I've had my 06 JCW for 2 weeks less than a year and yesterday I installed the JCW leather steering wheel to shouts of joy and exhuberance. This is what the car should have come with, not that hard, plastic wheel. The difference is significant and given the amount of time spent in contact with it, the $350 from Classic was well worth it.

I distinctly remember during the 1,000 mile drive home last year my disappointment with the stock wheel. I really had not spent any appreciable time in a MINI prior to picking mine up, so didn't really know what to expect. I was coming from a 97 GLX that had a nice, leather wheel and knew how much I hated my Odyssey's plastic wheel. The size was ok, but the feel was so sterile. I remember thinking the JCW should have a better wheel and at the time I had no idea that one was available. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when I looked into the JCW wheel and while I hadn't seen one in person I felt it would be worth a shot - and it fully lived up to my expectations.

Now the two things I disliked the most in my MINI, the shift **** and plastic wheel have been replaced by a Whalen, and now the JCW wheel - all is good in the cabin - and there was much rejoicing.

 

The JCW wheel also has a slightly smaller diameter, which effectively quickens the steering ratio.

 

I also installed mine last week. Funy i was gonna start my own thread about how wonderful this wheel is, and how much nicer it is to drive the MINI until i saw this thread (sorry for the bad IPHone pic. It looks and feels awesome in person! )

I concure with your feedback. This wheel is really awesome and you just dont realize how much nicer it is, until you drive a MINI with this wheel. I now love driving the MINI that much more. Not that i needed another reason, but now i look forward to driving her again soon

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d-img_0355.jpg

 

very nice. so is that a '2nd gen' wheel in a first gen?

Ive always liked my stocker for the 12K miles ive driven, but the thickness on that one looks incredibly comfortable

 

No - the JCW steering wheel (both versions of it... leather/suede and all leather) is available for both 1st Gen & 2nd Gen MINIs. Different part numbers though... but ultimately the same wheel.

I love my JCW steering wheel - but I opted for the all-leather version, because I don't trust the alcantara (suede) to have a lot of long-term durability. There have been a number of people on here who have posted with problems. All leather was just better peace of mind for me.

 

Maybe I need to go try one again. On the day I ordered my JCW, I drove the car they had on the lot which, as I found out after, had the JCW steering wheel. I didn't even notice, apparently, so I'm having a hard time understanding why people like it so much more.

 

gotcha.. i just thought all the 1st gens looked like this

 

Was the installation relatively easy? Issues with the airbag?

 

Very easy - just disconnect neg batter terminal first. It took a few minutes poking around in the surround behind the wheel to find the spring to release the airbag but after that it was very straight forward. Here's the link to the install pdf

http://bridger.us/mini/files/steering_airbag.pdf

 

No, that's the 2-spoke steering wheel... which they phased out starting mid-way through the 2004 model year (12/2003 builds and onwards, I believe), replacing it with the 3-spoke wheel. All newer MINIs came with the 3-spoke version. Mine did (1/2005 build).

 

I had the same concerns with the alcantara suede. However I opted to go leather/suede because I usually drive in the 9oclock position and don't touch the alcantara much except when turning. The Mini is not driven everyday, but having this wheel is such a big difference in feel that you'll want to drive it more often. Best mid for the money though it wasn't cheap for me as I converted from the old 2-spoke to the newer 3-spoke airbag but ultimately well worth the price!

 

100% concur on that. Even the all-leather version is a huge difference in feel from the stock wheel. I love it!

 

Unless of course you actually do use the MFST features, which I do.

 

And you think the JCW wheel wont work with the MFST ?
It will. All you have to do is swap your current switch panels over to the JCW wheel. If you have the 2-spoke wheel, youll have to buy new switches and a connecting harness from your dealer. I opted to delete my MF-switches as i hardly use them now that i have the Ipod controler. Cruise control i never use

 

I had the Alcantara version first, but switched to the all-leather version at about 25k miles as the Alcantara had begun to look and feel a bit nasty.

 

...you do realize that the JCW CF steering wheel inserts are optional, right? The existing MSFW controls transfer directly. I still have mine. Yep.

 

Any idea if these are adaptable to the paddle shift wheels?
I know they say they won't fit, but I wonder if they could, if I ditched the paddles?

 

Apparently my wheel swap didn't go quite as smoothly as I thought as I went to honk it this morning and noting happened. Any idea what I forgot to connect? All of the cruise and radio controls work and I know I reconnected those, and I reconnected both the green and black plugs to the back of the aribag. But do remember a small, brown plug at the top of the wheel that was unplugged, but I don't remember unplugging it. Ideas?

 

Hmmm - never heard anyone suggest ditching the paddles in order to make it work. It might work... perhaps you could be the first to try? Wish I could help. In case you hadn't seen it already, MotoringFile has an install PDF posted here, but it is only for the airbag step and doesn't seem to mention a separate, brown connector.

There's a very long (11 page!) thread on the JCW steering wheel here - might be worth looking through.

 

First, thanks for pointing out that thread - I couldn't find it when I was thinking about buying this - I knew there had to be one. Second, about 9 pages in someone references the brown clip for the horn so it looks like my airbag's coming out for a encore performance so I can reconnect it. If thats it, I'll report back.

 

Glad to hear that it helped!

 

Had my JCW Alcantara wheel for like 2 months had not had chance to installl yet. Looking foward

 

Does anyone have a line on the best place to buy one right now? I've found that the price is around $400-450 including shipping depending on the vendor. Is that the best price right now?

Thanks!


Edit-Just saw the Classic MINI 20% over invoice deal. Is that the way to go?

 

That's where I just bought mine and the total was $352. I watched a few in the marketplace here and they seemed to go for about $300 so I thought it was a good deal.

 

Until you actually grip one, you'll never understand why it is one of the best mods you can get. Those who don't know, criticize!