[matt21]

i know these questions have been answered in one for or another somewhere but I havent found anything that either way convinces me. I'm currently facing three options.
1. Keep the MCS stock and purchase an air filter
2. Go JCW
3. Get GTT 220 kit.

Problem is obviously the warrenty on the GTT and the price of the JCW. I think I'll get the JCW air filter then think whats the point when the GTT is better then think if I would lose my warrenty for that I may as well get the full kit!

Few questions are tho to people who have done GTT as I will be doing 30k next year and warrenty is important.
1. Can you still get TLC and non GTT parts fixed under warrenty.
2. Whilst I'm sure GTT is essentially reliably have there been any issues on higher mileage cars.
3. This is the key one - come resale would a GTT tuned car be considerably less than a stock one. I initially thought not but 99% of potential buyers would not appreciate the work Roland does and I for one would not buy a tuned car just due to the unknown.

Finally I was wondering that im currently thinking that the saving of the GTT is almost made up for in keeping the warrenty on the JCW. However forgetting any financial implications for a second does anyone have any experience of both kits and which (in your opinion) do you believe to be better in terms of sound and performance. (if I got GTT I would get the induction kit).

Thanks in advance for replies and just felt I needed to post this as other threads didnt clear it all up for me!

[GR33NIE]

Spending already You ent had it long!!

I can't comment as to whats the best, warranty would be a big factor if it was me though, GTT have such a good reputation though on here I don't think you'd go too far wrong with them

[cooper7]

Tough call for you this one. If you do go down the GTT route then i personally think you can write off any kind of sell on value of the kit as it were. If it were me i would [probably be tempted to remove the kit when selling the car on because as you pointed out yourself there is an element of the unknown surrounding tuned cars which would put many buyers off. Having said that the saving of the GTT kit in the first place might mean it is acceptable to sell the car without it and then you might be able to sell a few of the parts i.e. cai

I personally don't know of any GTT cars which have yet covered high mileage but by the same token i don't know of any that have encountered any problems and everyone has been extremely impressed with Roland's level of service.

At the end of the day i think you have to ask yourself the following 1) am i happy to write off the GTT kit as it were in terms of a sell on feature 2) warranty - i only really bring this up because of the miles you will be covering. If your car has one years worth of warranty left then perhaps it isn't such a big deal as most thing will still get repaired under warranty and Roland can make it quite stealthy 3) JCW225? A lot of the same components as the 210 kit so dealers are unlikely to have a clue what's going on, sell on value well there is some at least that you can be sure of but how much?, it carries it's own one year warranty and costs the same as the 210 from a dealer.

So if you're happy to fork out for it for you and your enjoyment then perhaps GTT make financial sense. Completely warranty concious then 210 or the 225 for the middle ground of the two kits you mentioned. I would be very interested to go out in a GTT car as having tested Mike Cooper's race car i was blown away!

[laura f]

JCW would make it appeal to more potential buyers, I think the GTT would limit that. I'd stick an new exhaust & air filter on it and see how you find it first, before shelling out a lot of money for something that'll make your petrol consumtion go lower

[Capsaisin]

I'm in the same situation as you are - Sept 04 delivery MCS and I want more power but without losing warranty or TLC. OK what I have decided so far. I would like a brand new JCW before they go turbo, but that equates to an extra £8000 on top of my MCS trade in - so that is out!!! (unfortunately).
JCW conversion is out, because IMO it is very bad value for money just to keep 1 years warranty. OK resale will be higher but £3600?!! Maybe in 20 years time when it's a classic but then I bet factory built will command the premium not conversions. Look at what you actually really get for your money, a s/c pulley, a new exhaust, a new air filter, new injectors, new spark plugs and a remap - IMO about £1000 worth of bits. The new head and new s/c are pretty much standard MCS so you're paying twice for the same part!!
On top of that I only have another year to go on warranty, so maybe better to wait a year if necessary and go for another tuner, just fit the JCW airfilter like you said. But you will just get a noise injection, not much extra power. You could fit a Bluefin chip upgrade which is easily reversible when the car goes to the dealer, that will give you more power and probably keep you very happy for a year. IMO MTH tuner file is better if you are prepared to install it yourself (only reason is then you can un-install it yourself if necessary!!!), as it sets a more realistic DSC cut-in point and gets rid of a lot of the bog, hiccup and surge issues - which I certainly had with my MCS.

I too am looking at the GTT kit (probably GTT220? - not sure yet). My guess is you could fit the GTT215 and the dealer wouldn't notice for servicing. However, if there was a serious warranty issue I am sure they would check for mods and assess whether it was possible to wriggle out of fixing the car. So this puts me off a little, BUT you save £2500 on the price of the JCW kit which pays for a lot of repair work. It's a chance you take?
Also bear in mind that it is possible to revert back to a standard MCS when you want to sell it, anyway I don't think a "discrete" tuning conversion will actually make any difference to the resale value of the car, up or down.

So I think there are 2 possibilities here;

1. If you are really concerned about warranty - fit a JCW airfilter and the easily reversible Bluefin chip mod.

2. Take a chance on losing 12 months warranty and go for the GTT220 conversion, which is the better tuning option and as far as I know there are no reliability issues with it.

Up to you - I'm still undecided

[Tonyt3]

Most after market warranty issues seem to be being ignored by BMW....

Problem you have with the JCW, should you get used to the power, your really stuck with a 210bhp Works that you want more from (GTT go up to 250bhp for the same money)....

I have a JCW/GTT. I grew bored with the 210 jcw conversion, and Roland converted it for me by adding larger crank pulley, manifold, ECU remap and proper filter. Now doing approx 230bhp. Never had a warranty or TLC problem, but I do have a good relationship with my servicing dealer.....

JCW wont add virtually any value to the car, and funny thing is, makes the car HARDER to sell than a standard S (high insurance group, higher percieved running costs, second hand ones percieved as being 'abused')

GTT conversion likely to make the car harder to sell and will lose all conversion costs involved

so it pros and cons, there is a belief that anyone involved with tuning cars should disregard all thoughts of its impact on resale and future value as part of the decison to gain more power. You either want it, or you dont. if these factors impact your decsiion, then you dont reaallllly want it.

I love mine, goes like cack off a shovel.

[Lucky Dave]

I had the GTT kit put on my MCS when it was new, I have covered 18000 miles in a year with no problems! warrenty or otherwise.

Just 1 point if your doing 30K a year then your resale value will be poor anyway!

And am I right in thinking the 225 JCW kit is NOT covered by the BMW warrenty??

[NICKB_MCS]

hi

i have also thought about getting JCW/GTT, one thing i am intrested to know is the insurance. from what i can guess the GTT is classed as a modification to the car and with some insurance companies you can select a Cooper S works in the drop down list of models.

would that now mean the JCW would be cheaper to insure than the GTT??

[Goonery]

Just like to add that as JCW is now a standard factory fit option Tony's point about JCW being more difficult to sell is not such a big issue now, although its the non factory JCW's that might be harder to shift perhaps.
If your TLC and warranty are running out anyway the GTT option is great value if you are prepared to keep the car and maybe give up the MINI dealer service option as again Tony says some will and some won't.

[PaulusMaximus]

Hey Matt,

Blimey you move fast! Might this be done by the 18th so we can all drool over your beautiful car!?

As my MCS is stock, I cant comment much with the exception of a JCW kit only crept up my insurance quote by £200 (22, 4yrs NCD, clean, mini.co.uk) where other tuning kits skyrocketed it. Could you get the same advantage and offset some of the JCWs higher price? I'm only thinking this as your car is too young to lose the warranty.

Paul

[Tonyt3]

Quote: Originally Posted by Goonery

Just like to add that as JCW is now a standard factory fit option Tony's point about JCW being more difficult to sell is not such a big issue now, although its the non factory JCW's that might be harder to shift perhaps.
If your TLC and warranty are running out anyway the GTT option is great value if you are prepared to keep the car and maybe give up the MINI dealer service option as again Tony says some will and some won't.

You missed the point on my comment about the JCW being harder to sell. Its harder to sell on than a STANDARD S, because the market place for a standard S is huge, the JCW car (wether factory or retro fit) is very much smaller in comparisson.....

Its the same with all cars. Joe Public by and large purchases the standard model - the top of the line model is purchased by very few people, for many reasons. And those people are often very picky too!!!!

Thats why its easy to sell a standard S for £11k when its hard to sell the same age/spec car with a JCW conversion for around the same or slightly higher money - theres simply so many less 'Joe Public' interested in what many will see as the 'boy racer' model.....

You often find that some higher model cars becomecheaper than the base model over time - Joe Public wants simplicity and reliability as apposed to highly tuned. Only us petrol heads want MORE POWER and theres so few of us.

[TallAndy]

A note on performance i've dabbled with colink's GTT 220 on the motorway vs my JCW 210 when it was stock and performance seemed pretty much indentical...

However after having the JCW kit for over a year now I probably would have gone aftermarket, starting with the alta induction kit which we've just fitted to my gf's stock S then a pully and exhaust... much much cheaper than the works and similar power gains. Plus with the right insurer the premium doesn't change a great deal.

[Capsaisin]

As I said above, a GTT220 conversion can be removed (I believe GTT do standard size pulleys for the supercharger which is essentially a bolt-on swap for their 17% pulley) and the car sold as a standard MCS. Just remember to keep your old airbox!

[Perm]

Does anyone know what the cost would be to convert a GTT 220 back to standard assuming you still had all the original parts ?

Thanks

Perm

[TallAndy]

Some of the mods you could do without too much hassle, spark plugs / air filter. But things like the pully you'd need a professional to do.

[Shorty]

Quote: Originally Posted by Perm

Does anyone know what the cost would be to convert a GTT 220 back to standard assuming you still had all the original parts ?

Thanks

Perm

Ask Roland, I know when I was down there having my 220 done last week he spoke about
putting other cars back to stock to sell

[matt21]

Quote: Originally Posted by PaulusMaximus

Hey Matt,

Blimey you move fast! Might this be done by the 18th so we can all drool over your beautiful car!?

As my MCS is stock, I cant comment much with the exception of a JCW kit only crept up my insurance quote by £200 (22, 4yrs NCD, clean, mini.co.uk) where other tuning kits skyrocketed it. Could you get the same advantage and offset some of the JCWs higher price? I'm only thinking this as your car is too young to lose the warranty.

Paul

i wish!

if i do do it it will be after september i think

cheers for your advice folks but since we last spoke just had my bike stolen so that will be £500 of that money towards a new one

[roland2003]

Hi Guys, a used MCS with a GTT260 and other GTT bits has just changed hands for £28,500
It is a very very nice car.
Best Regards Roland GTT

[matt21]

so u saying that if i went the GTT260 route id get £28,500 for my car

food for thought from everyone may rack up some miles with it standard then do something

pity you dont offer full warrenty roland!

[beej]

GTT220 here - because JCW at 25000 miles and age nearly 3 years just made no sense to me. Price of JCW, especially. So I went GTT because of the smiles-to-price ratio and high standard of friendly personal service.

Never looked back... couldn't be happier (well, Heather Graham in the passenger seat maybe)