Anybody used them or wished that they had? Our R56 (Spice Orange) is somewhere at sea, should arrive in 4 or 5 weeks, and we're just considering what protection to put on before exposing it to the road. I've looked at a bunch of used Minis and a clear bra is a no brainer but I'm not really seeing any damage that mud flaps or magnetic stone guards would prevent. Am I just missing something?
TIA and have fun...

 

Nope, you really don't need anything more than a clear bra.

 

i had the mudflaps put on before i took delivery. I have no idea if they're needed, but my last 2 cars always had splash marks on the doors. i just wanted to avoid that, and it seems to work.

the OEM mudflaps blend in nicely and very subtly bring down the body line.

 

The front ones keep some stuff from flying up onto the paint. The rear ones serve absolutely no purpose. Never used the magnetic stone guard thingies, so I can't help you there.

 

They look great on the car. They do protect the sides very well. They keep crap of the back bumper pretty well too. The will protect the side of your car from rocks so you shouldn't need both the flaps and stone gaurds.

 

I put the front ones on for function, and the back ones to balance the look. It's an easy DIY project if you want to try it out without them for a while, though.

 

I have both the mudflaps and the stone guards. Others have spoken about the mudflaps so I will let you know about the stone guards.
At first I really liked them, mostly for the 'look' however now I have taken them off. I always removed them when I washed the car and the last time they started to 'fuse' themselves to the paint and car and one of them started to come off in pieces with small bits 'sticking'. At this point I decided not to put them back on as I did not want to have issues with the finish on the car.

 

I have both... the mudflaps and the stone guards as well as the clear bra on the front. I like the stone guards because I can put them on & off as I wish. I leave them on more often as I drive 180 miles a day round trip on the highway... yes PER DAY and I noticed a few small chips.

 

Yes on mud flaps if you like the look. fronts blend well, the rears not so much. but the magnentic guards get dirt, water, and sand under them for any long period of time and tend to become sand paper or stuck to the body after a while. if you like the look, make it out of vinyl and put it on permanently.

Chad
Detroit Tuned

 

I have Mud Flaps but purely for looks, and had thought about the Stone Guards, but if any dirt/grit got under them it wouldn't be pretty!!

 

Since the clear bra was mentioned in this thread I'll ask a question about it and not feel like I'm hijacking the thread. I used to live in NJ so I know about the crap they dump on the roads in the winter and the damage it can do to your car, but now I live in Southern CA - no snow at all. I've been wondering if the bra is really necessary here. I had it on the 335i I just sold and hated it because the line was very visible, at least to me. A guy at work has an 08 Justa without a bra and I took a close look at his front end and saw no chips at all. They're expensive and I'd rather spend the money on something more fun than a bra and something I'm going to love rather than hate, but if it's ab absolute must, I guess I'll get it. I was just looking for opinions from others who are lucky like me and live in a fair weather area. Thanks

 

Thank you all VERY much for your replies, which have narrowed my focus to front flaps only...even if they're not really necessary to prevent chips, just keeping splash and maybe tar/oil/muck off justifies them if they look good. Berto, agokart, and RJKimbell all reinforced my initial concern about the magnetic stone guards being a potential cause of damage and if they're not necessary, it's good to come back down to earth and not waste thirty five bucks after getting numbed out spending 30k .

An observation for chaswyck (ours too Spice Orange, no stripes, anthracite headliner, HK btw) re clear bra: I am only doing one to avoid chips, not for fear of road chemicals. I walked my dealer's line of 16 used cars (one 06, mostly 08, 09, 10) the other day, none had clear bras, and EVERY one had noticable chip damage, most had substantial (more than a dozen noticable chips) damage. I'm not really high on the looks of a bra, but my conclusion was that here, in Colorado, I wanted the protection. Not only do you have fair weather but I'm in the ROCKIES lol. Look at local cars to see how they're holding up, and I expect folks here on this forum will "chip" in...

 

It wasn't really the road chemicals I was referring to. When I lived in NJ and especially Western PA, they would spread this really nasty mixture of salt and gravel and what I used to call black s**t. I think it was some kind of by product from coal mining. The gravel would chip the paint so the salt could get at the bare metal and in three winters your car would rust out. They couldn't have come up with a more effective way to destroy cars if they tried. Anyway, it was the gravel part of the mixture I was talking about. We don't have any of that stuff flying around out here. Your idea of walking along the line of used MINI's is a good one. I'm going to do that.

 

Selder
I initially did not see that you were here in Colorado. Without a doubt you want a clear bra on the car to deal with the 'gravel' they put on the roads! They just barely break up the boulders that have fallen.