>>>>Oh man, you guys in the Pacific make me jealous. I spent some time at Tripler (the giant pink Army hospital overlooking Honolulu) as a nurse. My Mini arrives in May - oh to be driving one THERE! That's the life...
H&J,

Aloha and good to hear from you. Quite a few MINI owners spent time in Hawaii with the military over the last 30 years. If we can have a Las Vegas MINI vacation it makes you wonder why you cannot have a Hawaii MINI vacation except how do you get enough MINIs to make it out here without making the expense excessive. Oh Well.

Where do you live now? Are you getting a MC or MCS? Good luck,

 

Aah, the grass is always greener on the other skirt! Driving on Oahu can be very frustrating due to our bumper to bumper traffic in the morning and evening rush hour. Then when there is no traffic and I go on a nice island run, it makes me dizzy as we can only drive in circles.

minihune - wasn't there something about the dealer maintaining the warranty with the JCW and NOT the Dinan? How will that work here as the dealer is doing lots of JCWs and is an authorized Dinan Center? I know Steve Dinan says you will get a Dinan warranty when your car is modded by Dinan and your factory warranty is voided, so how does that work?

 

>>minihune - wasn't there something about the dealer maintaining the warranty with the JCW and NOT the Dinan? How will that work here as the dealer is doing lots of JCWs and is an authorized Dinan Center? I know Steve Dinan says you will get a Dinan warranty when your car is modded by Dinan and your factory warranty is voided, so how does that work?

I spoke to Esoteric about this and our best understanding is that If your MINI is upgraded with any DINAN kit or part from an authorized DINAN location which BMW of Honolulu is, then those DINAN upgrades are covered under the DINAN warranty which applies. The MINI warranty for those items is voided.

So a MINI dealer that had no DINAN facility would not be able to honor warranty work for DINAN upgrades.
In our case our dealer will honor JCW kit installs and DINAN upgrade installs alike as they apply. In this respect we are lucky to have both options.

Thanks for asking. I think the DINAN upgrades do offer good options for MINI owners who would like a warranty for their upgrades.
Now if we could get them to arrive soon that would be great.

 

Now the queston would be if customers prefer the Dinan alternative, it will take away sales of the JCW. Will MINI USA get on the dealers case because sales of Dinan will be cannibalizing sales of factory stuff that add to the corporate bottom line? Look at it this way. A JCW kit is @$6k installed. The Dinan kit, I believe, doesn't include a new head. Installed cost will probably be @ $3k installed. Both will have a warranty. The JCW has the MINI warranty and Dinan will have a similar warranty. Both will have similar gains, which would you choose?

 

>>Now the queston would be if customers prefer the Dinan alternative, it will take away sales of the JCW. Will MINI USA get on the dealers case because sales of Dinan will be cannibalizing sales of factory stuff that add to the corporate bottom line? Look at it this way. A JCW kit is @$6k installed. The Dinan kit, I believe, doesn't include a new head. Installed cost will probably be @ $3k installed. Both will have a warranty. The JCW has the MINI warranty and Dinan will have a similar warranty. Both will have similar gains, which would you choose?

What will customers prefer? For those on a budget but who want upgrades with some R&D thoughtfully done and some dealer (via DINAN) warranty to remain intact, the DINAN upgrades are attractive. Those who don't mind the higher prices and are strong on the JCW racing heritage and want a MINI backed warranty then the JCW kit is attractive.

Will DINAN and JCW fight over upgrade sales? Sure but that also brings in competition. The Dealers install either in our area so they stand to benefit and both companies offer warranty work support.

Will MINIUSA have concern over less demand for the JCW kits? Not if competition forces the prices for the JCW kits to realign to remain competitive in the market-thus no glut of upgrade kits would occur. And not if by having the DINAN upgrades as an option this attracts more DINAN loyal BMW owners to consider a MINI with DINAN upgrades as a possible car purchase.

Gains for the respective kits are similar. Question is who do you believe? Is one overrated and one underrated for HP? I say take them both to an independent dyno test before and after upgrades. Test MINI #1 and #2 stock and add a kit to each one and re-dyno and compare in the same shop.

JCW kit Better or worse than DINAN?
I think the proof is in the pudding. Drive both and see if you think the balance of power and handling is similar or different. I'd guess it is quite similar. If this is true then the JCW having the reworked cylinder head (added cost) and full supercharger replacement may not yield much up front for the added cost. The caveat of this is -does the machined head allow the upgraded supercharger to function and wear better over the life of the upgrade/engine. The DINAN stage 2 kit has no head work and doesn't swap superchargers, it adds a reduction pulley (maybe less labor), cold air intake, free flow exhaust, Hi flow throttlebody and fully matched engine management software.

On warranty, I think the DINAN warranty is longer at up to 4 years/50,000 miles if the kit is installed when the car is new, and 2 years if the car is out of the warranty period. They have a respected name, will offer a variety of upgrade parts beyond the kit and with greater ease than JCW which is in the UK(harder for us to import).
DINAN details

I think owners of either upgrade kit will enjoy their MC or MCS more.


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>>>>>>Oh man, you guys in the Pacific make me jealous. I spent some time at Tripler (the giant pink Army hospital overlooking Honolulu) as a nurse. My Mini arrives in May - oh to be driving one THERE! That's the life...
>>H&J,
>>
>>Aloha and good to hear from you. Quite a few MINI owners spent time in Hawaii with the military over the last 30 years. If we can have a Las Vegas MINI vacation it makes you wonder why you cannot have a Hawaii MINI vacation except how do you get enough MINIs to make it out here without making the expense excessive. Oh Well.
>>
>>Where do you live now? Are you getting a MC or MCS? Good luck,
>>
Minihune- in May, IB/W MCS. I'm in the bay area, here for school for a couple of years then hopefully back to the Rockies of Colorado...