for this, I am happy that my thread was of some use Unfortunately I have not driven my Mini Cooper even a thousand mile in a year after getting the Range Rover. But I can't let it go as the Mini brings a smile every time I take it out even for a 2 mile drive to the local market!

[turbowhistle]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Congratulations turbowhistle on your Mini Cooper S! I had been waiting for this ownership thread from the time you had posted about your acquisition on my thread. The car looks in fantastic nick and the first picture is epic. How did you click it? You too bought the first car you saw!

Thank you again BlackPearl, we got lucky with that photo honestly. My apartment's window is just above the parking entrance and one day while entering the parking I was talking with my wife on phone. She saw the car and asked me to stay put for few seconds. I just turned on cabin lights and voila! We clicked only one photo and that's about it. I must give credit to the wife and iPhone 11 pro though, I just sat there hoping for a decent photo

Thanks for this, I am happy that my thread was of some use Unfortunately I have not driven my Mini Cooper even a thousand mile in a year after getting the Range Rover. But I can't let it go as the Mini brings a smile every time I take it out even for a 2 mile drive to the local market!

I might follow your footsteps again since we know Mini won't be a permanent solution for our needs. I have casually started looking at Wagons and might pick up one at the end of 2021. Since my wife is not so keen on Driving and parking costs are exorbitant here ( I can get a small hatchback on lease/EMI for the same cost ), we might have to let it go. Till then I am going to much the miles, so many places to cover in Europe.

[turbowhistle]

Update

I plan to update this thread regularly so it will be useful for someone to understand what to expect if they are planning to get a 10 year old German.

When I bought the car, I had just taken a long test drive and did not have much time to get it inspected at Mini. So I decided to get just the oil change done and run the car for few months to figure out what all needs attention.

First thing was Winter/All Season tyres as my car had summer tyre and it was mandatory to change before November. I decided to get all season tyres as I did not want to buy steel rimes and keep a set in storage throughout the year. Got a nice deal on Hankook All Season tyres so got them delivered at home and assembled at a later date. Cost including assembly was around 40K which is expected and I don’t have to worry about tyres till I sell the car.

I had a suspicion that the car was leaking coolant while driving as my coolant tank got empty after driving around for 1500 km. So decided to get it checked, as it was a weekend and I could not get an appointment at my usual place so called up a small garage near my place and he was happy to help. The issue was a cracked thermostat housing which is a very common issue on these engines and the car was ready in one day. He was kind enough to fix my rear indicator bulb also. The part cost around 10k but the labour is expensive here so I parted ways with 35k while taking the car back.

He had a nice garage I must say.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by turbowhistle

First thing was Winter/All Season tyres as my car had summer tyre Got a nice deal on Hankook All Season tyres

Sorry to disappoint you but Hankook are really bad. Almost all of the guys on our local Mini Group here in North have changed to Michelin or Conti. Most of the Mini's originally come with Hankook in India.

I am not sure about the real world feedback of the all season tyres, here in Alberta, we either have winter or summer tyres. All weather/ season are neither here or there. Hope you have a much milder winter

[turbowhistle]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Sorry to disappoint you but Hankook are really bad. Almost all of the guys on our local Mini Group here in North have changed to Michelin or Conti. Most of the Mini's originally come with Hankook in India.

I am not sure about the real world feedback of the all season tyres, here in Alberta, we either have winter or summer tyres. All weather/ season are neither here or there. Hope you have a much milder winter

No worries at all, it was a conscious decision for Hankook. My car came with same tyres and since I was okay with the ride and tyre noise so decided to get them. They are much cheaper than Conti/Michelin as well.

Winter in Berlin is really mild when you compare it to Canada . It rarely snows here and my colleague has been using all season tyres for few years here now without issues. Since I am going to keep the car for max 2 years, it did not make sense to invest more money into getting rims with tyres. I just have to be careful when I travel south.

[turbowhistle]

Since Germany is under partial lockdown, there are very few things to do on weekends apart from Netflix. So we decided to take an impromptu trip to Magdeburg town which is around 170 km from Berlin. It's a small town with most attractions nearby which gave us opportunity to park the car and walk around everywhere. Given it was a Sunday, even the center was secluded and everything was closed apart from takeaway. Was a good exercise to stretch Mini's legs as I can't exceed 50kmph in city limits.

I was also curious to try my iPhone 12 pro and the photos did not disappoint.

On a random bio-break!


Felt great to park in center of the city, tough task in Berlin these days.


Some typical tourist photos