I ordered my Clubman last November, and relied on the info on the MINI UK site since even the dealer here had little US info available at the time. In the UK MINI sensibly bundles both front and rear fog lamps in one package, and somehow I missed the omission of the front fog lamps on my order confirmation.

Century MINI says that it will cost me $1,500. to replace the DRL's with the DRL/fog lamps, make the proper hack(!) into the wiring harness, and replace the switch blank with a fog lamp switch. Given this was supposed to be a $250. option, I'm amazed at the dealer's estimate, and would be interested in any info on how to add these lights without spending 6X what they should have cost.

Email to MINI detailing this problem were met with a canned response.
If anyone has the phone # to MINI corporate HQ, I'd be interested in that also.

Thanks,
Joe

'08 Clubman, # 46100

 

LakemoorJoe,

For the factory to put the parts in is no extra time as they are having to put some part in any way. For the dealer to put the parts in means taking the parts that are there out and then installing the new parts. Unfortunately this is a very time consuming job.

Just the replacement dash parts are slightly over $100 and then there is a minimum of 4 hours to take it a part and put in the dash parts. This does not include any wiring harness if the correct harness is not in the car, nor does it include replacement front foglight fixtures if needed.

If a wiring harness needs to be changed then you are looking at probably another 4 to 8 hours of labor if not more.

So if only the switch panel needs to be redone then you are looking at about $300 in labor minimum and $100 in parts for a total of $400+.

The dealers estimate may be a little high but then they also know what needs to be changed or added.

You may want to ask the to give you a breakdown of what needs to be done before signing to have it done. Then bring the list of parts that need changing and we can help you with a closer estimate or way to do it yourself.

 

sounds just like the MFSW. it is a $250 option from the factory but to have the dealer do it will run about $1100-1300. it is just a lot easier to put the things in while the car is being built. and the way they are built today there are just some things you just cant do once the car is put together.

 

This thread in post #1 shows how to replace the switch panel out to d the rear fog light switch. This would be the same procedure for the front, jsut a different switch location.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=125800

And BTW even if you do the labor part of it your self it still needs to go to the dealer for programing. Which will still cost you a pretty penny.

 

Thanks for all the help. Sounds like I've got no other option than to have the dealer hack the harness and install the lamps at the price they quoted.

I guess BMW has run a cost analysis of building cars this way and decided it's cheaper or something. To my way of thinking it would be cheaper and easier to use a single wiring harness that would support any combination of options regardless whether or not a car was built fully optioned, rather than have many different harnesses.

Must say this experience leaves me disappointed in BMW. Overall I like the Clubman, but the inability to easily add components like the fog lamps, the tinny sound of the premium stereo speakers, the finicky open/close of the sunroof, intermittent automatic right-side window, badly mis-aligned piping on the seats, water-filled rear directional lamps, and the impossibility of seeing a stoplight because of the huge roof overhang makes me wonder if I even want to consider upgrading to the AWD version when it's released.