My View So Far

[DavidB]

Well hello all, I’ve been reading this forum for the past 2 months and have found it to be most helpful and informative, also the Gaydon meet was a top job!!

So it must be time for me to add my views so far:-

1)BUILD QUALITY – from what I’ve seen of far the quality is fine, yea you may get the odd squeak (probably from the passengers), but nothing that would put me off buying one, after all you show me another SMALL car that has better build quality and I’ll eat my mouse mat.

2)SEATS - I don’t have a problem with the comfort but that’s truly a personal thing, the tilt and slide mechanism is a bit doggy, but that may be user error!!

3)PULLING TO THE LEFT – This concerns me but having driven four different MINI Cooper demonstrators so far none have displayed this problem – pot luck I feel!!.

4)DEALERS – so far very patient polite & helpful (Daemon Hill, Leamington Spa) although they have not got my money yet so that could all change.

5)COLOUR – Well this is another problem, I am swinging towards the yellow with black roof but would like some feedback from owners with this colour, as in the past I have had silver cars as it does not show the scratches or hazing you can get on other colours, but it’s a far to common colour these days.

6)AIR-CON OR NOT AIR CON – Air con is great in the summer when your stuck in traffic or working up a sweat on some cool country B road, but that’s only useful 1 or 2 months of the year, now climate control is useful ALL YEAR round, I must adjust the heating about 5 times on my drive to work (only 7 miles), it would be ace just to set a temperature and forget so it’s climate for me!.

7)IN CAR ENTERTAINMENT – After market, cheaper, end of story.

8)ALARM – After market as the MINI one does not have internal sensors.

9)WORKS COOPER – Bah waste of money, just get a Super chips Conversion, air filer and rear box & save £££££££££££ (When the warranty is up!)

So the car spec so far is:-
Cooper With Chili Pack & TLC
Climate Control
ASC+T (ACE EXTRA!!!)
Heated Mirrors & Washer Jets
Trip Computer
Wohoo only £13770 – I must be mad

So it’s about time to place the order, but I would like this pulling left problem to be resolved or at least officially acknowledged. And still got to choose a colour!!!! ;-)

Any views or options on the above would be gratefully received

Dave

[Varse]

Go with yellow/black, there aren't many around which is nice and you really feel like you are standing out from the crowd. It's a really nice yellow as well.

[Dogger]

Quote:

Originally posted by DavidB

7)IN CAR ENTERTAINMENT – After market, cheaper, end of story.

8)ALARM – After market as the MINI one does not have internal sensors.

9)WORKS COOPER – Bah waste of money, just get a Super chips Conversion, air filer and rear box & save £££££££££££ (When the warranty is up!)

(7) After market stereo's come in all shapes and sizes, but from what I can gather from the guy who designed/specced the MINI stereos, you're unlikely to find a better one (sound wise at least) for the price. It would also stick out like a sore thumb from the rest of the central dash..

(8) Are you expecting anyone to break OUT of your MINI?..

(9) Superchips conversion was reviewed in one of the Sundays this week and didn't get a very good write up. Their test car stalled on several occasions and sounded noisy and cheap (this was a ONE upgraded beyond the spec of a Cooper). I don't think I'd ever pay for a works conversion when the MINI in it's basic form already out-runs anything else on the road..why be greedy?..

Have fun choosing your colour! I'm not personally a fan of any of the Yellow variations - I think that colour looks best with the same colour roof...but then I'm biased!

[lightbody]

Air conditioning is NOT only useful on hot days - it is also incredibly useful for demisting on horrible wet days of which we get so many here in Scotland!

The built-in stereo sounds great, looks like the rest of the dashboard, has volume-speed connection and dims with the dashboard dimmers. I didn't even consider fitting my Sony CD player to the dashboard for fear of cheapening the whole effect.

[ScottyHP]

Deffinatly go for Climate its great (ive got it in my 3 series)its worth the £230 extra, however your plans for an afteremarket sterio could hit problems:
1, The BMW sterios are designed for the car hence they fit perfect and also look the part as the lights match the others in the dash etc. Plus if your spending £830 on climate which I add not only works great but looks the dogs, you will certainly compromise the look by adding even the most expensive sterio. (this may be just me being picky!!)
2, You will also have problem fitting the aftermarket sterio as there is lots of dismantling (risking damaging your centre console etc.) I personally considered fitting my Pioneer MD player but it wouldn't fit perfect and with out mods the cage would slide in and out.
I will be the first to agree the BMW systems aren't that amazing for features for example no text support and no LP, but having had a BMW CD player the sound quality is fantastic they may seem expensive but to be honest £235 for a MD player isn't bad my pioneer was nearly £400.

the choice is yours but believe me you will regret not keeping the ICE standard.

Your choice of colour is cool yellow and black roof + mirrors looks fantastic but keep it clean because it can look really pale when even slightly dirty thus ruining the impact. Plus still quite rare compared to other colours.

[Dom]

Quote:

Originally posted by DavidB


6)AIR-CON OR NOT AIR CON – Air con is great in the summer when your stuck in traffic or working up a sweat on some cool country B road, but that’s only useful 1 or 2 months of the year, now climate control is useful ALL YEAR round, I must adjust the heating about 5 times on my drive to work (only 7 miles), it would be ace just to set a temperature and forget so it’s climate for me!.

7)IN CAR ENTERTAINMENT – After market, cheaper, end of story.

8)ALARM – After market as the MINI one does not have internal sensors.

Get climate control, nuff said. I find it comes in useful even in the winter...

Can't remember if alarm has an internal sensor, but low bass frequencies do set it off if that helps...

ICE IS easy to install and you won't damage anything if you do it as per instructions dotted around the forum. I've even managed to get a power cable from the battery to the boot without drilling a single hole. Go for aftermarket ICE with this car. Whilst standard may be relatively good (base tape head unit is a pile of pish), the benefits of just a decent head unit is very noticeable.

My head unit went straight in, just had to wiggle the cage a bit and bend the clips and it was a snug fit.

Sorry Scotty, no offence but after hearing my after market install, I would regret keeping it standard.

Hope that helps,

Dom

[DavidB]

WOW that post was old - My first one......... memories!!!

Learnt allot since then, changed the order to a cooper S with Climate. Still can't work out the stereo problem my two options are as follows:-

1)
Standard Wave Radio
MFSW £160.00
Sony 6 Disc Changer inc adaptor £179.00
TOTAL £339.00

2)
Pioneer MP3 Player £289.00
Cables / Facia / Arial Adaptor £ 30.00
TOTAL £319.00

With option 1 I get cruse control as well and audio controls on the wheel, with option 2 I get a better stereo but no cruse

hummmmm.......

Dave

[ScottyHP]

DOM, No offence taken infact it's good to here a successful ICE story. But I must be unlucky with the choice of head unit...
Going back to install, point taken there is info on this site (im still new to the forum!!!) but I was refering to it being tricky to do based on a comparsion with most other cars (my BMW CD pulled straight out all I needed to do was swap ISO conectors) My final decision to go for standard was based mainly on cosmetics, but BMW upgaded head units sound great for the money, in general you will need to spend alot more on a non standard to get better quality.

Dave, Go for option 1 MFSW is cool plus your dash will look standard and you will still benfit from CD changer

[Dom]

I should probably stop commenting on this post as my head unit alone cost £500. I've heard good reports about the boost units though so they shouldn't be discounted.

My advice would be to spend a little more money and get the boost and cd changer. To be honest, the wave radio isn't particularly much good.

However, if you're looking to include amps in your going to have to change the head unit as the MINI jobbies don't include pre-outs.

Hope that helps, or, at least, doesn't confuse you any more!

Dom

[Damo]

I'd go for the MFSW AND non Mini Head unit!

CMT has got a Sony ALL black CD head unit and it only cost him £280 from Halfords (he haggled a bit) See Picture
The Sony goes really really well with the rest of the interior. Plus the bonus is with Sony Stereo's only, you can get an adapter that converts the MFSW connector to the SONY Remote control Stick! Cool or what!
thats what i'm doing anyway.

[ScottyHP]

I agree Dom, uprgrading to the boost iproves the sound quality alot, you will get the most from the cd quality sound. Dom, I knew you must have spent some extra cash to improve on the Boost gear, it must sound awesome as I am really impressed with the boost (even better than my 3 series BMW upgraded speakers with my old MD head unit!)
what Head unit have you got??

[Damo]

Here's the pic forgot to post

[Dom]

Quote:

Originally posted by ScottyHP
I agree Dom, uprgrading to the boost iproves the sound quality alot, you will get the most from the cd quality sound. Dom, I knew you must have spent some extra cash to improve on the Boost gear, it must sound awesome as I am really impressed with the boost (even better than my 3 series BMW upgraded speakers with my old MD head unit!)
what Head unit have you got??

I decided to go for the Nakamichi CD-45z - sound quality over looks. The good thing is, as it's black, it goes with the standard dash quite well. You can also get the backlight as orange to match the rest of the car. Mine was green though, which reminds me, I must get it changed!

Dom

[Viscount Charles]

If I can get it to fit and work properly, I want to use my existing Kenwood head (rotating face-plate, very James Bond) and 10-disc changer.

Why? Because it won't cost me any more money! Boost + BMW 6-disc changer leaves me with a bigger hole in my bank balance and my current stereo being sold with the current car.

But what problems might I have with regards to fit/finish? The Kenwood head is black, standard size. Where should the CD changer go (I need every inch of boot space for the baby buggy, and the 10-disc unit's not small)? Will having the CD-prep help, or will connecting the head/changer require some rewiring (I can salvage the proprietary cable from the current car)?