Mini Cooper S....

Yellow with black roof and chrome line exterior...
Sports Package with WebSpoke 3 piece wheels
Convenience Package
Premium Package
Cold Weather Package
Xenons
Rear Fog Lamp
Parking Distance Control
6 speed Automatic Transmission- The wife demanded,
Chrome Line interior
Navigation
Anthriacite Headliner
Lounge Leather Seats in Carbon Black with white piping (wished they had yellow piping, but the seat leather feels really nice).
Mellow Yellow Colour Line with Piano Black Interior Surface (debated getting brushed aluminum, but sales guy talked me out of it because of the seats)
Alarm System I think that about covers it... The only "factory" option we didn't take was the Sat Radio and the HD radio. The HD radio the sales guy said sucks as it cuts in and out unless you are close to NYC and the Sat radio with lifetime subscription my wife wouldn't let me order. She said $1000 bucks to listen to a pervert like stern was stupid. Oh well...

Anyway can't wait for my new daily driver... I've put more than 2000 miles this past month at a new job on my 911 so I had to buy something, so why not a mini!!!

So my question.... The only thing I was unhappy with is the interior door pull. If I would have gotten brushed aluminum or wood, then it wouldn't look like cheap black plastic. I got piano black because of the white piping, so can you retrofit just the brushed aluminum part there or does someone make a carbon fiber piece? Another option is to have a set painted yellow to match the exterior if the part comes off easily. What ever I decide, I'd like to order it so that in 5 weeks when my car arrives, I can put it on day 1.

Thanks... and I guess I found a new "internet" place to hang out...

 

Nice setup. I got the Mellow Yellow and Black. I also had the standard checkered interior surface and got my two panels on the dash painted Piano Black. Didnt like the cheap plastic look.

I now have to get the "rings" on the doors painted soon to match everything.

What exactly are you talking abou the pull on the door?

They do come off elliptical rings on doors, but are a pain in the a**. I have a post somewhere on here just search my username with starting a post and you should find it.

 

What do you mean cheap plastic look? Does piano black look cheap? I think I could change the piano black to brushed aluminum first thing in the morning before the order is submitted into the system, since I'm sure they didn't enter it on saturday. But I'll only change it if it's cheap looking. My sales guy talked me out of the brushed aluminum because he said piano black would make it look elegant with the black roof.


The part I was talking about is the strait piece ahead of the arm rest cusion on the door. In wood interior it's wood and in brushed aluminum it's brushed aluminum according to the website.

 

Are you sure you want the sport suspension for a daily driver?

The white piping stopped me. I went with cloth, but wish I had gone for the Redwood Lounge Leather. That might look really good with Mellow Yellow.

I also opted for Piano Black. It isn't bad, but not what I had expected. I was expecting a gloss formica like surface -- nice and hard. However, it is just a soft plastic like polystyrene or something.



I've taken the right side off and it was fairly easy. It would be wise to do it when swapping speakers. The driver's side will be a little more difficult because of the mirror controller. It is a little tricky, but I managed it when changing speakers.

I make wooden shift ***** and ebrake handles. I'm thinking about making a door pull out some gorgeous wood, but not sure yet if it will work out well. The backside of the pull is not easy to replace so the seam might be an issue (as it is now, IMO).

 

In Piano Black, the door pull front piece is not Piano Black. It is a textured black plastic, same as the back part. The Piano Black would probably look bad from finger prints on the door pull.

I just looked at RealOEM.com and the brushed aluminum parts are $80.50 for each side from Pelican parts.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...77&hg=51&fg=50

http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/...on=51412753327

 

So would you do Piano Black again?

I think I can handle sport suspension on a daily, in-fact it may actually be nicer to my kidneys...

This is my current daily driver....



I hope that means I can handle the sport suspension ;D

 

Is the Sport suspension + 17s really that bad?

I'm in the process of finalizing my spec to place an order for a new daily driver MCS in the next week. Test drives of the MCS w/ 17" run flats and SS have seemed night and day to the same combo on my R53. The car felt way more level and composed w/ zero drama/head jerking rolling over some decent sized imperfections in the road compared to my current ride. I'm pretty sure the sticker on the tester listed Sport package equipped and it definitely felt slightly stiffer than the non-Sport MC I test drove.

Just wondering if I need to redo my test drive in another MCS that definitely has the Sport suspension before I put in my order. I am hoping to get away from some of the harshness in my R53 w/ SS w/o sacrificing handling (which the previous tester seemed to do brilliantly).

Sorry, for the mini-hijack.

 

I might go for English Oak. I didn't like the look of the brushed or satin finished metals. So, it would either be Piano Black or English Oak.

Based on riding in a friend's Porsche 911 Cabriolet, I'd say that the Porsche suspension is considerably more sophisticated than the MINI's. His suspension is not harsher than my 2007 MCS with standard suspension, 17" wheels, and non-runflat tires. If you stay with runflats, the MINI will be even harsher.

The OEM wheels are rather heavy (22.5 lbs for the Crown Spokes) so you may want to go with a set of aftermarket 16x7 lightweight wheels for daily driving. That is what I did. I started out with Crown Spoke 17x7 & Dunlap runfalts. I sold them and got a set of lighter 17x7 wheels with Michelin Pilot Exhalto PE2 non-runflats. Then got another set of 16x7 Rota RBs with Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S for a quieter and softer ride. The Michelins get used for fun excursions and the Pirellis get used for daily stuff and trips.

I haven't driven an MCS with the sport suspension, but it has to be stiffer than standard.

I don't know how it compares to an R53. They were all sold out when I went for a test drive.

 

If your friends was a 911 cab, then you really can't compare them. Depending on if it has active suspension or just std shocks, but just so you know, the porsche cab and coupe (in the US, except for GT2/3) are a pretty soft suspension, even the turbo seems a little caddy like and I hated it in my previous car as it seems to make the front float above 130mph. On the good side, the marketing guys for porsche who made this suspension decision to satisfiy "luxury car owners" buying porsches have saved many dentist visits as the us spec regular production cars don't rattle you teeth when you go over a bump. With my current car's oem I can't drive in NYC for fear that I'll lose a filling :D

Anyway, this is a mini board so... I kinda liked the 17" 3 piece wheels in the Cooper sport package, but don't like the idea of the run-flats. Figure they are summer tires so they should only last like 15k (less than a year for me) and I'll put on a nice set of bridgestone's or something that aren't run-flat. The dealer told me there is no way to fit a spare in the Cooper S. Do you know if that is true?

Also I would have loved English Oak, but my wife hates the look. In our old S6 avant we had wood, and it really turned her off. Personally I wanted green with wood dash and steering wheel, but the only car we can agree upon that looks good in green is an Aston. So Yellow it is... which means Piano Black or brushed aluminum. Since starting this thread I have found a bunch of pics of yellow colour line and piano black, so I think I'm going to stick with that. The question is the plastic door pull piece, I can either get the part in brushed aluminum or I can take the current parts off(or buy new plastic ones) and send it out to bumperplugs.com to have Eric paint them piano black or mellow yellow. My guess for the same price as the brushed, but it would match.

Decisions, Decisions... Well I guess I have 5 weeks to decide....

 

"The dealer told me there is no way to fit a spare in the Cooper S. Do you know if that is true?"

You can get a space saver spare and carry it in the boot. I ordered mine from Classic Mini for about $140.00 for the wheel with the tire mounted. It won't fit over the front brakes, but it will fit over the rear. Could result in a double tire change if you had a flat on the front, but I think the smaller tire should probably be on the rear anyway for steering, braking, etc.


I have ordered a cloth bag from the bag lady to carry it in. It should be in soon.

http://www.njbaglady.com/

 

So with the space saver spare, and you have a front flat, you put the rear wheel on the front and then the spare on the back? I think in the rare event of a flat, I'd be ok with that.

 

That is what you have to do. I am ok with it as well.

 

It is true that there is no place for a spare in the MCS. This is because of the exhaust system.

I carry a Continental Tire ContiComfortKit (there are cheaper versions available, just make sure they are compatible with the TPMS valves) and a Dynaplug incase of punctures. With a catastrophic tire failure (tire coming apart), I'm not sure you could get far on a runflat anyway. In the last 20 years I haven't had a tire problem that needed more than an air pump to get me to a repair facility. I hope I continue to be as lucky.

Check out the NAM Tires, Wheels, & Brakes forum for some nice wheels that are lighter, and less expensive than the factory wheels.

As far as wood goes, perhaps you can talk her into compromising with one of my shift ***** and ebrake handles.