I ordered my mini countryman on June 24th. It's supposed to be here Monday of next week. Can't wait. Just wondering if anyone has seen or received their 2014 car yet? I was mostly curious about the rear cup holder and larger door armrests.

I will definitely post some pics once mine is here.

 

I'm curious as well. Please do post some pics!

 

You can see those already by visiting your MINI dealer and looking at the interior of a 2013. The only difference with the 2014 models is the option packaging.

 

Took delivery of my '14 last Saturday and boy, do I love it! So nimble and quick, yet quiet and smooth. I love the sport suspension - it was a great add for $500.

Didn't notice larger arm rests, but the cup holders in the back are nice (it's the little things, you know)

What did you order, Jeff?

 

We were very impressed with the sport suspension as well on this car. I was getting really jiggy with it last weekend in the hill country(we have had ours for a couple of weeks), and it was planted really well. The All4 system really gets that backend to rotate around corners..

 

Do you have any complaints about the tires/suspension combination? I read plenty of people upset with the harsh ride of the CM and that it got much worse with the sport suspension.

I've been quite surprised with how nicely mine rides - it's not a Bentley, it's a sports car. I expected a little stiffness, but it rides better than my last car.

 

You know, suspension harshness is not something we really worry about.....My wife's "fun" car is a Boxster S and mine is a Corvette Z06, so we are used to it-razor handling is way more important to us than the compromise of having a sloppy suspension so it rides smoother...

In fact, I am putting on a front strut brace and bar as well as a 22mm rear anti-sway bar on our CMJCW to really plant it to the street even more...

Now, if we are talking about "unnecessary" harshness, that's another story....the RF tires do suck from that standpoint. We ordered the 19" crusher wheels on our CM, and the tires are only 40 series, so those stiff sidewalls do add some harshness to the ride on bad pavement that I want to get rid of.

I will be replacing them with Michelin Pilot Super Sports for better grip and a more compliant ride...

You are exactly right...if somebody wants a softer ride....get a Subaru or VW 4 door....I hope Mini never bends to the motoring majority on that one !

 

Just wondering... would the strut brace really make a noticeable difference for me? I have the the CMS All4 with the standard suspension, 17 in wheels with all weather tires. My last car was an 07 BMW Z4 coupe 3.0SI with the sport suspension and 20 in wheels with low profile summer runflat performance tires. In other words, when you went over the slightest bump it would rattle out the fillings in your teeth. However, it cornered and performed like a dream. Furthermore, the larger runflat sport tires cost a fortune to replace and lasted about 30,000 miles at best.

I needed AWD out in here in Colorado with all of the camping and snowboarding I do so I didn't figure I would much care for the sport suspension as I'm not going to drive my CM the way I drove my Z and I figured it would be nice to have a smoother ride and not have to cash in my 401K when I do need to get new tires. Would it be worth the extra money to firm up the ride or would I be better off to leave it alone with the standard suspension? I know the strut brace will be over 250 and I estimate that they will gut me on labor...

 

It's a 2014 brilliant copper S All 4. No sport suspension. I did add sunroof, mini connected. I didn't add nav, but I kinda wish I did now. I did upgrade the wheels to 18" turbofans.

 

There are two subtle differences in the back. They added cup holders and supposedly larger armrests. There is a press release at BMW that goes over the changes.

 

I can tell you that on my car the front strut brace/bar makes a BIG difference. Tested it out tonight on the twisties....normally, on corners where I would really be working the steering to keep the front end from washing out-I almost over turned in some cases...It was pretty astounding.

Just a flick of the wheel and the car turns in at speed. i really didn't think an inexpensive, simple to install mod could make this much difference....

Can't wait to get the rear end done now

 

Here is a quick pic of the new cup holders in the rear.

Sorry I had to add a link to another post. It keeps saying error my picture has already been posted.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...7-post147.html

 

No picture. I would love to see this - does it look like something that could be retrofitted to an earlier model?

 

That is something I am looking into at the moment. To my understanding the parts aren't on file with MINI yet. Hopefully in a couple of weeks they will be so I can order them and see.

 

 

Hmmm... interesting. I have the buckets on my 2013. I could put this in and remove the cupholders from the rail. Not sure what I'd put on the rail, but this seems more practical.

 

One of these?

http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...ce_holder.html

http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...issue_box.html

 

Yeah, that is my next mod, a $100 tissue box.

 

The navi is really not too great. I still use the navi in my phone most of the time.

 

I got the Cravenspeed Flexipod and use Waze on my iPhone. Love it. Way better IMHO than the nav system that mini has.

 

Are any of the new models coming with the iPhone 5 Y cables yet? Does MINI even offer and QEM Y cable for the 5 yet? I'm considering an upgrade since I'm in an iPhone 4 and I was eligible for an upgrade through Verizon for several months now... I'd just hate to end up switching everything out and finding that the new phone would end up costing me the use of MINI Connected.

 

What functionality are you afraid of loosing? MINI Connected works (and continues to work) with the iPhone5. The only functionality lost is the "PlugIn" mode in MINI Connected itself, however you get almost identical functionality when you select you iPhone from the Devices menu instead. You also loose video with the iPhone5, but unless you were doing video on motion this isn't really an issue....

 

I have heard nothing of a new Y cable. There is talk of an iPhone 5 cradle that fits in the armrest. The rumor is it should show up this month at MINI. But no fear the iPhone 5 works fine today with connected. You will need to buy Apple adapter to go from 30 pin to the lightning port. In addition to the The lightning port will not work with Plugin feature, but will also not play videos.

 

I don't really mind buying an adapter pin so much.. I just want to make sure the MINImalism, Mission Control, MINI Connected, etc work and that it will charge the phone at the same time. I don't really watch any videos in the car or have any on the phone. I don't have the armrest adapter set up, I just have the snap band cradle on the center rail where i keep the phone plugged in.

 

Those all work fine with the iPhone5... However the MINI doesn't charge the phone through the USB adapter - it'll maintain the battery level on the phone, but doesn't actually build the charge on the battery. That part is odd...

And you don't need the adapter or the MINI cable for that matter. If you want you can use the Apple USB cable and a separate audio cable.