I greatly relied on this board when ordering my Mini. Now that I've had it for about 3 weeks, I offer the following personal impressions for those of you about to order.

1. Stick or Auto? - I got the stick and am 100% happy with the decision. My last stick was about 10 years ago, and it's great to go back to one, especially in a Mini.
2. S? I'm 90% pleased that I didn't get the S. I didn't want the Cooper auto and, for me, the Cooper stick is better than the S auto. Plus about $5K cheaper. I almost never feel a need for more power.
3. Cabrio? - I got the Cabrio and am 100% pleased with the decision. Even though the visibility is terrible to the rear and even worse to the side-rear when changing lanes, the view looking straight up more than makes up for it.
4. Leather? - The main reason I got the leather was for the added lumbar support. An expensive lumbar support, but necessary for me. Otherwise, the Leatherette would have been fine.
5. HK? - 90% happy. I thought the non-HK sound was pretty bad. I'm OK with the HK, but had to reduce the bass.
6. Aux or iPod? - I decided not to get the iPod interface because I don't always carry my iPod with me. With the aux, I can play music and podcasts from my Treo, which I do carry all the time. Also, because the head unit plays MP3s, I can leave lots of music in the car. If the CDs melt in the summer heat, I can burn more for a few pennies. However, it's pretty bad that the head unit will not display ID3 tags for MP3 CDs. But still 100% happy that I didn't get the iPod connector.
7. Color - I got PW/B. 50% happy. Of course, I had looked at many, many colors before ordering, but never saw a black on black Cabrio until after I ordered mine. I would have ordered one. So you Cabrio buyers, make sure to see what the color schemes look like ON THE CABRIO and in person before ordering.
8. Tires and Wheels - I got the stock 15s, because I wanted the smoother ride and because, to be honest, I simply don't know much about tires and wheels. I'm not saying tires and wheels aren't important, just that, like fine wine, I'm going to have to wait until my next life to learn about them. 90% happy on this one - but maybe only because ignorance is bliss.
9. Heated seats - A good, relatively cheap option.
10. Xenons? - I live in a city and don't really need powerful headlights, so I didn't consider them. But a few nights ago I happened to see two nearly identical Mercedes coupes driving downtown one behind the other. One had Xenons, the other didn't. The one with the Xenons looked much, much better. So, only about 95% happy.

Happy Motoring!