I ordered the Ipod adapter for my MCSa which arrives in 7 to 10 days. My MA said the install is $425.00! Obviously I told him that I will have it installed elsewhere and he said that it would void the warranty. I'm not concerned about that, never had a problem with an aftermarket radio/stereo install before but I'm wondering if this is the going price for an install from the dealer.

I've got the HK system, any suggestions on the best way to install and can anyone tell me if this system displays the playlist and do the steering wheel controls operate it as well.

Thanks for any input/suggestions!

 

I can honestly say that I do not recall how much the installation was (even though it was barely 2 months ago), however it definately wasn't $425! Hopefully someone else here can help you in that department. I will say that I love it, the sound is perfect and it is easy to program your playlists. You name your playlists MINI1, MINI2, etc...And you can use the program buttons on the radio to switch the playlists. I also have the buttons on the steering wheel, and yes they do control the IPOD. However, the don't show the current song playing or any stats about the music, it will just say something like TR2 (meaning the second song in the current playlist). I hope this helps!

 

install it yourself. wont take you an hour. they give you pretty detailed instructions with most mini parts for install....

 

I paid $350 for the whole enchilada. I nearly fainted when I learned that the installation costs twice what the item itself costs though. I asked my favorite audio specialists about doing the installation, and he told me he wasn't too keen on doing it since he hadn't had enough experience with MINIs to know he could make it work with the MFSW. He mumbled something about fiber optics...don't know if he thought the MINI has them or he got one stuck in his finger!

Mostly it works like a charm. I've had some issues with it not working from time to time...don't know if that is a MINI problem or an iPod problem. It isn't major...I just turn the radio off and try again, and it works! Gremlins, I suspect.

 

Mine was $425 installed including the adaptor - I would bet your MA was quoting you the wrong info (as most do).

 

Geez, is the dealer going to kiss you after he's done ing you?

There ought to be a section on NAM where we can post the charges from each dealer for various services. For instance, the Dallas MINI dealer (MINI of Dallas) gets $100 (one hour of labor) to activate the rear fog lights - the Arlington, Texas dealer (Moritz MINI) gets half that. Things like this add up fast.

/gary

 

Shoot! Do the install yourself. It's not rocket surgery. Get the parts guy to download and print the instructions from their service web page. It's all you really need. They don't include instructions on how to take off the downtubes on the dash and how to remove the glove box, both of which you need to do. But those instructions are posted in several places if you do a search.

Be advised that (to my surprise and enormous disappointment) the factory system will not support both the iPod adapter and the satellite radio. You gotta choose one or the other.

The HK system will not display track titles or any other info other than a fairly arbitrarily assigned track number, and your iPod won't display that information while it's plugged in to the HK unit either. All the iPod will display is something like MINI. As if you didn't know what car you were in.

I found both of those things to be sufficiently annoying that I'm giving serious thought to undoing the iPod installation and going back to the Aux input for the iPod.

 

I don't know much about ipods, but why can't you just install the $40 auxillary adapter and use that with your ipod?

I did that for my satellite radio and am very pleased with it.

I'd be happy to save almost $400 if it meant I had to control my ipod without using the steering wheel buttons.. . .

 

I hafta agree with Ycca. I have the Aux Input ($150 installed), and I use my iPod with it all the time. Works like a champ (and I'm one of those weird-o audiophile guys!). Also, the location is down between the "down tubes," which is much more convenient than the glove box.

Is it too late to cancel?

 

From experience, I've seen that the I-Pod interface kit sounds much better than the auxiliary kit, plus it also charges the I-Pod.

I personally wouldn't want to have to control the I-Pod itself while driving, so another benefit is being able to control the I-Pod directly from the radio and/or the steering wheel.

I have also seen that over time, the I-Pod will have problems with the top jack wearing out from using the auxiliary kit, whereas the I-Pod interface kit uses the higher quality 30-pin, locking connector.

 

Let me lend some advice from my experience with an iPod adapter for my Kenwood Deck to let you know why I'll be getting the AUX adapter in my MINI. The Kenwood adaptor I have DOES display the song / album / artist info, and DOES let you control it from the deck. It's cool to see the song on the deck, and controls are fine when just skipping back and forth throug songs, but when you have 4000+ songs, the only usable interface is the one on your iPod. I OFTEN find myself unplugging my iPod from the adapter (you can't control using the iPod while it's connected to the adapter. I think this is a limit in the iPod's API), searching for the playlist / artist / song / whatever I want to hear, hitting play, then plugging it back in.

With the MINI iPod adapter, you don't see the song / artist / album info, so you loose what I would consider the ONLY advantage to having a dedicated iPod adapter (skipping tracks on the steringwheel would be cool, but usually I want to scan through LOTS of tracks, which would take forever without the click-wheel).

So, all things considered, I'll be going with AUX adapter with a nice iPod mount so that I'll be able to see the song name on the iPod screen, I'll be able to use the wonderfull iPod interface to find my desired song, and I'll be able to manipulate the volume from my stering wheel, all without ever having to unplug / re-plug-in the iPod.

 

yes i agree it stinks that you cant get a display but if you organize yourplaylists well it wouldnt be catastropic. besides even if you could the interface is clumsy and slow compared to the iPods anyway.

But the two biggest advantages to theadapter is soundquality and charging with a minor advantage being the steering wheel control. Sound through the dock connector is better due to it not being passed through the headphone amp and on top of that through a second amp. Plus you have to manage the volume on both your radio and the iPod. Charging is obviously great and the hands off control is great in my opinion.

 

Oh, and Group B has a point. If you use the headphone jack for your line-in, you'll most likely be pumping a rather high volume through to your deck instead of the standard consistant lower-volume that all line-outs feed. This would be what would cause the loss in quality. The two solutions would be to either lower the volume on the iPod and boost it from your deck, or (and this is the better solution), if you use an adapter that hooks up to the bottom of your iPod, you can charge your iPod and get the line-out feed all at once. All this for far cheaper than the $150 iPod adapter and that's not even touching the installation price!

 

That labour definitely seems high...
I bought mine at my dealer in Mass. ($119 during a parts sale...normally $149). Install was $95 (so less than 1 hr). Maybe check with one of the other dealers in Cali and see if they can do better for you.

Also, to answer your other questions...the iPod adapter does not show playlist or song or artist on the headunit, but does allow forwarding, reverse and volume controls on the MFSW.

I have it...I love it. Keeping it in sync (directions are in the manual that comes with it) is important, because it definitely acts up if you don't.

 

I also have the iPod adapter (that sits on my Euro parcel shelf for easy access that noone can see). The thing that bugs me about this is the dealer saying that not letting them install it will void your warranty. If they implied that this would void your entire warranty, they are full of it. If something electrical, particularly with your head unit were to go bad, then they could refuse to work on that part of it, but only if they can tie the problem to the installation of your iPod. They can't void your entire warranty for this. See info on the Magnuson-Moss act

 

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback.

I'm leaning towards using the adapter and will check with other dealers and independents for a resonable install price.

 

I got both the MINI iPod adaptor and installation done for FREE at the dealer before taking delivery of my '05 MCS in late March.

 

Others have pointed out that for the best sound you need to use the line-out from the bottom of the iPod rather than the headphone jack. Here are some adapters:
http://www.sendstation.com/us/products/pd_lineout.html
http://store.sik.com/merchant.mv?Scr...t_Code=03-1004
I like the PocketDock for its simplicity and fewer dangling cords, although the Sik is the same price and includes a car charger.

However, I can see the appeal of a true integrated iPod adapter (either MINI's or aftermarket).