Anyone get that rear bike rack prep? Or the actual bike rack? how does it look? Do people generally like the bike rack?

 

I ordered rear prep. ON my first two MINIs I installed the concealed MINIDOMORE system (hitch hides in the third light hole on R53, and on R55 you need to drill out behind license plate)... on the R60 I used the built-in bike rack prep system, which is two sockets to substructure, requiring either the OEM rack or a third party hitch like Coopercrap that I used.
All the images, and my dealer's comments, indicated that this time on the F56 it's literally a preinstalled hitch. We'll see when it arrives in March...

 

I thought that too, but upon learning from the little but of research out there I think it makes the 2nd hole in the back of the car threaded to receive the tow hook style bike rack. I wanted to add it but being my wife's car this time she opted to add the $250 to another small option with more day to day usefulness, cornering lights in the LED headlights.

 

BOGUS! Tough nut when the configurator shows a receiver hitch. But reading the text, it appears to corroborate the knockout panels. Wonderful.

That was half of a sport suspension right there! $$

 

Our other car (wife's) is a 2010 orange Honda Element. Small world. I've only had one other Mini though.

 

I loved the Element for what it was. I haul bikes around a lot, so that was the main appeal, being able to throw them in standing up... and I thought it was a fun, funky box. I should have gotten the manual, but I couldn't wrap my head around the stick shift being up on the dash console basically. What killed the car for us, other than really wanting to get back into MINI, was the fact that my wife couldn't see out of it, and in SF we had a lot of issues with the suicide doors, trying to open them in tight spaces. What can you do. It was fun though, and if we could have rationalized being a two-car family I would have kept it.

PS regarding the bike rack prep... Coopercrap says they are developing a hitch for the new F56 bike prep on 2015s (twin threaded holes in the bumper) so I guess that's what that's going to have to be. Honestly I would have passed on the option had I done more homework and my dealer been more informed. We both agreed it was a hitch per the pic. Ha