Plutch!!! Congratulations! You are awarded the week 32 patience award!!!! Your Mini was born the same day as mine, and she has been home since August 30!!

 

Mr. Wickham,that is a bummer! I do recall on one of the mini sites that they sold the inserts only... you had to buy the holder as an addition. Good luck.. it is a downer, but like you said, it could have been much worse!

 

Hm, I'd been meaning to pick up some new turn signal bulbs. I had the Silverstar Signal bulbs in my 6 and liked them. Not sure whether I want those or some chrome bulbs. I'd appreciate pics if anyone has either.

 

I still never received that adventure kit..? is most everyone still waiting?

I ordered my license plate a couple weeks ago - still waiting on that too!

Lucy has 1400 miles on her - now I need to order an oil change kit and give my husband a fun job!

 

Have my permanent plate, and now need to order my vanity. You'd think you could just get the vanity from the get-go, but not here in LA! CLUBMAN, XL MINI, BIGNNUF were all available and were top contenders, but I've decided to go with MINITUR. What do you think??

No Adventure kit for me either! However, I did receive my John Deere thank you gift.... a JD cap (green and yellow of course)! Bought the JD riding mower about a week before picking up the Mini and was surprised by the cap in the mail last week.

 

+1 Have fun !!! Remember patience is a virtue!! Be safe and keep that cell phone charged and bring a long an old fashioned compass and map as a backup!
I'll post some pics of my modified plate holder.

 

Remember you have to supervise!!

 

Here are some pics of the modified no holes front plate:




Top view - it's the no holes brackets with a modified regular front plate holder.



Side view.




Front side view.
Now, I don't really want any front license plate on Hilla's front bumber, but I rather not spend the time going to court so this is a start. After looking at the no holes plate kit , I thought the plate itself looked a bit flimsy so I redesigned it with the parts I had. I may go back and create an offset center bracket which moves the whole plate about 2" more to the center. I chose this out of the other imperfect solutions because I just did not want to have additional holes drilled into the bumper.

 

Yep still waiting!!

 

Sikamini,

That looks a lot better than most off-center plates I've seen. You did a great job and kept it pretty close to the car.

I have a front plate bracket that looks a lot like yours, but I put it on the bumper. Does your bumper (remember I have a simple MC so mine is different, I'm sure) have a place for a front plate with little dimples already in it? I just had to push a scratch awl through the dimples in the plastic to open little holes and then screw the plate bracket into the bumper... nice and centered and it looks pretty good.

 

The bumper I have does not have any dimples. I think the difference in what I did was that I used the front plate holder, which the dealer would normally have installed, and modified it to work with the no holes license plate bracket I bought from MINI Mania. The back of the plastic plate holder has some ribs for stiffness, I cut and removed them to fit the bracket structure - since it uses the no holes bracket frame the stiffners are not that important. That allowed the plate holder to look like it is closer to the bumber surface and hides some of the connectors. My main goal was to avoid any unreversible changes to the front end.

 

Kinda catchy I like it! I was puzzled over the same thing here in Texas, that I couldn't get the personalized plate right from the dealer. I believe when I purchased our older car 13 years ago you could still do it. I recall the salesman asking me if we wanted personalized plates. Didn't see much point in personalizing a Ford so I declined.

 

I alos had to get my regular plates before I could request personalized plates. I'll have "W09RKS" if they approve it.

 

That's a good one!! Wouldn't see why they would object! Did you do the application online? When I did ours, they had that comment about subject to approval, I kinda figured you had to use some outrageous explicative to get nixed.

 

They can reject it if they feel it interferes with their regular scheme of combining numbers/letters. I had to do it like the dinosaurs, with a paper form I snail-mailed.

 

That figures! That reminds me of the silliness of the whole front license plate issue in Texas. The police claim they need to be able to read the plate from the front. Yet the window sticker has one of those bar codes on it and the plate is linked to it, so when they read it they know the plate. If they physically stop you, it is also typed on the sticker, does any of this really make any sense.

 

I assume they mean be able to see it from the front. That is, so they can run your plate without having to follow you or whatnot.

 

That's their arguement, but I was under the impression they could point at that sticker and read the info directly.

 

What sticker are you talking about? Can it be seen/read from a distance?

 

We have a window sticker, similar to the inspection sticker, it has a bar code and should be able to be read by policeman holding a reading device. At least that is what I was told. When the bar code is read it displays you and your car info including license plate. So why do we need a front plate?

 

sikamini - thanks for posting pics of your no holes plate install. I think it looks great. When I am able to find time to put mine on (got my perm plates just the other day), I will take a closer look at your pics.

On another note ... although I am very happy with my PW/B, I really have mellow yellow envy every time I look at your mini! Your JCW looks really awesome and I love the yellow/black contrast. Man, I wish the Clubman S had yellow as an option!

 

Thanks, I have my wife to thank for the MY - she wanted a color she could easily recognize and she suggested I try the config with MY - and the rest is history. It was an easy sell since my very first sports car was a little yellow SAAB.

I'll probably tweek the plate setup by making an offset bracket later.

 

I picked up a pair of the BMW bulbs today (all they had in stock) from the dealer. I paid about exactly what the Stealth bulbs would have cost with shipping ($17.50 each + tax, MSRP is $22 each). I am now totally egg-yolk free on the front lights. I ordered a second set for the rears, which I should have Tuesday.

 

Pictures needed. I'm not that happy with the egg yolk look either. You mentioned that the lights were similar to the OEMs. What's the difference? How well do they perform?

 

They're just turn signal lights. I have nothing to offer in terms of observed performance other than to say they work. They are the OEM turn signal bulbs for the X3/X5. When off, they are silver so you don't have the egg yolk look. If I get some time tomorrow I'll post a picture, but I won't have a "before" shot.