I've seen the Alcantara JCW steering wheel and really love the touch and feel.

Wondering if it would fit in my automatic R60S ? I'll have to leave out the paddle shifters? Or should I wait for the alcantara wheel with the paddle shifters to come out ? any news?

Oh and will the multifunction buttons work on that steering wheel? thanks

thanks

 

Check the "what have you done to your countryman" thread. I believe a guy there recently posted about installing a JCW steering wheel.

 

Yes, it will work in your CM and yes you can move over your MFSW buttons. I don't think you can transfer over the paddles, but I could be wrong.

As for the Alcantara, it does in fact feel nice but doesn't age very well in my opinion. Starts to look gross pretty quickly.

 

I am the guy who installed and posted the how to on the installation. You can move over the controls to the new steering wheel. The current steering wheel will not work with the shift paddles. In regards to the longevity of the alcantara, I have seen very good impressions from people who have had this steering wheel for several years. I think the key is keeping it clean and not letting it get matted. Time will tell.

 

There is a thread on how to add the paddle shifters, but it does require a good bit of hacking the back of your brand new steering wheel.

 

I did see that somewhere and it does look that way. I would wait until the '13 jcw countryman comes out and that part is available. Just my $0.02

 

I'm pretty sure the standard wheel that comes with JCWs is the same as the normal wheel but with red stitching. I wouldn't hold my breath for a JCW wheel that supports paddles (unless they've announced one somewhere, but I haven't seen it).

 

I will politely disagree. This is the first time JCW has started offering their models with automatics. Seeing how synonymous paddle shifters are with modern performance cars, I would think it will only be a matter of time til they start offering the wheels with paddles.

 

Your guess is as good as mine at this point.

I haven't been impressed with the paddles currently offered. Maybe I could enjoy them if they were more realistic, i.e. fixed to the dash rather than the steering wheel, having one upshift and one downshift. As they are now, they just seem like crummy knockoffs of the real deal.

 

FYI. I did this to our Countryman S. If you have a 6 speed countryman, it's not a big deal. Just switch steering wheel and MFSW. If you are going to do this with an auto and NOT use the paddles, you need to buy a different wiring harness (the one for the 6 speed - harness that connects the MFSW). If you use the same harness you will get an error.

 

No need to purchase a harness you can swap to a non paddle steering wheel and the dealer can disable the error.