Do you know why Land Rover stopped Stornaway Grey? Because they got lots of pressure from the residents of the Hedridean town to change it as it gave the impression that Stornaway was a dull and boring grey place..

Grey has it’s advantages - doesn’t show the dirt or scratches as badly as black or white and it sells better on the used market than black or white which are falling out of favour with used car buyers once more - too many of them around. The LR dealership my RRS has gone to told me - it has everything going for it - most in demand exterior colour and options, best interior colour (Ebony and Lunar), low miles and great condition. They wanted to know why I hadn’t specced the heated steering wheel as that is a really important and in demand option in Scotland! So apart from the heated steering wheel the guys at Grange Garage Barnet did a great job of speccing the car up when they ordered it. I was made a brilliant part-ex valuation by the BMW used car buyer at the Mini Dealers but their in-group LR franchise looked the car over by video link and upped the value! They really want a dull and boring Grey car - they reckon it will sell very quickly. I asked which colours not to have........ White, Black, Montalchino Red, Zanzibar for the exterior are not great for a quick sale up here and Red,Tan or the multi-coloured options (especially the one with the light yellow green sections or white and tan sections) are kiss of death. Must have options up here - pano roof (fixed is preferable to opening), the least fancy 22” wheel designs, gangsta glass, heated steering wheel, 825w audio will all get back their cost on a HSE, forget any other options they will not get back their cost. RSE is desirable but no valuation will give you back the purchase cost for the option. Interesting comment (which I have heard before many times on this forum) - take great care with the options you add to an HSE, if you want to add lots of options then go for an Autobiography instead, it will get you more of your hard earned back come part exchange time.also that different parts of the UK look for different colours and options - I know in London dark coloured and fancy paint finishes are more in demand than they are up here unless they are standard. A heated steering wheel is almost a must have anywhere north of Newcastle - opening pano-roof (if not standard) isn’t popular as there are perceived problems with them in older cars
With the Mini I have loaded it with options - there is only one version of the PHEV as it is but even 4 days in I realize I made two spec errors.......... I have an opening pano-roof, when it is fully open the wind noise and buffeting is incredible, should have stuck with the fixed one as even dropping a window a fraction doesn’t fix the wind noise and I should have ticked the option box for electrically adjusted front seats manual adjustment is such a pain after years and years of owning cars with memory seats......... i’ll Know next time (if their is one!) - i’ve Just finished reading the TG magazine items this month comparing the I-Pace and the Tesla3......... I had a deposit on an I-pace but cancelled it because it was taking so long to get it to market. Now i’ll Be in the right place in 2-3 years time to get one with all the technical issues resolved with luck and at a lower price than is being asked now which by my reckoning is about £10000 more than it should be
But we all know what JLR’s pricing policy is is - maximum price for a heap of unreliable electriconics that take forever to resolve. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Last edited by Tim in Scotland on Tue Jun 19 2018 8:42am. Edited 4 times in total

SRE wrote:

I think Martin will have to set up a new Forum or sub section for those who deserted.
All we need is BC and ADY to link up (not physically) that will be the clown section Tim & Muddy the battery boys for the electrickery bit, and the rest of us can just add a bit as and when

What about those of us returning to the fold SRE  FF 4.4 V8 Soooo looking forward to this bad boy
Ex 2006 RRS SC - garbage
Ex 2016 135i M Sport - dream car
Ex 2003 RS6 Avant - piece of cr*p
Ex 2014 320d X Drive, M Sport Touring - ok I guess
Ex 2007 RRS TDV8 - bloody loved it
EX 2007 FL2 XS - not so bad

More seriously maybe there should be a new section for the RRS PHEV - I think that there probably a lot of members who don’t want to read about problems with finding working charge points or charge points blocked up by those old fashioned ICE RRS’s. For sure the PHEV is going to have a load of different issues to the more conventionally powered cars (that’s one reason why I didn’t buy one! I’m fed up with being a mobile test bed for JLR) 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Its a little warmer here in this Perth and white is a best seller new or used. Gone - 2008 Stornoway Grey RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2009 Buckingham Blue RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2010 Alaska White RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Gone - 2017 Chawton White RRS 5.0 V8 Supercharged
Current - 2010 Java Black RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Current- 2024 RRS P400 SE Dynamic

So 7 days down the road - it is a cracking car, it rides and handles beautifully and when you want to have a blast it will play too - it has a total of 224 horses - 87 of them are electrified the rest are petrol slurpers. The steptronic 6 speed auto has certainly come on a lot since I had the same unit in my 2001 Freelander1 TD4 Auto, very smooth unless you are careless with the kickdown. 0-62mph in 6.2 seconds is Mini’s claim - it feels faster but it could be because I sit a lot lower down. I haven’t noticed The extra weight of the batteries but then I am used to much heavier cars, I think the 150kgs of batteries low down weight (under the rear passenger seat) really helps with the handling. The little 3 pot 1.5 turbo petrol engine is amazingly smooth and quiet until you start to get into the higher revs when it has a nice rasp to the exhaust - managed to accidentally stray into the upper revs overtaking a convoy of caravans the other day. When the drive system goes into boost mode where both the petrol and electric are running at the same time there is a noticeable shove in the back, it is good that Mini/BMW kept the cheeky fun factor in the car and haven’t made it an out and out eco-warrior.
Only real niggle so far is the amount of wind buffeting when the opening section of the panoramic roof is fully open, even lowering the rear windows doesn’t cure it and it is unbearable above about 45mph, you just have to close the roof and turn up the very powerful aircon...... which reduces your electric range noticeably!
So far i’ve only managed to rack up 200 miles since last Friday, the petrol gauge has dropped from full to ¾ tank which means i’ve consumed 9 litres of premium 4* unleaded, more miles have been run in electric mode than petrol - lots more! I’ve had 5 completely free battery charges from about 11% charge to full (takes 2.5hours on a 13 amp domestic Plug ) on my 4kW hr solar array - even on dull days I can charge the car up and still export to the national grid earning me money while I charge up! I’ve charged it once on the timed off peak system programmed into the car and that can also be reset from the Mini Connected smartphone app, I can also change the charge rate either in the car or remotely using the app. My one attempt to use a public charger in a car park was a failure, not because of the car but because the diameter of my charging cable was about 0.5mm too big to allow the EDF charger’s safety plate to close over the cable - it’s there to stop people unplugging your car to plug theirs in (apparrantly it happens, especially with BEV owner’s who think PHEVs should not be allowed near a charging point........). So I reckon that so far i’ve Been getting 65mpg on petrol but it is hard to calculate when the mpg readout still calculates when you are running in fully electric mode......... and not burning a drop of petrol.
Things to improve on - the dash board info screen is awful, not just small but there are 10 or 12 pages to scroll through before you get back to where you started....... maybe there is an mpg display for when you are on petrol only, I really miss the RRS’s Auto Trip setting which I used all the time. The other thing BMW could learn from JLR is the smartphone app. In this car I have no trip histories going back eons, I have the last journey and that’s it. There are heaps of other functions on Mini Connected like being able to plan routes and sending them from the app to the car, being able to access loads and loads of streaming websites from the app and either wirelessly or back cable, send them to the dash and control them from there without having to look at your phone. The satnav can access my contacts and input a contact’s address straight into the satnav to calculate a route. According to the manual I can also read SMS/ Text messages and incoming emails in the big central screen but inhaven’t Figured out how to do it (if it is even permitted in the UK). 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Pleased to hear that you’re enjoying the Countryman. Does the sunroof only have fully open or fully closed positions? Many years ago, I had a Cortina with a manual winding sunroof and it had a serious buffeting problem when fully open but was fine if I closed it by one or two turns - worth a try if yours will stop part way.

Keep up the reports - you’re blazing a trail for those of us waiting for some affordable PHEV and BEV products from JLR!

I can stop it anywhere along the track to fully open - I think the problem is the]at the open ing section slides over the top of the panoramic roof and not into a slot below it. It also tilts to open just the back edge. I’ll give it a try at other positions but others on the Mini2 forum report the same problem with their cars. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

After 13 days I chickened out this afternoon with 9 litres of petrol left in the tank and 1mile range in the HV battery and pulled into the local Sainsbury’s forecourt and put £34 of regular 4* in to fill the tank up to 2nd click of the pump cut off. So the totally unrealistic combined electric and petrol mpg is 66 over the first tank - £34 of petrol and 7kWh of chargeable electricity plus another 56kWh consumed from my solar panels on the house roof. Also the car is continuing to give back more than it costs to run, today a cheque for the balance of the VED from the sale of the RRS. Still have another 71 fill ups until the £2500 cash back from the chancellor is used up!
One thing - the in dash trip computer total average 66.78mpg is spot on with my Fuelly.com average of 66.8mpg - the RRS was nearly 15% out all the time.
I still have a bit to go to catch up with my sister’s year old Honda Jazz 1.4VTEC petrol manual which has averaged 75 mpg over the year...... 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Took the car to be washed today, cost me £20 which is what the same detailers charged me to wash the RRS :
BUT not a single swirl on any piece of gloss plastic trim or the roof rails or the black gloss sill trim below the doors. If they don’t mark on a £31000 Mini how come it happens so easily on a £80,000 RRS or FFRR? 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

£20 isn't too bad, considering the best quick washers at Tesco charge £9 for my Audi

Thats snow foam and TRF wash

Need to get my detailed and start washing it myself

Doesn’t take much foam to snow foam the Mini.
This is at the detailers where I get my cars washed this morning


And back home with the screen shade on as it is another 30c day here and unlike the RRS the Mini’s interior gets like a furnace on sunny days and that causes the HV battery conditioning cooling system to run......... shouldn’t have specced the black roof, should have had the white one or the red one!
 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Hi Tim
I remember a surprising test in the car press, the difference of white to black cars in the hot sun was only 3 degrees.
Maybe worth to check actual tests.
Best
René 2012 RRS HSE SDV6, BOURNVILLE 12/12-10/14
2015 RRS DYNAMIC HYBRID, CAUSEWAY GREY 1/15-7/18
2018 RRS DYNAMIC P400e, BRITISH RACING GREEN 8/18-8/19
2019 RRS DYNAMIC P525, SILICON SILVER 8/19-8/22
2020 RR VOGUE D300, EIGER GREY 9/22-7/24
2025 RR P550e, CHARENTE GREY 8/24-

My wife has a black car and my SC is white. There is a big difference in summer in interior temperatures. We both use screen shades. Gone - 2008 Stornoway Grey RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2009 Buckingham Blue RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2010 Alaska White RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Gone - 2017 Chawton White RRS 5.0 V8 Supercharged
Current - 2010 Java Black RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Current- 2024 RRS P400 SE Dynamic

Yesterday afternoon I compared the in car thermometer with my thermometer in the garden and the one inside the house....... car in the sun 42c, garden thermometer 26c, inside the house 22c all at the same time. I assume that the car’s thermometer is badly affected by radiated heat from the body work. As soon as the sun moved far enough after noon to shade the car on the drive the car thermometer was showing 31c with in an hour of the bonnet being shaded by the garage. I cannot use the garage for the car at the moment because having owned large SUVs that didn’t fit into it I have 30 years worth of accumulated junk to get rid of - including a trailer full of “stuff” and 12 wheels and tyres stacked up....... once they have gone the Mini will fit with room to spare to collect even more junk! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Yesterday I did a run from home to Leith in Edinburgh (no not to see the Royal Yacht but to visit friends who have a flat that has stunning views over Leith Docks, the River Forth and The Royal Yacht.)

The journey involves 17 miles of fast A road driving to the M9 motorway to join at J10 then motorway for 36 miles to J1 Newbridge then cut and thrust city driving on pretty good A roads, the first 3 miles of the mortorway are on a relatively steep incline. Now i’ve got some of the permutations of the drive modes sussed out I left the house in electric mode, leaving the village where I live I switched over to run in Save+Green mode that runs in petrol but also deadens the throttle, makes the car coast when it doesn’t need power and will recuperate (Mini speak for regenerate) energy in freewheel mode. As I switched over to Save mode I reset the trip MPG meter. Having left home with 98% battery charge there wasn’t much regen required to top off the driving battery. I ran with the sunroof in the vent position and the climate control set at 18 to keep the cabin pleasant ( I could set up green mode so that it won’t allow the climate to cool / heat the cabin, but I do like my creature comforts and i’m Not ready for full miser mode of MaxE+Green....... fully electric no petrol back up no a/c mode. Leaving the M9 after a blast on cruise control for 35 miles the mpg meter showed 47mpg - pretty good considering that the petrol engine has only run about 250 miles of the 650 miles racked up so far in total, so it is still tight. Things of note - I pulled out to overtake slower moving traffic and without registering it I was up to 85-90mph with ease - as easily as the RRS SDv6 does it and was surprised that in Green mode it was no slouch on the motorway. So 47mpg on a tight new engine at fast motorway speeds is nothing to whinge about. Also hugely impressive is how smooth and quiet the little 3 cylinder 1.5ltr is and it has bags and bags of torque for a petrol engine, i’m Not joking but this engine makes the SDv6 sound like a rough old tractor (which I know it isn't), there is only any reminder it is running if you really floor the gas pedal and ask it to go to the top of the Rev band which isn’t what an eco -car is really about. Wind noise even with the sun roof opened to the vent position is non-existent, it seems that my initial comments about wind noise from the opening section of the sunroof has cured itself, now there is no noise except a little rattle from the manually moved sun shade in its track. Passing Gogarburn heading into Leith I switched back to electric mode and drove in stop/start rush hour traffic arriving at Leith Docks with just over half the drive battery charge remaining. By the time I left to go home after midnight the temperature outside had dropped from 23 to 13c and the climate control turned the heating on as soon as I started - so it has a PTC heater running off the electrics rather than the engine heat. Out of the city limit I switched back to SaveE+Green modes and set the cruise at 70 for the motorway, I had 1/3rd of the drive battery left - driving north on the M9 there are some long gradual descents and long flat sections, it was nice to watch the drive battery charge state slowly creeping round to the right as the car recovered energy on the down gradients and arriving at J9 I was able to turn off the motorway with >¾’s of the battery Charge again which was enough for me to drive the remaining 17 miles home on the battery and arrive back with the petrol gauge having dropped from 3/4tank to just a whisker under half ( about 9litres of petrol used for the trip) - on the electrical consumption side the Mini Connected app is showing that I am averaging 88.8miles per kWhr total average mpg 43.5 and I recovered 12.4mile/kWhr by regeneration.
Night driving is a breeze too with the LED headlights, they are very powerful on full beam and have a very good beam pattern, so bright that I wanted to dip them for roadsigns........ on dipped beam also a good pattern and plenty of power - I didn’t opt for the auto dipping system on my car - I had them on various RRS’s and Evoques but found them a bit inconsistent in their operation so decided not to bother this time - so far Mini doesn’t offer pixel type headlights, mine are adaptive LED projector type that to look at look like BiXenon projectors.

The “efficiency” meter is showing 4.5/5 stars. I know that doing a really long motorway trip,is not what the car is designed for but it is so quiet and smooth in petrol mode it wouldn’t be a hardship, what would be hard to bear would be having to stop a couple of times to refuel the tiny 36ltr petrol tank. 26miles of electrical range isn’t a lot of use for a long run but I’m Going to give it a try next year when I have a few trips to London coming up and the petrol engine might have loosened up a bit more - 4.5hour Stirling to Kings X 1st class on LNER on the East Coast line though is more appealing than a 10 hour drive, even one made in the RRS! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW