So i've owned 2 mini's in the past and got a Camry due to the birth of 2 sons! Now I'm back in the market for a Mini Countryman S or All 4. I've been looking at the inventories of the 5 Mini Dealers in this Chicago'land area, and I'm amazed that the ones in-stock, do NOT have Harman Kardon! WTF?

Most of them have the color/options I'm looking for, but I NEED a good sound system. Due to most aftermarkets not having solutions yet, I guess I'll have to custom order, but I don't want to wait 8 weeks!!!!


Suggestions?

 

When we were shopping for our CM (here in NJ) we also noted that few cars the dealers had on the lot had HK, and for us the HK was a must. Turned out to be our favorite option. The HK system in the CM is far superior to the HK system that was in our R53. It's no surprise that dealers tend to order cars for stock the way they think the most shoppers will be looking for them to be equipped, since their goal is to sell as many units asap. Your alternative would be to have an aftermarket system installed.

 

I was under the impression that there really aren't aftermarket options yet for the Countryman?!?!?!

 

My suggestion is just broaden your search area. I found my car in Florida and had it shipped to Nevada for $880. I'm not suggesting you will have to go that far but I always use eBay, Autotrader and Search Tempest to look across the country on Craigslist to try to find and buy a well taken care of 'new' car with low miles (only 2700 in my case), from the original owner and let them take the initial depreciation hit. I got mine, a 2012, with HK for almost $8k off MSRP and saved the sales tax. If you order a new one now it might still be a 2012 unless you wait another two months to place the order and that means when it comes in you get hit with the depreciation AND it's already a year old! Something to think about.

 

I was assuming that any good car audio shop would have amps and speakers that can be easily adapted to the CM. I guess I could be wrong (as I never looked into it since our car has HK), but I would be very surprised if that's not the case.

 

Well the Hk doesn't change the head unit, just the amp and speakers. There are options for both of those. While a good setup would be more money than the HK, the quality would be better.

I really want to add an actual sub to my HK but there is so little room already in the boot

 

I ordered mine with out the HK system. Yes it is superior to the stock unit, but if I want better sound i can go out and get a 5 channel amp, 4 4" 2 way speakers and a compact subwoofer and have something much better then the HK system. My Current R50 has the stock system and it isn't "amazing" but it's pretty good. My dad has a R53 with the HK upgrade and the music still sounds a bit muddled, with overly heavy base, and the HK system in the R60 is kind of the same. At least the one I messed around with at the dealer.

If you really want to add a sub to the system why not add a small 6.5" under one of the seats in the factory location. I am sure someone could build a box small enough to fit that big enough to get proper use out of it.

Long and short of it if you love your HK system then you have a car you can enjoy even more! Its like me and the xenon headlights, why are not all of the All4 sporting them? So much better then the halogen, but they sell so dealers order them. It was one of the main reason my wife and I didn't take one off the lot and ordered one. Hurray 8 weeks of waiting...

 

My GF is the primary driver of our CM, and thought the extra $ to upgrade to HK was a waste as she usually listens to books on disc when she drives. But I persisted, and now she says even the books on disc sound so much better versus the HK that was on our R53. And she is enjoying Sirius far more than she expected because of the HK. I was always disappointed with the R53's HK, and I'm pleasantly surprised that CM's HK system is dramatically better, nearly as good as the HK system in our '11 X5.

I also think the Xenons are well worth the $, but I can understand that many people are struggling to afford a CM, simply can't order all the options they would like to, and think the standard headlights are good enough.

 

I had the HK in my first CM, but do not have it in my CMs and sometimes I miss it. It just added that extra sound quality that you need in order to really turn it up, like when you have the windows down on the highway or something.

I looked up the parts at Sewellparts.com for the HK stuff and it is quite expensive, so much so that it isn't even an option for me to buy the components to add them at this point.