Dude that's close to $1,000 for labor. That's highway robbery. I'd love to have the system but no matter how good I can't pay that much for labor.

 

True on time, but with a air wrench, and lifts, swapping wheels for them would take 20mins. And it would help them on sale value, because their tires would have much less wear on them.

 

Have you seen the install doc? If it takes 10 hours, it takes 10 hours... the real issue here isn't the amount of time it will take to install, it's the dealer labor rate - and that's high at any MINI dealership, regardless of the job.

 

I paid discounted $1400 for DPSM (you can get it for less than that); if you're willing to pull out the interior of the car, you could install it yourself in less than the "official" time and save all that labor rate!

 

Heh - very true... for me personally, even if I didn't have the H/K to begin with, I'm not confident in my ability to pull the car apart without breaking anything.

The quote I got from Morristown MINI for the DPSM kit is $1320 (exactly 20% off) plus $40 shipping, so yes, as Ian clarified, it can be cheaper.

 

The official install doc says 5 hours, and that seems like a reasonable estimate. The procedure is straightforward and the kit is plug and play.

 

From what I've been told, 5 hours is the time to install the kit, but it does not take into account the dismantling and reassembly of the car. None of the MINI install documents do. Perhaps I've been told incorrectly, but I have been told that by more than one MINI rep.

 

Eh, bottom line is I can't do it myself (I suck at DYI jobs) and even if it sounded like Trent Reznor was in the back seat giving me a private show it wouldn't be worth $2700...for me.

 

Makes sense... we all have our own priorities. In my case, it is worth it, to me. It actually makes more sense this way - I'm the kind of guy who generally abhors MP3s because most of them are only created at 128Kbps. Yuck. My entire iPod is 100% full (60GB) with 256Kbit AACs, and I'm considering re-ripping my entire CD collection at 320Kbit VBR MP3. I guess I'm just that crazy about the quality of the sound. To each his/her own!

 

I have no doubts that its the right path for you to take. I would love to have my collection in that type of quality range but I don't have the storage space for it or the patience to re-rip everything.

 

Hehe - that's OK, most people don't have the patience for it.

 

sounds like MoS is taken good care of one of their most loyal customers. :-)

 

Interesting.
I used to have 192K MP3 and switched to 128K AAC because I'd read many places it was just as good - and the iPod could do seamless track-to-track (eg: Pink Floyd albums) which it didn't seem to be able to do on MP3 files.

Once the DPSM was in, I started noticing music oddities I hadn't heard before - eventually just recoded everything to 256K AAC to resolve it. The DPSM was pulling out those encoding glitches and emphasising them as musical details.

 

I'm doing 320kbps MP3's and it's seamless.

 

Thanks!
I wondered if it was because I'd encoded using something other than Apple iTunes ...

 

perhaps. I used iTunes to do my whole collection and the live tracks are most certainly seamless, which I was worried about.

 

Is Mr. OEM home yet? and how was the loaner on the dragon

 

Nope, and I still think it will be a while yet. I'm actually about to head out there now to check on it.

The loaner was the best loaner I've ever had... but it still fell far short of what I'm used to! Especially sucky were the all-seasons, heavy S-Lites and stock suspension. Oh yeah... and no Schroth harness. Heh.

It was better to be there in a decent loaner MINI than not at all (or in some other car). I'm happy that MoS took care of me as best as they could, considering I created this mess by moving forward with this project in the first place!

 

Best loaner, and stinkiest! I sure do hope you still had some rubber on those tires after the last time I saw ya!

 

LOL - plenty left when I returned it on Monday night. I'm on my 4th loaner now! Hehe

 

I bet if you asked to stay at the SA's house for a week he/she'd let you, after all, with all those labor hours, your putting his/hers kids through college

 

Anyone who is curious about what lies beneath the trim panels and carpetting in their MINI would be well-advised to make the trip to MINI of Sterling and take a look at Haemish's car before they begin the reassembly; its quite interesting.

 

No updates. Still not done?

 

I hope it's just that it's finished, and he's enjoying the sound so much he hasn't got out of the car to post yet

 

LOL I WISH it was done. This coming Monday will be 8 weeks since I dropped it off! I'm on my 4th loaner MINI! Heh.

The car is still in limbo because MoS can't seem to pin down the harness from Germany or wherever and be sure that it is the correct one. It seems to me that nobody in the parts department is willing to take ownership of the issue to find the correct part and accept responsibilty to ensure the service department that it is the proper one before they start to swap harnesses.

I plan on discussing this with the parts manager next week, and possibly higher up at the dealership. The head tech, who is the one working on my car, says that it really shouldn't be that difficult - just find the right person in the parts chain who will call up the harness using my VIN number, and delete the H/K option from the list... or something to that effect.

I still have some hope that the dealer is not going to back out of the job, but it is possible they might do so. If that's the case, I'll expect them not to charge me for any of the disassembly and reassembly, because they agreed to take on the job in the first place. Even if I end up stuck with the H/K (God forbid), at least I'll still have the soundproofing done!