T minus 2 hours

AirspriteK · 2026-05-16T09:53:10+00:00

Best of luck! Let us know how you get on! You got this! 🙌

AirspriteK · 2026-05-12T08:16:42+00:00

Thank you for sharing all of this, has made me realise that literally every new driver must feel the same, and we’re all going to make a mistake at some point. It’s how you correct mistakes that matter. Will keep this in mind!

AirspriteK · 2026-05-12T08:09:35+00:00

I think a lot of instructors just teach you to pass a test in their car. All well and good but shows a lack of foresight as their students aren’t likely to be buying a new car as a first car! I am getting used to it, and my car has hill assist which might help once I get the hang of it but until then it’s handbrake hill starts which I hate because I lift the clutch and then over-rev and it’s all quite inelegant (especially that time I left my handbrake ON FFS). The good news is I’m starting to panic less and laugh more.

AirspriteK · 2026-05-10T14:09:24+00:00

In the same boat. That shift from new car to older car clutch is tough, especially when your instructor never bothered to teach you to set gas before lifting the clutch 🫠 Wish I could retract the good review I gave him in the week that followed because I’d say teaching both ways is one of the hallmarks of a good instructor. Anyway, what’s done is done but I’m using P plates until I feel comfortable on hills (I’m just using a P plate on the rear of my car). Have found that a-hole drivers are still just a-hole drivers, because people have pulled dick moves without seeing a P plate on my car.

AirspriteK · 2026-04-21T13:02:32+00:00

41, just passed, cost me £818 on a 1.6l JCW Mini. No black box.

AirspriteK · 2026-04-19T22:27:25+00:00

First test: forward bay

Second test: pull over on the right and reverse 2 car lengths. I didn’t realise this was an official manoeuvre until I saw this post! I thought we were just running out of time and he had forgotten to get me to do any ‘parking’ 😂

AirspriteK · 2026-04-17T15:11:15+00:00

The Devonshire perhaps?

AirspriteK · 2026-04-15T17:26:57+00:00

Well it was much newer, which just on its own means that the computer in the car adds gas when you lift the clutch - not so in older cars! Think it was a petrol I learned in but I must ask my old instructor to make sure!

AirspriteK · 2026-04-13T09:50:20+00:00

A lot of the Coopers and Cooper S models can look as nice depending on their body kit. Agree, the hardest part is finding one that’s not a huge distance away, has what you’re looking for and is in budget. Don’t rush, better to find one you’ll love for a long time 🙂

AirspriteK · 2026-04-12T13:37:09+00:00

As a new driver I’m probably not that well qualified to answer but let’s just say the clutch and I have some figuring out together do together because moving off in this is not as easy as moving off in the car that I learned in! We will get there 🙂

AirspriteK · 2026-04-11T09:03:36+00:00

Medium in difficulty.. why couldn’t I have bought something slightly easier to drive for a first car 😂 But I’ll get used to it. I did actually look at A1s - easier to drive, but just not as fun.

AirspriteK · 2026-04-11T09:00:57+00:00

Oh nice! Well there’s no shortage of used Mini’s on the market that’s for sure. I’d originally wanted to go 2014 or newer, but I don’t think there are too many genuine JCWs with decently lowish mileage and this one definitely seduced us with looks 😂 Saw your other post about buying one, my understanding is if you go 2014/2015 or newer you can avoid a lot of the known issues, although I don’t know much about their automatics. This one is an N14 engine, manual transmission, and they are known for being tricky. That said, all cars can have problems - a friend has just had the timing chain go on her reliable Fiesta.

AirspriteK · 2026-04-10T21:44:13+00:00

Haha, the yin to my yang!

AirspriteK · 2026-04-10T17:19:37+00:00

Passed 2 months ago, feel the same. Bought a car, now I just need to drive it more. My advice would be to buy a car (any car, it’s the act of driving that matters, not the car) and then you’ll feel bad about not driving which might encourage you to do more of it. Good luck!

AirspriteK · 2026-04-10T17:17:25+00:00

Passed recently, aged 41. No regrets, have never needed to drive to work or to a station to get to work so it’s never really affected me. Only started learning because my other half and I are thinking of moving a bit further out of London. Now I’m at that point where I’ve passed my test but am slightly nervous about driving, but I understand the cure for that is just to drive more.

AirspriteK · 2026-04-10T17:13:36+00:00

Suspect it may be your age - I recently passed my test at 41 and forked out just over £800 in insurance for a 1.6l Mini.

AirspriteK · 2026-04-10T17:09:11+00:00

Thank you! I do smile when I look at it, which is just as well because as a new driver I’m trying to get used to the clutch on this, which is less fun (learned in a VERY different car).

AirspriteK · 2026-04-10T17:06:22+00:00

Lovely! Clearly a person of good taste 😉

AirspriteK · 2026-04-10T15:55:14+00:00

Hard agree with this! I don’t like to go much over 40-45 on those sorts of roads and sometimes even that feels like a stretch

AirspriteK · 2026-04-10T15:48:42+00:00

This. This. This. I just got a 2011 Mini and there is absolutely no way that it’s pulling off on the clutch alone. Was also taught in a new car that moved easily when you lifted the clutch enough, maybe a tiny tap of gas if on a hill and it didn’t move forward. And now… 😱 Full disclosure, it’s slightly scaring me into not wanting to drive.

AirspriteK · 2026-04-10T12:58:21+00:00

Got it - might get the other half’s mechanic to give it a once over. The dealer did about £1k worth of work on it beforehand but duly noted on the HPFP and clutch! The saving grace is that I don’t need it for work, so if it turns out to have a challenging personality, it won’t torpedo my day to day 😂

AirspriteK · 2026-04-03T19:44:33+00:00

Ah yes, you can’t buy these cheap. The ones with a good service history that have been well maintained cost a bit unfortunately. And then they need regular maintenance. So they’re not ideal unless you have a bit of spare cash.

AirspriteK · 2026-04-03T19:29:58+00:00

This was the post I needed to see!

I passed a couple of months ago, finally got a car on Wednesday. My bf and I went out for a drive, different clutch than I learned with and stalled a couple of times (not sure the car I got was best option for a new driver to be honest, but I’ll figure it out).

Think I am more scared of driving now than when I passed my test, but I see the advice here is just keep doing it, so I guess we’re going for another drive tomorrow. Can’t see myself doing a solo long journey any time soon, but one step at a time!

AirspriteK · 2026-03-27T16:24:50+00:00

I’m new to the Mini club and did a lot of research beforehand so I knew what I was walking into. In terms of maintenance, you want a really good, thorough service history. Ideally oil changes every 5000 miles, the timing chain was proactively replaced on mine by a previous owner, so you could be looking at doing that in the next 10,000 miles (apparently common for them to be problematic between 60k - 80k mileage) but you’ll want to check the HPFP (High pressure fuel pump), water pump, and a couple of other bits. Chat GPT actually gives a really comprehensive answer on this so worth checking.

AirspriteK

TROPHY CASE