[adie]

Just to clarify the situation with the CD upgrade. We have been to our local dealer today - http://www.bridgegatederbymini.co.uk To ask them what the situation is with the £135 for the Boost as this is something we need to consider when we order our MINI.

We were told that MINI realised that there was a problem with this when orders kept coming back as void. MINI have now added the extra £135 to the price list.

We have been assured that buyers of the CD upgrade will now be made fully aware of the extra fee that needs to be paid :\'(

Adie

[Root Ginger]

Well I tell you what I\'m doing when I get get my new car. I\'m having the radio removed at the dealers the day it arrives and fitting a decent unit. Standard headunits and speakers are always poor especially when individual units are designed by manufacturers. As for ICEMans argument about asking the Rover ICE engineers about how many unreliable headunits they have. Well there\'s a reason for that. They are made by Philips and cost £99 for an ordinary person to buy from Argos so it\'s hardly surprising they break.

I\'m getting a Pioneer MEH9100 fitted to my MINI. At £549 far more powerful, advanced and better looking than anything that will be offered with the MINI.

[Paul]

Ginge, have you read through the interior and ICE section? There\'s more to it that you may first think, for example the non-standard size and fitment etc.

Also, I really think people should give the CD, MiniDisc, or HK systems a go first. I have hard the HK system, and it is very impressive.

:)

[jfunkhouse]

I have been doing some research into satilitte radio in north america. There are two companies who are doing this. XM Radio and Sirius. Both companies have made partnerships with mostly all the radio manufacturers and Sirius has also made agreements with BMW and Mini. I have their corporate brochure and It appears that satilitte radio will be available in the mini. The whole system sounds pretty good. It has really good sound quality and no commercials either. Also you can choose a type of music to listen to.

J

[Lewis]

Is it at all possible to fit cd play that you bought seperatly??
(take out the standard and replace with a sony?)

[Dogger]

Lewis - Gazzaman28 helped me through some of the more intricate areas of this (thanks Garry).

I was due to do the same as you - i.e. swap my current MiniDisc Player for the standard tape deck. Any branch of Unicar will fit a stereo for around £25, providing there are no \'special requirements\'. The MINI uses standard DIN ports (whetever they may be), but you\'ll no doubt have to get some kind of adapter to connect your wiring to BMW\'s. Unicar also warned me that as the current system has been tailor made to run just in the MINI, the temperateure testing, shock tests etc will not have accounted for another system being substituted. The backplate will also be about 10mm bigger when trying to fit your existing stereo and no-one really knows how much this will costs to produce.

Given a few months I would imagine there\'ll be cheaper versions on the market soon enough.

In the end I\'ve opted to take the MIniDisc, along with the dodgy £135 radio wave upgrade, on the basis that it\'ll look much better in the car, and it\'s a better specced stereo then my current Sony (having the various ports for mobile phones, variable volume/speed control etc).

Hope this helps?..:)

[BruceK]

Dumb question time: If the MINI is a car for the 21st century, why would it have a cassette player as standard?

Does anyone at all still own cassette tapes? Do they even sell them anymore (besides at truck stops)? And if it\'s possible to get a cassette player in a MINI, why don\'t they offer an 8-Track player? :9

I would think at the very least, a single CD would be standard. (With MP3 as one of the upgrades).

[smartbomb]

Bruce, yeah true..cassettes are so 20th century ! I mean standard fit a cd player for heaven\'s sake Bee EMM ! OK I know that most cars have a tape player as standard, but at least the option to change it isn\'t like trying to unravell DNA ! Surely the Boost saga et al should be simplified ....you want 1 cd pay x you want 6 cds pay y you want tape pay nought ! Easy !
There is much emphasis on ICE these days, and trying to complicate it doesn\'t make it more sophisticated !
In response to an earlier posting about standard manufacturer fit hi-fi.Well not all car company manufacture their own audio.In fact it is almost all designed by an audio frm, and then a new fascia slapped on the front to give the illusion it is pure BMW etc...
I for one won\'t be bothered about a BMW audio system as it\'s likely it\'s a Grundig....or Blaupunkt....

[Bumper]

Wow! awash in minutae, here... heehee Paul, there\'s a new thread title.....\" MINI-utae\"!
I\'ll reserve judgement till I can put my bum in the seat, fingers to the buttons & ears to the speakers!
satellite radio is an intriguing concept. Anyone know what the staus of that technology is, at present?

[LMB]

Can someone please claify something for me:

I was told by my dealer that the radio BOOST includes an upgrade head unit + amp + speakers. But by going what ICEMAN said she was talking rubbish.

Is it true then that the only difference is the power output of the head unit?

What make is it by the way?

Thanks

LMB

[snoopy]

Yes the boost radios have an increased power output, but I think this increased power output in not achieved by the use of an external amp, a better internal amp is used. The only time I think you get an external amp is with the H\K option.

As for maker (or original manufacture) of the boost radio it depends on the model Tape, CD or MD. I believe Alpine supply the CD and MD, but not the tape version.

[AidenL]

Does anyone know can a standard DIN size CD/Radio head unit be installed instead of the standard Wave radio/cassette?

Also, whats the rating of the standard speakers? Can they take a minimum of 25watts?