I thought I'd heard that the HiFi (vs. Harmon/Kardon) was easier to upgrade compared to the base, but that could be just due to having physical spaces in the interior panels for 10 speakers. That's something I've been meaning to research further in the audio forum.

 

Yeah, I have no clue on that one. I ordered the base audio to upgrade on my '09. Should be in next week. If you want, I can tell you how easy (or difficult) the upgrade is from the base audio, but I can't attest to Hi Fi.

 

Please do, though maybe as a PM or in the audio forum - I think we may have hijacked this thread

 

Regarding the effectiveness of xenons based solely on the fact that they use projectors, I dont thing this is the case. I have an 06 caddy STS with halogen lights that use projectors, and I often opt for a different car at night due to the terrible light output from projector halogens. It almost seems as if the projector lens is blocking the light. Halogen light from a reflector is much more effective that halogen light from a projector.
IMO from my experience, the effectiveness of the different types of light ranks as follows:
1) Xenon with a projector
2) Xenon with a reflector
3) Halogen with a reflector
4) Halogen with a projector

If there are no street lights, then it is near impossible to see with the STS, and if it is raining, forget it.

 

Yeah, you're starting to get into possible physical differences in lenses and such (I took physics of sound in undergrad, not light - maybe I should have... lol). Another possibility to consider is the distribution of light particles through projection lenses as a function of color temperature. (Again, this is physics not psychology... not my area in the least.) It could also simply be perceptual differences in the brightness of the light. Brightness perception versus actual physical properties of light gets into a lot of complicated stuff. The truth is that there are a multitude of possibilities, including the possibility that I'm completely wrong about the lenses having anything to do with any of it. That was just a postulation on my part. I wouldn't even consider it a hypothesis, since I have no evidence at hand to support it.

Honestly, I know very little about the physical properties of light, I'm more versed in how it is perceived. Psychology not physics. There could be WAY more to this than my postulations. I just thought that the perception of light intensity as a function of color temperature was an interesting topic given the discussion. I didn't mean to be misleading in the sense that it "has to be the projector lens." It was just a thought.

 

Guys thank you so much for all your help. Just one more question, now that I have ordered as you can imagine I'm checking every day on the status . Realistically with the factory being closed until Jan 5th when do you think I might see my car ?

Thanks again

 

being in CA, maybe mid-late March? remember the boat ride thru the canal adds 2 1/2-3 weeks over cars shipped to the eastern US. My car's journey took nearly a month from Southhampton to Port Hueneme, but there was canal construction (2-day delay) and the ship stopped at Galveston to unload heavy equipment (3-day delay).

 

Sequence is probably dead on... My MA said he ordered one of his in December and it arrived in the middle of March.

 

Thanks guys I'm not sure I can wait that long

 

Gee....did nobody mention that waiting for your own, personal, ordered-to-suit MINI will drive you mad??? Enjoy it.....the madness, the fretting, the drooling, and alienated friends, the sleepless nights...it's all part of the fun. Makes delivery day all the sweeter!!!!!

 

The problem is that my current car is getting close to new brakes and tires so the clock is ticking