Traded my Clubman in for something a little bigger and my wife decided we couldn't be without a MINI so traded her Z4 for an R57 Cooper and very nice it is too. The showrooms we visited all had bike racks on their display cars so being a bloke, liking gadgets and cycling a lot this looked like it ticked all the boxes.
Our three local dealers have sold one rack between them in the past year and even the Parts manager laughed when he read out the price and time to code it to the car. £319 + VAT (£374.80) plus up to two hours to do the initial fit and code it to the car. Sorry, did you say the bike rack would be nearly £600? I could buy another car to drive my bikes around in for less! Now I know it's nicely engineered and all but surely, to claw back the design expense, they must want to sell some?
The three dealers must have sold well over 200 cars between them since launch so if we imagine a 1 in 200 ratio globally then it's going to be a very rare sight indeed. Great for the fun-factor of the car in showrooms like the Openometer but laughably BMW priced sadly. I'm waiting for a dealer to get bored with the one they have on show and offer me some discount. I may be waiting a while...
R57 is great to drive, much better than an early R57 demo we drove last year and really puts a smile on your face every time the sun is out and the roof is down.
Why is the dealer saying it needs to be coded, the R57 is already prep'd for the rack. It cost £750 for the fitting kit and a rack for the R56, maybe they are getting confused.
I dont need to make my car go faster, I just need to learn to drive it faster.
Although the cars are prepared for a rack the car needs to be coded to the individual rack so that it knows when the rack is fitted and turns off the PDC and makes the lights/foglights work. Or so they tell me....And every dealer has the same line so there must be some truth in it
We had an R55 and an R56 with roof bars and bikes racks and from memory the bars were £100 and the Thule bike carriers about £65 each and you could fit it yourself. A far cry from this epic engineering feat!
It's a bit of a problem on the MINI, i'm still putting my bike inside the car but it only just fits (large frame) and I have to be really careful not to scratch the interior or damage the headliner.
These are an option i'm considering now, look quite good
Roof bars and roof racks for the new Mini
I've already got a nice Thule bike carrier for roof bars so might buy some of these later today.
Never did like carrying bikes on the back of my car either.
Hello everyone,
newbie here, basically I've just took delivery of a new cooper convertible and bought a bike rack at the same time, when i opened the box the instructions are, remove rear bumper, wheel arches and wheels, drill bodywork and fit metal brackets etc, the dealer told me no drilling or wiring was required, the rack just bolts to the car through the two removable plastic inserts in the rear bumper. The salesman actually told me he fitted the one in the showroom to the car and it was easy to do no wiring etc. Now they say BMW recommend fitting the brackets if your going on a long journey.
Wow! From what I understand, the dealer does the initial fit (somewhere between 1 and 2 hours depending on who you ask) and this attaches it correctly (and installs brackets maybe??) and codes it to the car. Then its a 10 minute job to put it on and off yourself but it must be pre-fitted by the dealer first.
I spoke to another dealership yesterday, after 4 hours they rang me back and said BMW had told them rear mounted bike rack should not be fitted to a convertible. I said to him all the showroons i visited had a convertible in with a bike rack on, i think i'm goinimg to return it and get a refund not pleased at all.
That's rubbish! The bike rack is specifically designed for the R57. What they are talking about is the rear mounted rack that fits on a towbar or to the rear tailgate of a 3 door car. You can't fit either of these to a Clubman either. I think you've spoken to the wrong person which reinforces my earlier comment about the lack of sales/experience. If they priced it lower they's sell some and every dealer would know how it fits. Call another dealer as yours sound like complete muppets....
I've arranged for racks to be fitted to at least 3 R57 convs now. £340 for the Rack, £69.95 for the lighting module and it MUST be fitted first time by the dealer......this is a warranty claim though as there additional brackets that need to be glued/fitted behind the rear bumper. I've not had to have coding done to any of the cars either.
The dealer now says they will fit the extra kit for free after first saying it would cost me a minimum £ 180, what i can't understand is why they delivered the rack and all the bits to me if they know it's a dealer fit, numptys.
Had my rack fitted yesterday. Took the dealer 4.5 hours and they said it was a "massive electrical job". Luckily I got them to chuck the rack on for free with the car as the rack was on display in the showroom but it won't fit next month's facelifted bumpers.
Why is it when people get told two conflicting things, they automatically assume the one that allows them to 'kick off' is always the correct one??? Not having a go at you YCY, as someone in sales it just interests me!
Hi all
At the risk of repeating earlier posts / Q's, im after a bike rack-come-luggage rack for me 2009 Cooper S converitible and have heard the horror stories about the cost of the OEM rack and fitting charges...
can someone please enlighten me on what the score is? and especially point me in the direction of a dealer anywhere in the uk that will do it for a decent cost or if there are third party racks available.
thanks in advance
Rob
I was'nt kicking off, i think that the salesman should have been more aware of the the product he sold me, if i had accepted what he told me i would have fitted the rack myself and driven the car possibly invalidating the warranty /damaging a brand new car. They allso tried to charge me £180 to fit the extra kit which i later found out was a no cost dealer fit.
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bike / luggage rack for R57 MCS Convertible 
