I think I will be having a short test drive in an automatic Cooper on Friday.

It should be dry and sunny. I'm not sure how the car is equipped.

Primarily I want to test the body roll at about 55km/h.

I'm also going to try to remember to look at the storage box, how well my iPod Touch 5 works, the sunroof shade, HK vs. base radio, if I can figure out how to adjust the sports seat side bolsters.

Any requests?

Manual

None of the cars had a storage box to look at.

The IPod Touch 5 works fine with both the base radio and the HK.

The HK is very bass heavy, not well balanced, that would need to be adjusted down, but it does sound noticably better than the rather weak base radio. I played the first chorus to Bettie Serveert's Wide Eyed Fools.


I could not adjust the side bolsters enough to be comfortable. Not a big guy option.

It was only 3'C outside and the sunroof was too hot. It's such a stupid design. They should have another sunroof option.

Coming from an R50, the body roll is too much. Sitting in the passenger seat, head bouncing off the sunroof, it felt like I was in a barber chair.

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Here's the real **** off for today. The salesman and I spec'd the car I would want, and the system told him it was fine to build. The problem was with MINI Canada.

Their packaging is idiotic. You cannot get the sports suspension unless you get a sunroof. What does one have to do with the other? It's beyond me.

You can not get a heated windshield without a sunroof, sports seats, automatic climate control and an on-board computer. I live in one of the coldest cities on Earth, these idiots are in Vancouver, they have no idea. Absolute bungling.

The word from the dealer was that MINI Canada said, "absolutely not." They would need to create a whole new VIN number because the VIN describes the car. It sounds like utter ******** to me.

So I guess I'm out. MINI Canada.

I totally agree with you, especially the bundling of the sports suspension with the sunroof. I objected to to bait and switch come on for the paddle shifters on the automatic-you can't get them unless you buy the JCW steering wheel which adds-wait for it- red stitching for $250.

There is different packaging between the Canadian and US models. I built my Cdn MCS 6MT on the US website as well, and on the US site, it actually cost more because of packaging for the items I wanted and have ordered on the Cdn site. BMW does the same thing with packaging, and it can be frustrating.

Is the heated windshield part of any package on the miniusa.com site? Or must it be added manually?

Thanks in advance...

For whatever reason, the heated windshield isn't available in the US.

That's too bad...it means even fully loaded cars will have a switch blank on the dash. :(

Maybe, but not a real biggie problem, is it? Most cars I have had in the past years have had a blank somewhere on the dash, and after a few days, I don't even notice it.

I think I saw a part number for a switch, it costs about $60. What would you have it do?

tuco44, that's true. Porsches are the worst, a fully loaded Cayman still has blanks on the center console panel (because the panel is shared with other models).

I'm actually going through stages of grief.

I'm somewhere between anger and bargaining. I'm not totally through with denial.

Infuriating.

I have a miracle break-through, thanks to MINI Canada Customer Service!

I have hope. This is great...