I have to travel to Washington state for many months and made the decision to bring my car over there. It has been a very nice road trip to destination and I enjoy the scenic drive from Northern California.

The good news.......... I have been able to do 32 mpg at about 75 mph. When push harder at about 85 - 90 it dropped to 28 which is not bad. To destination, the car has now 10K.

In the Peninsula, people have never seen a Coupe in their life and it brings a lot of attention and questions but they know what it is and furthermore in the JCW trim.

The bad news.......I have now rattling coming from the left rear quarter window trim and it is annoying on moderately rough pavement.

But the worst are the headlights. For a car of this price and performance, It is complete garbage and driving at night in rain or fog become a serious issue and unsafe because they are very weak.

The high beams are even useless and cannot be used with the fog lights at the same time to bring a little more power.

The Mini is the worst car I have owned in the last 15 years about driving at night.

I hope you guys who have the Bi-Xenon can have a better experience.

 

The Bi-Xenon lights on my JCW are a big improvement. I had a 2012 Cooper "S" with the standard headlights and the MINI OEM optional driving lights and that combination worked well.

 

I believe the Bi-Xenon are a must and no less and the fog lights are more of a joke to be so deeply encased in their pods. I miss my G37 Infiniti with directional headlamps.

 

The Bi-Xenon headlights on my JCW are the directional type, they are nice.
I had a 2015 "S" hardtop loaner with the LED headlights. I felt they were even better than the Bi-Xenon headlights.

 

Nice to know about and it and also make sense.

It seems quite obvious mine is at the stone age of lighting LOL.

 

If you want to feel better about your headlights drive a vehicle with the British Prefocus Bulb. They are a 40/50w headlight bulb, standard up to the 70's. I have a early 60's British motorcycle which uses that bulb. On a dark night I stop and add Lighting bugs to the headlight to get more light. LOL

 

I was thinking to buy a few flashlights from the 99 Cents store. It should be an upgrade LOL

 

Bi Xenon Factory are the best and the Spyder headlight in Xenon are even better.

For the halogen spyder is the best, Want bright halogens swap to the spyder halogens with 65 w bi halogen set up , they are projectors and have a euro pattern cut off.

See here Xenon to Xenon and Halogen to halogen: They fit R58 and R59 also.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...le-lights.html




Halogen low beam 65 watt H9




Dont have a pic with highs but the lows stay on and flap goes up and its double the light.

 

As always, it must be a very expensive upgrade. The Mini driving lights may be an alternative option and easier to install.

 

The spyder headlights are half the cost of the Xenon genuine kit and the light output is great, also spyder has a halogen option. The genuine kit and spyder headlight are easy to install.

Running the spyder version on my JCW coupe and love them.

 

As asked in the second tread about the headlights subject, what about better bulbs?

 

For the stock halogen headlighst you have ?