Hello All,
Ok here it goes, my girlfriend is planning on buying an 07 Mcs this Saturday and she doesn't like the standard Mini Bonnet stripes and we want to know if we were to take them off to put on viper stripes, would there be any visible paint fade from the exisitng stripes??? Also would there be much residue from the existing stripes??? The dealership wants to charge her $295.00 to take off the existing stripes for the newer viper stripes, is that a total ripoff??? How hard are they to put on anyway??? Any thoughts, suggestions or answers would be greatly apopreciated.
Thanx

 

Why pay for something you don't want and even worse pay to have it removed. If the dealer is not willing to switch out the stripes for her, just order the car how she wants it, wait the month it takes to get here and save $500.

When you start talking about ordering an almost identical car to one the dealer is trying to get rid of they may start changing their tune, mine did.

 

$295???!!! Are they NUTS?

Which dealership are you working with?

I agree with the other poster...if you tell them that you'll just order an identical car minus the factory stripes, they'll probably be much more willing to negotiate with you.

 

Good god thats a rip off. You can easily remove the stripes with a blow dryer and some time. They are just vinyl stick ons.

 

$295 is insane.

Frankly, they're very easy to remove and I've done three sets of stripes now completely on my own, and I'm not the least bit handy (one set of boot stripes and two sets of bonnet stripes). They're especially easy to remove if they've only been on a short time.

Stripes are a dealer-installed option - is the car AT the dealership yet? Because if she ordered it, odds are the stripes aren't even on the car yet. However, if the car is being bought off the lot and already has stripes, it is pretty easy with a bit of Goo-Gone spray to get them off.

Then order a custom set from one of the great vendors here (mine are from Aesthetic Creations but all the vendors here are great), save yourself the $295 and install them yourself in under an hour

$295 for $20 worth of stripes...freaking ridiculous...I bet we could play "guess the dealership" on this one...

 

First, I would try some negotiaiting with the dealer. $295 is crazy, but then my dealer told me they would install my stripes for $222. Needless to say, they didn't install the first set. My friend who has a sign shop installed them for me and got one heck of a laugh out of the price the dealer was asking.

If you want to try it on your own, it really isn't a major ordeal. There was a thread on NAM (Detailing forum, I think) a while back about removing vinyl decals. The thread had a link to a sign supply company that sold a plastic tool for removing vinyl decals that cost around $2. I ordered one and removed my stripes which had been on the car around 6 months. I then used GooGone to remove any remaining adhesive residue. The adhesive removal was the only tough part of the job. It took a lot of elbow grease. There was no noticeable paint fade.

Like Melissa, I got a set of custom stripes from Aesthetic Creations (but there are many other places that do stripes and graphics) and installed them myself in about an hour. (NOTE: actual installation took about 20 minutes, the rest of the time was spent measuring, measuring, and measuring again, then trying to convince myself that I really could do this. )

FWIW, OctaneGuy(aka Richard), a NAM Vendor, was very helpful in answering many of my questions when I was planning my project since I had concerns about damaging the paint while removing the stripes and any left over adhesive.

 

No worries about paint fadeing in a few days. But if your going to take them right off, why bother paying for them?

 

Go order a set of stripes from someplace like www.cooperflags.com

Spend about $40-50 on the stripes and install them yourself. It is so easy. If you make a mistake, order another set and you are still way ahead of what the stealership is charging.

FWIW, when we bought our Cooper from Classic MINI in Ohio, we had a set of cooperflags stripes shipped to them before delivery and they installed them for us at no charge before we took delivery. Considering that it will take a skilled person no more than 15 minutes to install the stripes (and about 1 minute to remove the old ones), you should not be charged much at all for this.

 

Wow! Who in heck is your dealership? Sounds like they're a greedy little bunch.

 

Tell them you want your deposit back as you found the same car without stripes at another dealer. They are not going to let money just walk out the door.

 

My dealer wanted $200.00 to install boot stripes...and those were the two piece on the right side variety. I ordered the matching stripes to my bonnet from Aesthetic Creations which included a new OEM Cooper S emblem and installed them myself for $65.00. Took me less than 30 to 45 Minutes.