I was one of the early arrived cars that ordered the wood wheel but got leather instead, for the mixup MINI USA did refund the cost of the wood wheel option, $550.00
Well yesterday I got a call from my dealer he said we have a demo car with a wood wheel we will swap it out for your wheel if you return the $550.00. Now I really want the wooden wheel, but I am basically paying $550.00 labor to switch out a steering wheel, because they are going to put my leather wheel on the demo car. The more I think about this the more wary I become, How long does it take to swap wheels, at $80 per hour labor rate I'm buying almost 7 hours labor. Secondly, the car there swapping from has the wood wheel and silver dash, black colorline, I think the wood was a mistake when they ordered because it looks very out of place in the current car, I think they figured out a convinent way to fix a problem and make $550.00
How much is a wooden wheel if I ordered from the parts dept? and how many hours to install?

P.S. originally they hinted at a "free" swap when the wheel became available, so what do all of you think???????

 

They refunded you $550 for not getting the wooden wheel. So, now they can supply it and are asking $550. I don't see a problem, unless it is that the original price was too high. So what if it helps them?

Personally, I'm not that fond of the half wooden wheel. Looks odd to me.

 

If memory serves, the wood MF wheel is stiff a $550 option. The leaster MF wheel took a price drop (to $300, I think?).

So you'd be getting it for the cost of the wheel, no labor basiclly. Sounds OK to me. Particularly if you have the wood dash allready. I couldn't imagine the wood dash without the wood wheel. Just seems unfinished.

 

Labor will most likely be about one hour to swap. But don't forget that someone will have to pay for the cost of the steering wheel, which runs AT LEAST $300. I would think that the steering wheel is more like $450 personally. Even though they are swapping a steering wheel from one car to another, the cost of that part has to be paid somewhere. They cannot charge a customer for a woodgrain steering wheel option when the car doesn't even have it, right?

 

I ordered and paid for the multifunction wood wheel with cruise ($550), got the leather wheel with cruise ($350), but got no refund whatsoever. Both wood and leather wheels with cruise were marked at $550 initially. When the wood wheel was dropped the multifunction leather wheel with cruise price was dropped to $350. I'm pretty upset with Sandia Mini for not being willing to refund the difference, especially since I've read here on the forum of others in the same boat receiving $200 back from their dealers.

Getting the full $550 refund tells me you opted for the no multifunction with cruise wheel. If they do a swap, it would seem to me that the service department would not only have to swap the wheel but also connect up all the electronics associated with multifunction and cruise control. All that work plus getting the wood wheel and the added controls seems worth $550 to me. Heck, I paid an additional $200 for the work involved in swapping the wheels that came with my car with those on a display room car (plus the option cost of $600 for the 17" wheels). I thought that was fair.

 

I did not realize that the wood and leather wheels are now different prices, the MINI configurator only lists the leather wheel as $350, it still dosen't list the wood wheel. To clarify I'm not buying a steering wheel I'm trading, they are getting my leather MFSW I'm not keeping it. Someone suggested that it will take only one hour to swap $80 (at this dealer) plus the price difference of the wood and leather ($200) equals $280, I'll round up to 300. That price seems fair, it evens the trade and pays for labor, what does everybody think??

 

I would think that is ok personally, but it doesn't matter what I think. It's up to the dealer. If they want to charge you full pop, I'd make sure that I kept the old steering wheel after they are finished with it. Now, if they would work with you on the price then they could keep the old part. See where I'm going with that?

 

Because they messed up your order, they basically gave your the leather MFSW for free. That's a $550 discount (at the time your bought your car) or a $350 discount (today's value). But if you really want the wood one, you will have to give up that deal.

 

Ah. I didn't see it from that angle. That's a VERY good point.

Edit:
However, on the same line of thinking if he does not keep the old steering wheel then the new vehicle is getting a free upgrade to the leather wrap. He should only have to pay the difference between steering wheels plus labor, which I would guess one hour but I don't really know for sure.

 

The deal I'm offered is this: give us $550.00 plus your wheel ($350.00 value)so that equals $900.00 value in total, and we'll give you the wood wheel off our demo car, and replace the demo wheel with yours. It seems too one sided to me? I have not tried to negotiate with the dealer yet because I wanted to see what NAMmers thaught.

 

What it really boils down to is how bad do you want woodgrain? It shouldn't matter what everyone here thinks, what do YOU think?

Personally, I wouldn't pay $550 unless they allowed me to keep the old steering wheel. It's not your fault that they put the steering wheel that you didn't want on the car. Now if they only charged me the difference between the two options plus the labor I may consider it. But that's just me.

 

Buy the wheel yourself for 550, install it yourself, sell your current one, pocket the difference...

Or see what Classic wants for the wheel-probably less than 550 (20% less?)

There was a thread recently that detailed how to swap the wheel-doesn't look hard
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...jcw+wheel+swap

 

I would guess that the labor would be about one hour but you can ask them what they would expect.

In your case if you want the Wood steering wheel and they want to swap the wheel you have into their demo car then...

Negotiate.

Offer a price in between $550 and $350 like $450 and tell them to do it as a one time "good will" offer to help correct a problem when you ordered your MINI and for the positive image their dealership would get on NAM.

Personally I like the wood wheel, it is a little slick compared to leather.
Time for some super soft leather driving gloves.

 

You got the leather wheel for free, since they refunded your full $550. So, under those circumstances, it seems reasonable to charge you for the wood wheel if you want it.

 

It seems to me that your dealer is trying to treat you right. They remembered your issue, and are offering to do the swap for what you would have paid anyway.

You're already ahead if you got the leather MFSW for free (which seems to me that either Mini or your dealer took care of you in that instance too).

There's lots of rationalization here on why you shouldn't have to pay the full amount. It's crap. Pay the $550 (which is what the wood MFSW cost in the first place) if you want it.

 

You ordered a multifunction wood wheel - price: $550.

They gave you $550 back because you didn't get what you ordered.

They now are willing to install for you the wood multifunction steering wheel for $550.

How is that not fair. I presume they gave you the free MFSW so that you would not be unhappy as a result of not getting your wood wheel. Now they're offering you the wood wheel.

If though, you choose to keep the free leather clad MFSW you might suffer a bit of unhappiness but you'd be $350 ahead of the rest of us and you'd be able to spend your $550 somewhere else.