I'm sure you guys have seen a ton of these "I'm getting a Mini" threads... but I figured I'd throw mine into the hat too. lol.

Like the sig says...
2008 Laser Blue Mini Cooper S
Laser blue roof, mirrors, everything...
Carbon Black Leatherette
Auto Tranny
16" Bridgespoke wheels
White Turn Indicators
Convenience Package
Xenon Lights
Automatic A/C
Anthracite Headliner
Navigation System
Alarm
PDC
No Sunroof

Things that I don't like about this order is the auto tranny (my wife refuses to learn a manual tranny), which also removes my option of adding a LSD.
No sport package (because she wanted a smoother ride, compared to my very stiff modded M3).
Also, after reading up on this forum, I'm highly regretting not getting the rear foglight option.
This car replaced my Subaru Impreza which was also a fun car and a stick shift.

I've also started buying a few mods for the R56 already (not nearly as much as the M3) before it comes in next month... with the permission of the wife. haha. Took me a LONG LONG LONG time to convince her on why we should have these mods and not leave it stock. lol. Women will just never seem to understand men and cars.

In the meantime... look what did come in.

JCW CF Boot Handle/Plinth









JCW CF Hood Scoop





Unfortunately... I ordered a JCW CF/Leather e-brake too, but I got sent the JCW CF shift **** instead. Gotta send that back...
Got these from Minspeed. They shipped these out very quickly and it arrived at my place in less than a week. They seem to have great service, so I have confidence that they'll rectify my order.

Also got in the "No Holes" license plate bracket.
http://www.gominigo.com/NHLPB-MINI.html
These guys had great service and I got this in the mail very very quickly also.

Now just waiting on the JCW front grill, black grill trim, and the blackout beltline kit from Outmotoring. Ordered it the same time as when I ordered the JCW stuff from Minspeed. All I got from Outmotoring so far was an e-mail saying that my order has been processed... Not really sure if that means shipped. A lot of others on this forum say great things about Outmotoring, so I trust my order is on its way.

Oh... and the Volk Racing TE37 wheels (ordered from AutoTalent) won't be arriving until probably late-July or early-August. I was told there's a 3 month wait for these since it's custom made to order for the size and color I wanted. Simon @ AutoTalent has always come through for me, which is why more than $15K of my M3 parts are from him.

As for the car itself... been about 3 weeks en route from the UK to the VDC and still hasn't arrived yet. Wonder how much longer it'll be...
I'll definitely post some pics of the car when it comes in.
Even though it's the wife's car... it seems that I'm more excited about it than she is.

 

I have a Laser Blue MCS too. You have some nice additions. Welcome, I know you will enjoy.

 

Thanks Nashville!
I dropped by the Mini dealer a few days ago just to look at some Laser Blues. haha.

Anyway... like I said, Minspeed definitely corrected my order and they did it very quickly too. They're sending me a mailer to mail back the shift **** and my hand brake is on its merry way. They didn't overcharge me on shipping to Hawaii, they are very quick to respond to e-mails and sending out orders, and they have great customer service. +1 to Minspeed. I'd definitely order from them again.

 

Congrats man! I'd love to drive a Mini in Hawaii!

 

You probably got one of the other islands in mind. lol.
Here on Oahu... WAY too much traffic (worse than when I used to live in downtown Seattle) and roads are in horrible condition (newspaper says Honolulu has the 2nd worst roads in the nation for 2006 statistics... not sure about now, but it still sucks here).
But, thanks though.

On a side note, got my JCW grill, black trim and blackout beltline tape from Outmotoring today. SWEETNESS!

 

Sounds like the start of an awesome looking MCS. Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

Thanks... it won't be anything too crazy though. Just clean... at best.
Now... if the MCS was my car... that'd be a whole different story. haha.

 

Congrats on your MCS! Looks like you configured a very nice MINI! Nice parts for it too. Don't forget to post some pics when it arrives and as you add your mods!

 

"The waiting is the hardest part"
-- Tom Petty

 

Tracking says the car is at the distribution center right now.
My guess is about 2-3 more weeks till arrival at the dealer. WOO HOO!!!
Says estimated delivery date is June 12.

 

Nice! Still haven't found out if my Mini has been scheduled on a ship yet...

 

OMG.. the intensity!!!
Just 1 more week left until the estimated arrival date (June 12)!!!!
NEXT WEEK!!!! YEA!!!

Just curious though. My estimated arrival date on the order tracking keeps changing from June 12th to June 13th and back to 12th again and again.
Is this normal?
Has anyone found this estimated arrival date to be close to accurate or pretty off?

 

Im with you i also count the days. Unfortunately i have to count down from 25 :P
My Mini cooper will be Laser blue with a black roof.

 

Laser blue... SWEET! You should post your pics too upon arrival.
For some reason, I really love the laser blue color now.
Especially since it's a MCS color only, it's rare to see.
Everytime I see one on the road, I turn my head.

 

gmhl, it looks like you're filling the nursery before the birth of the baby.
Sweet.
Read the MANUAL backwards and forwards.
Read it, learn it, live it.
The only thing to figure out his how to program the computer with personal option for door locking, blinker, etc.

 

YES!!!! The car has finally come in!
The estimated delivery time was exactly on the date.
There was a slight paint chip on the boot
The dealer said they'd get it repainted.
Other than that, the car was great at pickup.

I have already installed the JCW CF hood scoop, JCW CF plinth and JCW grill and black grill trim.
Took me a while to figure out the hood scoop and taking off the bottom grill trim since I'm not so familiar with Minis.
Still haven't installed the JCW CF ebrake since I found out that it has to be glued on. Anybody else find that to be kinda unfortunate?
And gotta put on the blackout for the chrome strip that goes around the car.
After finally getting and looking at the car, we're looking at a few more things for the MCS such as:
- body colored headlight and tail light rings
- CF gas cap
- CF side markers
- body colored door handles (are there any for conv. package cars?)

First impressions of the car
Pros:
- I love the conv. package. It's pretty cool, but I'm so used to the traditional "take out your key" method, that I keep forgetting and pull the Mini key out.
- Haven't driven the car "hard" yet, since it's still break-in period, but from the 30 miles I've driven it so far, the steering's pretty rock-solid. Very responsive and car has great turning ratio.
- Parking has never been easier. My wife parks the car crooked and the car still fits perfectly in the stall. lol. Since we have the navigation feature, it also shows how far the car is on the screen too. Much better than just the beeping.
- That USB port on the car is awesome! Loads very quickly since it's flash memory and just stick a 4GB USB stick in the slot and your music is good to go. Forget the iPod with all those cords and stuff.
- First car I've had with the bluetooth option. Awesome! Technically, my Pioneer AVIC-Z1 deck on the M3 has a bluetooth accessory, but I didn't get it since I heard it sucked. The one on the MCS though, great!!! Shows the name and phone number on the nav screen when calling or a call comes in. Easy to pick up and hang up. Voice is clear on both sides. Much better than that stupid earpiece I put on for bluetooth.

Cons:
- Goodyear Excellence tires??? And even worse, the wife wants me to use these tires when the Volk TE37s come in.
- I don't really like the turn signal lever. I gotta push it more than I need to for the blinker to stay. Not only that, when I lane change, I gotta push the lever back and sometimes I push it too much and it blinks the lane I don't want to go to.
- The seatbelts are just as hard to get to as it was in my M3 before the Recaros. Maybe I should get Recaros for the Mini as well. lol. Or... maybe just some seatbelt holders.
- The boot is a lot harder to close than expected. Those hydraulics are real strong. Not as bad for me, but difficult for the wife.
- When the rear folding seats go down... and up again, the seatbelt buckle keeps getting stuck.
- The seat doesn't move up forward as much as we want it to. Makes it harder for people to get in and out of the backseat.

Pics will be coming shortly. My computer went down last week so it's been a while since I've been on. I ordered a new computer (since it's pretty much time for a new one anyway) and I should be getting the computer within a week to 10 days from now. Pics will be up around then! By then, I should have finished reading the owner's manual too.
Car is gorgeous. Love the laser blue!

 

Congrats on taking delivery! Look forward to seeing pics with your new goodies installed.

PS. Not all women have issues with mods. The only one I'm not keen on is the joey... it just looks odd to me.

 

Thanks.

The car has been driven about 80 miles since picking up the car.
We live in town, so we don't really need to drive a whole lot.
What the computer says and what Mini says is a bit different though.
I can't seem to get any more than 15.1 mpg.
100% of the driving has only been in the city so far.
15.1 mpg sounds kinda low to me though... even for a MCS.
I haven't been flooring it or anything... if anything, I've been driving more conservatively to baby it until 1200 miles break-in.
Even though it says 15.1 mpg though, my gas guage only went down 1 bar and there's no way the MCS has a bigger fuel tank than my M3.
I think I'll save my reservations about the fuel savings until I've actually gone through a few full tanks.

Other things I've noticed about this car since the last post:
- The front wheels build up brake dust FAST!!! Rears are still pretty clean, but the fronts... after less than a week without it getting rained on...
- The engine bay gets SUPER hot from that turbo. It did seem like it got cooler after taking off the grill from the hood scoop and also changing to a JCW mesh grill in the front. Then again, I only had the car stock for about 3 hrs before I did the mods, so it could just be my mind playing tricks. lol.
- Reaching the seatbelt is more cumbersome than expected. I just used that seat belt holder thing from my M3 before the Recaros in the Mini. Much easier to reach the seatbelt now, but that plastic squeaks from time to time.
- Just loving how easy it is to park this car anywhere. I've never had such a quick and easy time parking a car before. Especially with the PDC, I've got to be an incredibly poor driver or totally out of it to cause a parking accident.

Many (non-car enthusiast) people have been telling me that the car doesn't suit me very well, but I don't care.
They can go to hell. lol.
As long as I'm happy with it and more importantly, my wife, is happy with it.

 

OK.. computer has FINALLY come in after several delays.
Took me some time to install most of my old apps and getting it the way I wanted it.

Installed so far are just the CF plinth, CF hood scoop, black grill surround and JCW mesh grill. Oh... did the blackout beltline a few days ago. The wife helped me on that install. Took FOREVER to try and get it just right. Oh... but it's so worth it. Just waiting on a few more stuff for "Project Dechrome".

I'll post pics tonight.
The pics are the ones I took outside at a local car meet.
It just doesn't include the blackout beltline.
I'll post some more pics when the taillight trim, the headlight rings, the JCW mesh side gill, and the gas cap comes in.
From my research, the door handle looks to be the hardest one...
Maybe I'll just vinyl wrap it...

BTW... my car is continuously staying at around 15 mpg.
Is this normal?
I expected it to be much higher.
The car is almost 99% city driving and I've been babying it due to the break-in period so no hard acceleration.

 

15mpg sounds very strange. I'm at 25.xx mpg total & I drive it like it's stolen everywhere. I did notice the car drives better (as in more of a beast when the break-in period is done)

 

Also do you drive up hill everywhere?

 

I've only managed less than 15MPG on the track, 17 is the best (worst) I'v emanaged on the road. That was in an R53, not an R56 anyway. Shawn came with a very low MPG reading, but it climbed as the miles we did (400 to the first fill) outweighed the miles the factory did (all 8 of them).

Unless the factory did a ton of miles, and you've done hardly any, I wouldn't expect that. Have you tried resetting the MPG (and maybe the trip meter), that would show just what you're doing. If it really is only getting 15MPG, there's something wrong.

 

I don't really drive uphill... Most of the road where I go is flat (but, bumpy... HI roads suck).
I had resetted the trip meter and MPG as soon as I got the car from the dealer (old BMW habit).

I picked up the car at 8 miles on the odometer.
I do tend to blast the A/C on high since it's always so damn hot and humid here. Could that be why??? I can't imagine that being the only reason since that's a big jump down from the mid-20 city mpg it's stated to get.

Then again, come to think of it... all my other cars had this same problem too.
For these cars, I also pretty much drove city miles for the majority.
My '97 Honda Accord EX auto tranny (don't remember what it was stated as) got like 180 miles per tank.
My '02 BMW 325i auto tranny was stated to get 19 mpg city and the computer read mid 15s most of the time.
My '01 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS 5MT got about 190 miles per tank.
My '05 BMW M3 SMG, which I got now, was stated to be 16 mpg city and my computer reads low 11 mpg (and that's with about a 200 lbs weight reduction).

With the exception of the M3, none of these cars were raced by me or driven incredibly hard on a daily basis.
With the exception of the Accord (I was a car newbie) and the Impreza (bought it used), all my cars were broken in properly and way below the advised limit.
All were predominantly used for about 90% city driving.

 

And here are the pictures I promised!