True ... I was sort of expecting that one ....

Thanks for not saying it!

 

Will do.

 

When I was looking to buy I never would consider leather. Cloth only. When I saw the car I was going to buy and found it had leather I was luke warm to it, felt it was just additional $$$ wasted ... until I started to live with it. Now I would NEVER get a MINI without leather. These seats absolutely rock.:smile:

 

When I bought my car it came with cloth seats. My preferance however was leather so I got Katskinz leather seats for my mini. Yellow insert thingies, and I think it was around 800 dollars. (birthday gift) . I would look into this option if I were you I have heard several people complain about the poor quality of the mini leather seats. The Katskinz are very high quality, soft, and 100% leather. I also think they have a life time guarantee.
Edit: I forgot to add that you can get perforated "inserts", custom logo's on the headrests, piping, and all sorts of other custom options without spending $1300.

 

That sounds pretty cool. Do you have any pics?

 

I really enjoy the quality of leather, the Leatherette is fine, just fine, no cracks, lasts longer, looks good, but I do not like the idea, you either have cloth or leather....On the other side is it worth spending extra cash on Xenon lights, since halogen lights work fine, or paying extra for climate control since the manual a/c controls do the job?

My personal suggestion is, IF YOU DOUBT IT DO NOT DO IT. It is not an important item that will make you regret in the future.

Good Luck

 

Whew - good to know, thanks!

Oh, and FWIW, it's a simple matter of personal preference. . .if you like leather about $1,300 worth, then yeah, it's worth it. We have leather in our current MINI, and we ordered it in our new MCSC, but I have to admit, I tried to talk the wife out of it based on the cost, and I had leather in my last convertible and didn't like it - too hot for my tastes. But the dark blue leather in the Cool Blue convertible, well, it was just TOO cool to pass up. . .but if they'd have had blue cloth - tougher choice.

That said, I think $800 for the red cloth is too much when you can get the space grey for $0. Sometimes, me jus' don' unnerstan' the way MINI prices things. . .$200 for the anthracite headliner? WTF??

 

Theres one decent one in my gallery. also has my attempt at a colored tach. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...0&ppuser=16230

 

I'm 100% happy with paying the extra $800 for the leather/cloth seats for one simple reason:

those priceless adjustable lumbar supports

U don't get those with the leatherette, not sure about the cloth. I drove a friend's 05 MCS with the leatherette seats and my back ached big after a couple hours w/o the lumbar support. after all U can pull some good G's with these little cars! Jimbo

 

I was told that the sport seats were the same whether they have leather, leatherette or cloth. I've never heard that the lumbar support is only available with leather seats. Is this true???

 

If you'll be stuffing some combination of kids, dogs, windsurfers, potting soil, disassembled Italian motorcycles, trophy elk, or whacked mafiosi in your Mini... then leatherette rules.

 

exactly my point. sticky and blazing hot in summer...ice cold in winter. i just think leather and leather type stuff is extremely uncomfortable. i love the cloth seats

 

Yup. It's actually how my MA was able to tell the difference between the black leather seats & the black letherette seats =).

I personally went for leather simply because the Lapis Blue wasn't available in Letherette and it looks SOOOO good with HB/B!!! .

Also the Lumbar support is important to me as I broke my spine in the upper lubar while snowboarding about a year ago. I'm better now, but want to be nice to my fragile back .

 

I agree completely...I also have the blue lapis leather, really does look great with Hyper Blue with Black top.

 

U were misinformed. Lumbar support is only available on the leather/cloth and full leather sport seats. Jimbo

 

My 1st 2005 convert mini had the 1300.00 up grade , but had a cvt auto trans. For the money i ordered a supercharger w auto s and ette is ok . The ette gets a little hotter with the seat warmers and no lumbar support but the supercharger is better esp on hills.

 

When I ordered my car in March 02 there weren't as many options as there are today. I have had both leather and cloth interiors in my cars over the years and leather is just a far superior material for seating. That said the left side bolster on the drivers seat in my Mini is starting to show wear, the welting is freying. This doesn't surprise me although I am disappointed, the quality of the leather they use in the Mini is substandard it's just not top notch stuff and that's the only reason why I think $1,300 is way too much to spend on this option. I only have 23,000 miles on my car, the leather seams should not be showing this much wear. I wonder if this is covered under warranty, anyone know?