K, another dealer told me that the model year change over historically happens September/October, for November delivery, but that it changes slightly every year. That gives some indication on when the 2011s with revised engines would be available...

 

The revised engines are going into '10 models, starting this month. It's been well-documented.

 

I've seen the numerous links and references to the month of March, but nowhere does it precisely specify that this actually applies for North America...

 

Why does it need to? Nowhere is it written that it doesn't apply worldwide. It would make no sense to have 2 different versions of each engine on the assembly line.

Just because dealers are clueless or intentionally not acknowledging this change means nada. They may genuinely not know this little detail, or know but not wanting to acknowledge it, with a lot full of "old" cars that they need to move.

 

Kinda like the H/Ks for the 2010s, remember Kevin? Was supposed to be available in all 2010's but that didn't happen either.

The reason for the engine change is new EU standards, not to appease the Americans....it didn't make sense to build the Cabrio's based on the Gen 1 power trains through 2008 when they were building Gen 2 turbos on everything else...but they did.

I personally would not put anything past them at this point.

 

If you all wait 5-6 more weeks you will know. Our car is scheduled for production for next week....Once here I will let you all know

 

Agh all this speculation is killing me, I just put in an order last week and don't even know scheduled production yet. Here's crossing fingers :freakout:

 

When did you place your order?

 

A little off on a tangent...but yesterday I took my friend to one of the Houston dealers to pick his car up from service. I was shocked at how many MINI's were on the lot. My guesstimate would be there was between 100-150 new cars crammed onto their lot, when I bought my first one from them in the fall of '05, they would usually have only a couple of demos and maybe 2-3 unsold cars. The days of MINI's being relatively hard to find, and their vaunted resale value, are gone forever.

 

autopc25, placed the order 2 weeks ago and I am a week 10 production which is second week of March I believe.

 

Just picked my MCS up from momentum this past Sat. I think that is the 4th largest mini dealer in the US i was told if that is the one you are referring to.

 

Until gas climbs above four bucks a gallon....

 

I didn't want to be in your shoes, so I decided to just wait it out. It doesn't make sense that you would be able to order a car without the MA telling you which engine you're gonna get. I mean, what if I go order now and expect to get the current engine, but when I take delivery of the car I find out that it has the improved engine, I could get really pissed off at that point because I'm not getting what I ordered. I'm waiting to see the engine specs on the miniusa website change, then I'll be sure. Right now they still say 172hp.

 

I agree jmnegrin. I've owned a Mazda Rx-2, two Fiat 124 Spiders, Fiat Turbo Spider, Turbo Rx-7, two BMW 5 series and three BMW 3 series.

It seems that most enthusiasts are in one of two camps - those that like a rev happy engine with sweet sounds as it races to redline and torque junkies like myself.

My Mazda Rx-2 was fast - if you reved it to 4,000 RPM to get it off the line (no torque). I learned that I much prefer torque down at low RPM's. I want instant low end pull over high power output that you have to rev up to find.

To me, high RPM power is great for racing - but I spend too much time in real world conditions and I appreciate the instant torque of the R56 (and my R57). I love this MCS engine - responsive regardless of what gear you are in or how low the RPM. I don't consider this low end reponse as no soul at all.

I respect that high rev engine fans prefer a screamer, but for me give me TORQUE.

 

Historically, that wouldn't have helped. Mini has been slow as molasses to update their website with detail info. It'll probably still say 172 hp long after the new engines have begun to show up.

I wish whoever runs this board had a direct pipeline into Mini, then we could get info like this quickly and accurately.

As for the current motor, here's a document from early in its development (the document dates to late '04), with a TON of technical info. Anyone afraid of getting the "old" motor should feel better after reading this - there's a ton of very cutting-edge technology in the current motors.

 

Well this engine info is something I missed before ordering so I didn't even know it might be available. Of course I'm kinda time contrained because I have to take a 2000mi trip in May and I don't trust my camaro to make the trip. If I don't get a new car before then, I'll have to fly there and that means I'll be stuck with a rental which will probably be something boring and definitely an automatic. On top of that, I want to make the extra mileage pay

 

Actually it was MINI of the Woodlands. I bought my first one there and second two from Mo. Early on Momentum tacked on an extra $497 "dealer services" fee. They dropped it after MOTW had been open for a while and people started driving just across town to avoid the fee. Now, I'd say they're about equal as far as sales/service goes.

 

You're the eternal optimist. MINI had a fantastic run nationally, being able to maintain MSRP pricing (and sometimes above in some markets) for almost 8 years. Now the genie is out of the bottle and they rarely want to go back in. I've never seen the MINI as a purely "economy" car, in fact I was kind of embarassed to tell gas station gawkers how poor the mileage was on my R53 S. I think the relatively good gas mileage of R56's is a bonus feature but I think most people who buy MINI's do it for other perceptions. I know that if I were to try selling or trading in my current JCW, I would take a beating, and it's never going to go up in value.

 

Well the hotline said my estimated finish build date is 12Mar so I'm not going to hit the rumored late March. Maybe the engine will show up a little sooner. Of course I wanted and ordered the car before I even knew about this new version so I'll be happy either way. The new engine would just be an added bonus.

 

Everything is just rumors right now. It sounds like you are really close. You might be one of the very first to get the redesigned engine. Keep us posted.

Thanks

 

It sounds like you are a week behind mastawyrm in production which is really close. I think orders placed this week will end up in week 14 production which is Mid-April?

 

Ineteresting bit of info I saw

 

Fwiw, the "Sport Package" that included DTC on non-JCW's was supposed to begin production in "December 2008" according to MINI, but it actually started a few days before December as our Cooper began production around Nov. 29, and there were a couple European delivery Cooper S's that began production a day or so before.

Point is, starting production on a new option slightly early wouldn't be unprecedented.

 

The post 2 above this one said to check the CO2 on the top of the order form to confirm. What does this mean?

What does 1CA C02 relevant vehicles on a order form mean?

 

CO2 emissions is lower in the revised engines. Look at the numbers in the press release on MotoringFile. However the post was from the UK, and on a USA window sticker the CO2 value might not be at the top.