A Car Salesman without a Demo – What?!

The time came mid last year to hand back the key to the company car and buy my own…

The company I was working for at the time was rumoured to get taken over and I could see this not ending well for me! So I decided to bite the bullet and find myself a motor just in case the inevitable happened. This didn’t leave me long though and at the time, not a great deal of money to play with. I didn’t want to buy a shitty cheap PX that one of our sister sites had brought in, as knew that wouldn’t satisfy my needs since I would be handing back the keys to a FK2 Type R! Gutted!

We had sold an Audi A1 diesel for £9,995 on a 2 year PCP scheme and the guaranteed future value was nearly £8,000… £2,000 depreciation in 2 years! (That car will be being handed back at the end of the term – massive over-predicted valuation by the finance company there.)

I needed this sort of PCP win.

I had about given up on this idea, as all our nice stock were the likes of Range Rovers, A6, GTDs and a stunning 535 M Sport; all just too expensive for me. I had about decided on a much older Clio 197 and to take out a 5 year HP deal just to give me a cheap monthly figure. The car was good though, 1 owner, stacks of service history and in mint condition but there was always that niggling doubt… it’s French!

My colleague (who was hanging his nose over this classic Boxster – which he should have bought) had sold a GTD and gone out to deliver the car and was coming back in the part exchange – a Mini Coupe Cooper S.

Walking back into the Showroom, before telling me how it had all gone and even before putting the kettle on, he threw me the keys and said ‘you need to take that out – it’s fucking awesome.’

Don’t need to ask me twice! To be fair, between us we did try and drive every car that came in as we needed to know if they required any work or binning off into the trade – but mostly because who wouldn’t drive a whole host of premium cars if they could? 😀😜

Trade plates were already in the Cooper S so I was in and off. At this point I should tell you – I’m not a big fan of the Mini hatch, I find them a little bland and uninspiring but the Coupe… the Coupe has something about it!

Wasn’t long before I was on the country roads out into the Peak District to see what this little thing could do!

Back in the showroom after half an hour of fun, cut short mainly because I had forgotten to pick up my fuel card!

Coffee in hand and chatting about how good this car was, I logged on and set about comparing finance quotes… 5 mins later , approved on a 4 year deal for £90 a month – couldn’t believe my luck. This little pocket rocket was now mine, happy days.

Now to start calling in the favours, managed to get it through the workshop for free, 2 alloys wheel repairs booked to another car and the valet boys were more than happy to spend a little longer on this for me.

So the day came, the take over… yes, didn’t end well so had the Mini to play with, whilst looking for another job.

So what had I actually bought – Mini seem to have a infinite amount of extras that can be bolted on both in the factory and at the dealer. Now I’m no expert with these by a long stretch, but the basics are no different to most; options like leather, upgrade wheels, nav and Bluetooth are a must.

My car hasn’t got all these options but enough for me.

Mini Coupe Cooper S with air con, leather, upgrade black alloys, stripes and the all important Chilli Pack – to this day I still don’t know what that is!

2012 on a 12 plate, only 32k and full Mini Service History. 2 owners: the dealer and the lady who now drives a red GTD.

All for £90 a month – bargain.

I absolutely love this little car, it’s happy in traffic, no heavy clutch – get it on the open road and it brings a smile to your face and hit a slip road and aim for the outside lane hitting the red line and you will be there very very quickly… surprising really.

Pressing the Sport button weights the steering (bit pointless as it feels good anyway) and makes the exhaust pop when you let off the throttle! Like that! Like that a lot. 😀

Inside is a nice place to be, a bit dark as the roof lining is black, but I actually like that. Everything is to hand and neatly prepared. The huge speedo in the middle of the console is very nostalgic but totally pointless as it has a small digital speedo right in front of you. As the roof line on the Coupe has been drastically lowered compared to a normal hatch, there still seems a great amount of headroom even for me at 6ft 1. The boot is huge and can swallow a set of golf clubs easily (even my mates 1 Series can’t do that!)

There are however a few down sides (as to most cars) not huge but are niggles.

The plastic interior is a bit much. Could have done with some soft touch materials here and there. The 2 rear parcel shelves rattle like fuck and I hate rattles in a car! This is an ongoing fix for me but reading the forums, it is a inherent fault with them all.

The ride is firm, very firm but this doesn’t bother me a great deal as I have no spine or teeth left from running the Civic Type R for 2 years!

Rear visibility is pretty poor but you soon get used to it as the car isn’t exactly huge.

It’s kind of nice actually, having a car of my own. I get to tinker about with it (not that it needs much.)

I have fitted an ‘S’ badge to the front grill. Hunted for a central armrest as missed not having one and playing with the idea of a re-map and a trip to the Nurburgring.

Would I buy another? Yeah I probably would – one with nav, Bluetooth and possibly the more powerful John Cooper Works but for the extra money over what I’ve got, I will be keeping this one for the foreseeable future.