I can't believe this happened, but when I went to go pick up my new MINI yesterday I walk into the showroom and see my car, but no black headlamp housings. I thought for sure I had ordered them, but I ran through the order sheet and noticed that somehow, they were missing from the final order printout.

Of course, I was sure I had gone over all of the options when we put the order in...somehow that one was missed. There was a lot of screwing round with the dealer system and we had to start from scratch at least once. I asked if they could swap out for black ones and after a whole bunch of parts checking and nonsense the best they could come up with was swapping them out with the loaner but they would charge me $250 for the 1 hours labor and config change to their loaner. They seemed to be very concerned about lease-ability on any of the other cars on the lot and other mumbo jumbo that would somehow make any car they swapped housings with difficult to get rid of.

Anyhow, I opted to not pay the $250 because I just couldn't get my head around paying for something that is a free option. I figured that I would get over it eventually. I'm still super torqued about this though, and I'm wondering if I have any other options other than doing a joey mod myself...a task that scares the bejesus out of me to try to attempt because a screw up there would make $250 seem like a pair of movie tickets.

Any suggestions? I know I won't be able to order new ones and do a swap/return with my current dealer.

 

So did you pay for them??? If so you obviously damn well deserve to get them FREE.

If not, aren't they more than a 250 dollar option? Seems like a good deal there. I dislike the new chrome ones because the stupid washer part is still black on them...

EDIT: nevermind... i see it as a $0 option w/ Xenons. If you dont have it on a paper somewhere then I guess you're SOL and gotta decide if theyre worth the 250.

 

My question, if it bothers you this much now, how much is it going to bother you in a month? A year? longer?

If it's just going to get worse, then pay the $250 labor charge and be done with it.

Otherwise, start motoring and fugedaboutit!

 

check if you have these two options on your car...

1. HID
2. white turn light

if so, the black housing option is free!...i would go back and demand that ish.

 

Jearl:

Don't let it spoil the experience of driving your new MCS. You have a wonderful car that you waited a long time for. I love the Spice Orange/Black. Once you spend some time behind the wheel it won't seem like such a big deal. When I ordered my PW/PW MCS, I specified the Black Cone Spoke wheels. I pulled into the dealership to pick it up and saw it sitting waiting for me with Silver Cone Spoke wheels and thought that's not my car, but sure enough it was. I mentioned it to the dealer and they pulled out the build sheet I printed from doing the MINI Configurator and sure enough it said Black. They just missed that one word when they submitted the order. They offered to make a switch with another MCS on the lot, but I also ordered all season tires and the tires on the black wheels on other vehicles weren't all season. I decided I didn't want to deal with the hassle of switching wheels and tires. My wife liked the silver wheels better anyway. Long story short, my MCS arrived the way it was meant to be and I am happy with it. No regrets!

 

Well, from the dealer's perspective, it's like you showed up and said, "Oh, hey, I MEANT to order cloth seats. Can you swap some out for me? Great, thanks." It's a smaller part, obviously, and cheaper, but the concept is the same. The only reason they'd do it gratis is to create goodwill. They just told you the price of goodwill is less than $250. That's all.

 

Faggetaboutit. You can't see the headlights from the driver's seat, trust me. You'll get over it, you will.

 

^^^ he is pretty much right in the end.

Everybody is doing joey mods and now that they are offering them OEM, the chrome will be back "in" lol

I wanted to joey mod for the longest time, and now the only reason I want to open them up is because I have some like off-gassing type spots inside my lense

 

So yeah, I will get over it eventually. I intend to black out all the chrome and the black housings would have completed it. One thing I know for sure is that the 2011 drives a ton better than the 2008 I got out of. I imagine part of it is just being new, but the clutch travel is where it should be and the Getrag feels better too. Also, my 2008 was suffering from the chain tensioner issue this winter and it's a joy to not be driving a diesel for the first few minutes.

I love everything about this car so believe me, I still have a smile a mile wide.

 

congrats. it's still a great config mini.

i dunno if the dealer just pulled a fast one over you. from my order experience, i did not see the black headlight housings i requested and let them know that it was a deal breaker if it wasn't on there. but they assured me it was in there system but not on the printout. mine came ordered with the black housings.

 

I couldn't agree more. Get your Mini experience off to a good start cause if you don't you'll be sorry.

 

Measure 3 times, cut once...

Read before you sign. (same thing) Sorry for you, but you're stuck.

 

Stuck, but not out of luck. A joey mod seems very do-able and I get the satisfaction of doing it myself. Besides, I think orange or copper-metallic for the projector ring would look better than what I could get from the factory anyway. I *will* make this thing mine.

 

For some reason that line just made my day! lol. Don't know why, but it did.


As for the factory upgrades vs. what you do yourself, I think it is more rewarding to make it yours on your own. But that is my opinion.

 

I just started the blackout process yesterday. I plasti-dipped the gas cap. Turned out pretty good so I think I'll use it for the bits I can take off the car. If it goes to hell in a handbasket, I can always strip it off and send some cash Lyle's way.

 

Why you guys think plasti-dip is acceptable for a $30,000 car is beyond me..... Powder coat would be much tougher and professional looking - for the metal parts.

Much rather have chrome than that cheap plasti-crap.......

 

My Plasti dip blackout looked great at first, but after a few seasons I tend to agree with you, and I'm peeling it all off. Just a few parts left, the chrome looks great in comparison now.

 

Plasti-chrome, plasti-dip not a big difference. Let's face it, it may be a $30,000 car, but the "chrome" accents are cheap plastic crap. What metal parts are you referring to? There isn't anything on the exterior made out of metal except the body itself.

 

The belt line is metal....just sayin

 

I fought and WON, when my Dealer did not install the Chromeline Interior. It clearly states in the Accessories Book I had that the Chromeline came w/Hi-Fi Strero Sound System, when the car came in it had the Gloss Black Speaker Surrounds, but were replaced Gratis!!

 

I decided that after blacking out all of the other parts, the chrome headlights would just not do. I broke down and did the Joey Mod. The process was not hard at all, and I have amazingrando, ghosthound and other folks here to thank for all of the information provided in their Joey Mod threads. In the end, I'm glad I did this myself for the sense of accomplishment. Besides, my work is far superior to what comes out of the factory IMHO.

Some before and after pics:

 

I have to admit that even though I am a big chrome fan, that looks damn good. VERY WELL DONE. I am sure you are pleased, and you are correct, the factory black headlights would have never looked that correct. Love the Spice Orange with the orange / bronze accents in the black headlights. You will have all the guys and gals with British Racing Green, Horizon Blue, Chili Red and other colors, that like the "blacked out" look, wanting to add some body color to their "blacked out" headlights. Be ready to answer questions my friend.

 

I played around with the idea of blacking out my DS MCS, but instead left it chromed and now prefer it like that. But your car look really good man. Good job.

 

I love it!, definitely thinking about doing something similar to my car.

 

jearl, that looks stunning! Very nice touch with your joey mod.

Annette