I can think of a lot of your car that I would not order, but we obviously have different goals in picking them out. I cannot think of much that I would have objected to in your order were cost and weight not an issue.

The only thing I would advise you add is the sport suspension, if you do not plan on modding the suspension when you get it. All of the cars I test drove were kind of bouncy over rough road, none had the sport suspension. My car is more stable than they were over the same road. I think it's because of the heavier dampers.

I am not sure that the NAV is worth 2100$. It's speedometer is totally cool, though. If I were able to get that speedo without the NAV, I would have. I don't know what I would put in its place, if anything. I didn't want the NAV, because of the weight and added gagetry to go haywire. Besides, the car comes with an OK atlas, and I have google maps on my phone


I cannot advise about the mini's armrest in particular, but in every manual transmission car I have had that came so equipped, it has been in the way. I have short little legs (I swear there is a 5' tall woman running around with my real ones), so the seat is almost all the way forward in most cars. It's not in the way due to my seating position.

I liked the MY when I saw it on the lot. Before I ordered, there was a MY one equipped exactly like mine except for stripes and color at a local dealership. I was excited, since it was pretty much what I wanted, no ordering, no waiting. I pulled my wife over, and she said "It's yellow" and walked off. I knew then I was gonna wait a couple of months for a car, they do not order many with LSD for the lot.

Her reasoning was, it was gonna make me more of a ticket collection device than I already am, since it was more visible. The only color that was worse in her mind was CR (she likes red cars, but I can't drive them). When it came time to order, the choice was Lightning Blue. It's dark, subdued, the Black was too grey. If you have problems like mine, MY might not be the best color to choose. I don't think you mentioned which you picked.


Oh, and the normal (Xenon at least) headlights do shut off when you turn the car off. I never touch the switch. If I reach for the headlights reflexively, I reach for where they were in my old vehicle. The normal wipers are not too bad either. I wished that the intermittent setting was adjustable, but it does slow down and speed up according to your rate of travel. So no scrreeech because the speed that was perfect for 50 is too fast for a red light. Besides, the normal ones have the feature that every car manufacturer should be required to include by law: push down once on the right stalk, and it wipes once. mmmmmmmmmmm, good wipers.

 

I think for $200 you should add the auto headlight and wipers.

As for the PDC, I don't think you need it for such a small car. My mother has an MB E500 that came fully loaded with the the PDC. Everytime I visit her and I take the car, I switch it off. One time during the rain, it just kept beeping and beeping, I didn't really know what it was. Very annoying IMO.

 

I find that the high waist design of the R56 and the headrests make visibility, of lower object to the rear, rather poor. I'm very happy to have PDC. I miss the visibility of my lower-waisted 1990 Integra.

 

Exactly. I originally thought with the MINI being such a small car PDC would be overkill even for my mediocore parking skills. But visibility out back is very limited. Oh and I've definitely never had any problems with it giving false beeps in the rain or otherwise.

 

Question for you guys with Auto headlights and rainsensing wipers. Can you switch these to a manual mode? I'm concerned about times when I'm not happy with the way it is wiping and I want to switch to manual mode. What manual settings are there?

Also, does the same hold true for auto headlights?

 

The Headlamps and Wipers have all the settings for Manual mode, plus a little icon with the headlamps and "A" over it to denote it is in automatic mode, same thing for the wipers, there is a icon of a wiper with "A" and when you push it it will set to automatic wipers, otherwise it will be in manual mode.

 

Of course, in addition to the auto settings there are the standard manual options for both.

 

So you can put the wipers in manual intermittent mode? How does that work then, just speed sensing?

 

I actually haven't tried my automatic wipers, it hasn't rained here yet.

 

I really think you should consider the white turn signals with either color. The orange will clash with both colors IMO, and the white signals make the car stand out really nicely.

 

Ok would someone who has the auto wipers mind telling me if there even is a manual intermittent mode? This would be the same one on the non rain sensing wipers.

VicSkimmr, thanks for the tip, but I actually disagree with you....not a fan of white turn signals.

 

I have the auto wipers and there is no manual intermittent mode. You click it up once and it's automatic, twice is low, thrice is high. In AZ I haven't used it much but when I do it's great, especially when the rain goes from light to downpour as you're driving. They speed way up immediately. I rented a car in Oregon recently and was adjusting the intermittent wipers often, to get it just right. I appreciated the auto feature more.

 

"Regular" headlights do turn off when you turn the car off. In fact, now that it's dark when I go and come from work, I just leave them on all the time.

 

TheBigNewt, thanks for the info!

I'm concerned with how the wipers will respond in snow. What happens if my car is snow covered and they try to go nuts and end up burning out the motor?

Anyone know how they respond in snow?

 

Just an update, I decided to go with the auto headlights and rain sensing wipers. After driving around in the rain the past few days in my current car, I realized that I would actually like the rain sensing ones.

 

Good choice, hopefully you won't have to use them to often : )

 

I'm a Rain-X fan, not so much wipers. So rain-sensing wipers are lost on me. And I just think of my ex's mom not knowing how to turn them off going through the carwash in her Lincoln.

 

I don't have the auto headlight and they do turn off once you lock the car. You won't get an alarm if you leave them on but once you lock the car they will go out. When you come back to the car and unlock it the parking lights will come on until you start it, then the head light will come on. I don't have a center arm rest and don't miss it either even though I have had one on just about every car I ever owned. I don't have the nav but do think it looks stunning but not worth th 2k to me. If you do alot of driving at night get the xenons they are one the best options you can get.