Forgot to say that I bought my JCW with the sport suspension. Still have yet to get a good feel for it though.

 

DC1 - i have had sunroofs on my other cars and rarely used them so i figured the cost wasn't worth it. The Boxster was a convertible but the weird thing is that, while open air motoring is great as long as you are moving, the minute you stop at a light or get in a traffic jam, it gets uncomfortable (unless you are a young sun worshipper... )

When i optioned the car my philosophy was to add only the options that would make the driving better - i didn't consider resale value because i keep my cars, on average, 10 years.
- suspension - considered both sports and JCW but after reading posts here and driving SmokeM's JCW with the stock suspension, decided i didn't need it
- sunroof adds weight - don't use it anyway
- iPod, phone, etc - retired, don't talk on cell phone, deaf in my left ear
- heated seats - nice but not worth $500
etc, etc - you get my drift

Thanks for the feedback on the JCW wheel!

Good luck with your MINI - the worst time on a new car is the break in period when you want to drive hard but can't

Steve
btw - Audis are great car (imho) - my brother in law always drives them and i can only imagine the S4 kicks butt. My Rabbit has some of the niceties on the interior that Audi is known for.

 

Blah blah. After a lot of research, I'm more or less driving how I like. I'm making sure to let the car warm up and cool off sufficiently, and am going through all the gears at varying speeds etc. to seat the piston rings. I've not taken it quite to the redline; am mostly keeping it below 6k rpm. I've not been above 85mph but doubt that I ever will.

Yeah, I know it's a little scandalous since it's going against what the manufacturer says, but meh. I couldn't find much of a reason to follow the break-in strictly except for "Because they said so". As an engineer myself, I know that it's generally NOT the engineers who write the documentation.

 

but... being a (retired) software engineer and working with both software and hardware engineers for 30 years i'm **** about following directions

it might not matter if you follow the break in instructions (btw, what are they for the MINI?) but i'll just feel better if i do

sort of like taking vitamins - how do you really know if they help???

 

Understandable. I'm a young'n. I'd be kicking myself if I lugged around for 1200 miles, especially if I found out that not only did I waste 1200 miles of driving, but I also burned more oil because of the break-in.

 

I'm there with ya, in like mind, and profession... (just not the retired part. About two more decades for me.) So you've been there right through the prime of the birth of computing. Big thumbs-up. The fields keeps us on our toes.

There's a thread on break-in in the regular S forums. 1200 miles, under 4500 rpm, under 90 (you're breaking in the drive-train too). I'm glad I'd been sticking to that; tho since about 800 miles I've been flicking up to 5K a tad, tho infrequently. Car's got a lot of torque, so you can be very happy under 4500 rpm. I am.

My C43 was probably abused as a tester -- it had I think 49 miles on it, all NYC test drives -- and I didn't break it in other than keep it under 3K rpm until the engine was over 80C (I hate I don't have a temp gauge in the MINI). Otherwise would hit redline in 1st & 2nd often from the day I had it. (my MB sales person said don't worry about break-in) The original engine before I did the the 5.4L swap was feeling 'off' from the 30K or 40K range and 'tired' at about 60K. Needed to add a quart of oil every 5K miles or so.

 

minim8o - it's a great profession - although over the years it got more demanding since most companies expect you to be available 24/7. my first job was writing in assembly language - quite painful before i moved to mgmt i was doing C (no C++, Java or OOP around then) - we've come a long way since the early 70s. now i have the best job in the world - doing web work out of my house for a small company. I'm a lucky guy.

as for break in, and even after break in, i never drove my cars to extremes - we all have to do what we feel comfortable with. I just knew i would keep my cars a long time and did everything that i thought would help achieve that (but i still had fun!).

btw - you have to wonder when the dealer says not to worry about a break in... heck, they're out to sell more cars