I have been following the net to gleen details about the 2005 Mini, and most of the info has been pretty accurate. The one thing that seemed to be fact that disappeared were the LED taillights. The UK configurator does not mention them, and reports about the Cabrio say that they do not have them (although they must have been early pre-production models.)

Are the LED taillights fact or fiction?

 

I don't think I'd go so far as to call them vaporware...

MINI has had a tendency to stagger changes throughout the model year... They've done it with the HK, rain sensing wipers, DVD Nav and bunches of other stuff. I would bet that for whatever reason, those LED tail lights will probably show up later in model year...

 

They may happen eventually but they are not on the current cars. They were mentioned in previous MINI PR pieces however.

 

Report on Mini2 board today that someone in England received their brand new "facelift" as they call it Mini with LED taillights! Maybe they do exist and will be on the 2005's. They said they were honkin', too.

 

You better read on, because if it is the same thread that I read, it later says that the taillights look like LED but are NOT. Although I hope you are right.

 

Its real annoying when someone actually has the car in hand and can't tell you something like that.

 

Aren't we all supposed to have xenon interior lights? If you look at the catalog from the dealer, we are. Talk about vaporware...

 

Actually you do

 

Yeah I know, I was thinking the same thing when I read the thread. I guess I wasn't alone.

 

Really??!! The dome light? How come the light isn't all bluish-white?

 

It supposedly is different the headlight units - amount of gas, type of gas - I can't quite remember. I asked someone with MINI about this once and they swore the little bulbs actually did have some type of xenon gas in them to burn slightly brighter.

if you look closely at the hue of the lights they do look different than the standard vanity lights in most cars.

 

Gabe, I appreciate the info! I don't know, though, these MINI people are pretty shady sometimes. If they're going to trumpet xenon lighting, knowing full well that people are going to think of xenon headlights and expect a discernible difference, there ought to be a discernible difference... to someone other than a car nut like yourself. To me they look like regular old bulbs.

 

Hey I didn't really believe it either until it was explained to me