When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
General MINI TalkShared experiences, motoring minutes, and other general MINI-related discussion that applies to all MINIs, regardless of model, year or trim.
My 05 JCW with leather seats aren't very comfortable. The leather is kinda thick and the seat back doesn't give very much cushion. I don't mind it for a few hours but after that it hurts my back, which is better than my wife's 05 Jeep Liberty that thing kills me after 45 minutes. On the other hand the wife can drive her's all day and no complaints but 30 mins in the Mini and she's complaining. What year and style seat would be sporty and comfortable at the same time? Also I get there might be some seat track swapping or minor repinning of the connectors that part doesn't bug me just a seat that physically fits.
I have the power adjustable sport seats with lounge leather, lumbar and leg extension on my '19 CMS and they're very comfy on short trips.
Haven't been on any long trips yet, though.
I have the power adjustable sport seats with lounge leather, lumbar and leg extension on my '19 CMS and they're very comfy on short trips.
Haven't been on any long trips yet, though.
I was looking at something like that. Reminds me of the typical BMW sport seats which were pretty comfy in my 135i.
My 05 JCW with leather seats aren't very comfortable. The leather is kinda thick and the seat back doesn't give very much cushion. I don't mind it for a few hours but after that it hurts my back, which is better than my wife's 05 Jeep Liberty that thing kills me after 45 minutes. On the other hand the wife can drive her's all day and no complaints but 30 mins in the Mini and she's complaining. What year and style seat would be sporty and comfortable at the same time? Also I get there might be some seat track swapping or minor repinning of the connectors that part doesn't bug me just a seat that physically fits.
Between 2004 and 2005 MINI changed the sports seats in the MINI. My wife has a 2004 Cooper with the optional sports seats that were standard in the JCW and Cooper S. Great seats. The change was to make the seat bottom flatter and less side support. In the seat back they removed the lumbar support. These same changes were carried on into the Gen II model S and JCW. This I know as I test drove a 2005 S and then owned a 2007 S and I put a set of the European JCW Recaro seats into it. The 2007 S seats where horrible. I had the same problems you described. I attributed it to the lack of lumbar support. When I ordered my 2012 S, I ordered it with the option seat upgrade with the adjustable lumbar support. All of my seat problems went away. Love these seats. These are even better than our 2004 seats. And I was not thrilled with the Euro JCW Recaro seats. Not worth the effort. For comparison, I am 5’ 11” and about 185# so similar size.
My recommendations:
Find as set of the optional upgraded seats with the adjustable lumber. These will have a **** on the in-board side of the seat back. That is, on the driver’s seat it will be on the right side and on the passenger seat it will be on the left side. In the Gen II version they came with a cloth bottom and back and the side bolstering is done in leather. I would guess these will bolt right in.
Option 2 - find a set of 2004 or older Cooper S/JCW seats. IMHO a slightly less desirable options as I think the seat bottom is a hair shorter and doesn’t support my legs as well...
So far from what I'm seeing is the Recaro's are a no go in the US very expensive and rare. The seats I posted up are Countryman's which might work but are from a 4 door so they won't have the quick fold unless I can switch that over. I really like the F56 sport seats but they seem pretty rare right now as I can only find a passenger seat but at 400 a seat wasn't trying to spend more than 500-600. Anybody know if the countryman seats should work and fold enough to get access to the rear.
Have you sat in the F56 sport seats? I have them in my JCW and wish they had a bit more lumbar support and a bit softer seat bottom. While there is a lot to like about the F56 sports seats, I find them to be a bit less comfortable for long distance cruising than my R56 seats with the adjustable lumbar.
I don’t know about the Countryman seats in your car.
I have not, I considered trying to find some but honestly I've sat in many seats I thought were comfortable but wore on my after a few hours. Then you got the seats in my Mazda3 that are never exactly comfortable but I can sit in those all day without an issue. I live in the country so kind of a PITA to find anything nearby at a dealer. given the limited choices I figured I'd just pull the trigger on the countryman seats if they fold forward enough. If not I'll keep my eye out for some R56's there's a few styles but the sport ones remind me of a typical BMW seat.
What about taking your current seats to an upholsterer to get some additional padding added? I’ve not done this but it seems like it might be a solution.
I have not, I considered trying to find some but honestly I've sat in many seats I thought were comfortable but wore on my after a few hours. Then you got the seats in my Mazda3 that are never exactly comfortable but I can sit in those all day without an issue. I live in the country so kind of a PITA to find anything nearby at a dealer. given the limited choices I figured I'd just pull the trigger on the countryman seats if they fold forward enough. If not I'll keep my eye out for some R56's there's a few styles but the sport ones remind me of a typical BMW seat.
The Countryman seat will be the easiest thing to do. It will be interesting to hear what you find out.
I will say that I feel your pain (every pun intended). When I sat in the F56 JCW in the showroom and even when I took the car for a test drive I thought those sports seats were great. But afterwards I am finding them to be not so good in the long trips. So, yes, it is really hard to tell how seats are going to be in the long term just by sitting in them for a few minutes. I’m sure this is the case for any seat. I had a 1980 Chevy PU with a bench seat. Sitting in its seat just to see how it felt, it felt “Meh” and, yet, I sat in that seat for 8-ish hours a day for 3 weeks when I took my family out to Yellowstone and back with the camper we had. No problems. A big difference between those and a “sports car” seat is that I sat in that bench seat like a I would in a couch. Having the lower leg and feet hanging down instead of outward seemed to be the big difference. And the back was a curved in a way to support the lumbar.
Originally Posted by RudeJoe
What about taking your current seats to an upholsterer to get some additional padding added? I’ve not done this but it seems like it might be a solution.
This is, actually, a good idea, especially if the Countryman seat aren’t quite right. You could experiment with the seats and see what helps and then have them modified. Here is my plan to improve my JCW seats. It may help with some ideas to try...
I have real sheep skin fleece seat covers in my Wrangler that I got because I have never sat in a colder seat in the winter than those. They are nice and warm. But what I also found is that the fleece is a cushion that doesn’t mat down and it removes some of the pressure points the Wrangler seats have with that hard vinyl. So I am going to try some of fleece material on the seat bottom of the JCW seat to soften it a little.
When I first installed the JCW Recaro seats in my ‘07 S, I found that they were really bad. My legs would go numb in them. The fix was to tilt the seat bottom to have the front edge of the seat much higher than the back edge. So, my plan for the JCW seat is to add a spacer (maybe a 1/4” to start) to the front mounting points of the seats and see how that works.
I have talked about lumbar support, and will experiment with that. I actually have a fleece shoulder harness pad that I plan to try as a “pillow back there” to see if that helps. If it does I’ll figure out how to make the added support permanent.
I'm not the biggest fan of the sport seats in our 2003 Cooper S. The bottoms are flat and hard and have no bolstering to keep you in place. Now, I have also discovered the height adjustment on the driver's seat won't adjust down, so I'm in a far less than ideal seating position.
I 100% agree with Eddie on tilting the seat base so it brings the support up under your knees. This is how I have the seat positioned in my 2003 325i Touring. I love those e46 sport seats so much I made a set of brackets and put a rougher set I had lying around into my 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee. So, I also agree with the OP on the comfort of the BMW sport seats.
I ended up doing a set of 16 F56 seats. What I'm finding is getting the seat to actually fit was easy enough. Tracks are 1 inch wider and 1 inch longer than R series seats. Using the inner front bolt hole and drilling the other three using some nut serts it bolted right in. Seat belt required grinding the plastic on the buckles back. As for the electronics that's a real pain. The seats I got were missing the airbags so I'm waiting for those to ship. Seat belt sensor was easy, heater controls are completely different, I bypassed the F56 heater module and wired up the heating elements just like the old seats but the heater turns off after 2 seconds. Seat sensor for the airbag is different, 3 wire on the new seats vs 2 wire for the old. I'll probably tear the seats completely down when I get the airbags and swap over the airbag seat sensors and play around with the differences in the heating elements, swap those over if I have to. Here's a pic of what it looks like. Also I could only find 4 door seats so I had to bend the seat back stop to allow it to fold forward all the way.
1. swap connectors for the airbags, seat belt sensor and heater if equipped (more on the heater on step 4)
2. remove the seatbelt and ABS seat belt tensioner off the R53 seats. Cut off the seat belt portion leaving just the cylinder and wiring. plug it in and zip tie under the seat 3. Occupancy sensor needs swapped from the passenger R53 seat. This requires unbolstering the lower portion cutting the hog rings, placing the sensor and module in the seat (I had to cut a little foam toward the front for the module) and reringing the seat back up 4. Seat heaters - the thermistor is different between the seats, you'll have to cut the thermistor wire and connect up the old thermistor from the sensor wire and ground to get a proper signal. this should be tested before cutting to ensure functionality is correct. If the positive and negative are reversed the lights on the switch will immediately turn off but if correct they will turn on for at least a second. If it turns on and off after a second there's a thermistor problem
I'm 6' about 200lb and thought they were some of the most comfortable sport seats I've sat in. They were very similar to my seats I had in my BMW 135i. I really didn't think the old seats were bad but after several hours down the road they seemed worn out and no real cushion to them.
