THE SEATS HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD!



Hi All,

Does anyone have an interest in purchasing a set of Gray & Black Leatherette Sport Seats out a brand new 2005 MINI Cooper S?

The driver's seat has less than 200 miles on it and the passenger's seat and back seat have never even been sat in (okay, they may have been sat in once when we first picked up the car from the dealer on December 20th ). The seats are in immaculate condition (as they are brand spanking new). They contain all of the mounting hardware (just four bolts and they're in!), airbags, etc. However, they DO NOT have heaters in them and the seatbelt pieces were taken off for use with the seats that replaced them (all you'll need to do is transfer the seatbelt piece from your existing MINI seats to the new ones - only one bolt holds it on so it's very easy to swap). The seats are AWESOME and I really hate to see them go, but my wife really wanted heated seats. They would make a great replacement for any MINI that didn't come with sport seats, or for anyone who just wants to add a little gray/silver color to their MINI's interior.

I'm asking ONLY $700 for the entire set of three seats (driver's seat, passenger's seat, and the back seat)! Here are some pictures of the seats taken when we first picked up the car from the dealer (they are now out of the car and ready to be sold - if you'd like a more recent photo please feel free to ask):







EDIT (07/05/05): SEATS HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD!

 

Man, wish I had the spare change!


They'd look good in my DS/B, with the lighter colored headliner and alloy trim. They sure would brighten up the rear seat area.

Good luck with the sale

 

Still available...

Please make me an offer.

Here are some more pictures of the seats (out of the car) that were just taken today:

 

Beautiful. I love your photo showing the seats, partial dash and opposite door with the anthracite trim. Really clear. Made me decide what interior scheme to order for my new MINI. Thanks very much. I hope you sell the seats soon.

Best wishes.

 

$700 shipped to AZ?

 

I think the seats have been sold which is great. Can I ask a question about the photos?

I just looked in the MINIUSA configurator and it stipulates that the black&gray seats come with gray door panels. I recall at the car show that the black&gray seats were with black door panels, but I might have been mistaken. Did MINIUSA make a recent switch or are they really gray door panels?

What color are the door panels in the photos shown in this stream? They look black, but they may be gray. Thanks in advance for any enlightenment.

Best wishes on the sale.

 

That's Anthracite on the door panels and dash. I have that in my 2003 MC and it looks fantastic!

So OfficeMaven,
You swapped our your seats with new OEM MINI seats with heaters?? How did that installation go?

Richard

 

I believe early 05's have grey seats with black outer casings, I know mine does, but it is no longer available.

 

Hi morkmini,

Thanks for the comments and encouragement.

I really love the look of the gray & black leatherette seats with the black door panels and anthracite dash too. We really didn't want to get rid of them, but the heated seats we replaced them with are the bomb!

 

I might be able to do $750 for both of the front seats, but not shipped I'm afraid. The shipping is probably something like $85-$100 per seat (I believe) and so your offer would make the actual selling price of the seats way too low for me. Each boxed up seat is right at 40 pounds (in a 30"x30"x30" box) and I'd be shipping them from a ZIP code of 92610. Thus, you can calculate for yourself how much shipping would be to your address.

Thanks for the offer though.

 

Thanks. Darn. Just when I thought I had my interior color scheme pinned down. Perhaps it is MINIUSA's way of making the cars more individual.

Now I am curious (as usual) and perhaps apposite to the question asked by Octane Guy above, who asks about how the seat installation has gone, I wonder what color seats and material seats you selected to replace the gray&black? As though this is what you want to answer on a big game sunday.

Best wishes.

 

Actually, they're still for sale at this point.

As for your question...

The online configurator is wrong! I know for a fact as I looked into this long and hard when we first purchased our car. ALL of the MCS and MCSC MINIs ordered with the gray leatherette come with black door panels. Only the MC and the MCC MINIs come with the gray door panels. Thus, if you are ordering a MCS or a MCSC, you'll get the black door panels just like the ones shown in my photos above.

I hope that helps some...

 

Hi Richard,

Yes, that's exactly what I did. The installation went great and the new seat heaters are totally awesome. Gabe over at Motoringfile actually took one of my postings about the retrofit and turned it into an article (in which I posted some tips on the retrofit and there's a download pointer to the official installation instructions for the heated seats retrofit kit in PDF format). You can check it out here if you'd like:

http://www.motoringfile.com/2005/02/...it_-_in_action

 

Hi iamwiz82,

Actually, as I pointed out above, all of the MCS and MCSC cars with the gray leatherette get the black door & quarter panels and all of the MC and MCC cars with the gray leatherette get the gray door & quarter panels. I was really worried about this when we ordered our car (as we really didn't want the gray door & quarter panels). However, after a lot of research, it turned out that the MINI online configurator was wrong.

I hope this helps some...

 

Hi again morkmini,

To tell you the truth, I would have preferred to have kept the gray & black leatherette seats (as they look really nice), but I wasn't able to find any replacement heated seats in the same color (it was a real bummer for us that the car didn't get speced from the factory with the heated seats) and it would have cost too much to have them recovered (the leatherette covers with the integrated heaters are around $275 each and there are four of them needed to recover both of the front seats - plus the cost of labor to swap the covers and who knows how much that would have been, many $$$$ I'd imagine). However, I was only able to locate a set of all black leatherette seats that had the seat heaters in them and so that's what we replaced them with. They still look good in the car (although there's a lot of black in it now) and we really like having the heaters. I had originally purchased a set of leather seats for the car, but they were damaged in shipment. Bummer! Although, I think that I have a line on another set now and so I may end up swapping the heated black leatherette ones we have now for someone else's heated leather ones (as he's trading in his car and I can offer him more for the seats than he'll get by trading them in with the car).

I hope this helps some...

 

Thanks, Office Maven, for setting me (us) right about the MINIUSA configurator. I did not want an all-black interior, but also worried about gray door panels with black dash, etc., and did not want to pay for leather (albeit cordoba leather would have given me cordoba door panels).

Also, you are among several on NAM posting a preference for heated seats. Your considerable effort to get them confirms their importance. I notice you are in Orange County (admittedly it is bigger than some states so it encompasses a variety of climate areas) which is in sunny SouthCal, my fave place in the world, so I am even more impressed that you would want heated seats. Makes me think I would be missing out if I did not order them. Back to the configurator for me.

Best wishes for a sunny Sunday drive.

 

In my opinion, the heated seats are the biggest bang for the buck on the MINI. Having the heated seats installed at the factory only costs $270. To retrofit them later on, you're looking at a minimum of $600 to $800 for the cloth or leatherette seats and even more than that for the leather. Thus, even if you're not going to use them yourself, they really add to the value of the vehicle (when you decide to sell it later, etc.). That's why I recommend that everyone get them.

It's true that the weather in California is awesome and many don't think that the heated seats are needed. However, there are still a few months out of the year when they are really nice to have, and throughout the year, there are many nights where it becomes cold enough to use them. However, the biggest reason that I like the heated seats is that my wife is always cold and I'm always hot. Before we had the heated seats, she always wanted the heater on (which would make me boil!). Now, when she's cold, she can simply turn on the seat heaters and she gets warm while I stay nice and cool. It's terrific and that alone is why I really wanted the heated seats in our car.

 

I had to try. My stock, non-sport, seats are killing my back.

Chris

 

No problem as I completely understand.

The sport seats are really nice and they'd make a great addition to your MINI if you can find a set for the price you're willing to pay.

 

Still for sale...

I'll take $1,000 for all THREE seats if anyone's interested.

 

Bump...

 

Thanks for the info on the retrofit kit. A local guy here is converting his S to a race car and made me a SCREAMING deal on his almost brand new seats just like the ones you are selling, but heated. Yummy

 

That's awesome! Congrats on scoring those seats. I really wish ours had heat as we would have kept them for sure. However, the leather ones I was waiting for came through and so now I have full leather instead. Good stuff!

Good luck with the retrofit. If you follow the few tips I posted on Motoringfile it should be a breeze for you.

 

TheOfficeMaven --- check for PM

 

Still available...