Well, I just talked to the MA, and he is telling me that per my order and the $550 option, I do have the MFSW - I have my doubts though. I agree that the Sport Steering wheel was never a stand alone option, and to change it then say - that's that - is pretty arrogant. I will just make sure to have MINI put it right by ordering me a new wheel and installing it (it should work the same way the R53 does).

Randy

 

I just talked to my MA and he says Mini won't retro fit a new wheel. They are giving me the options to reorder or take delievery -$200 differance.
Does anyone know if the cars come prewired and you can just order a R53 wheel and plug and play?

 

Retrofit probably not an option according to my MA as well (something about drive by wire throttle). I really think Randy if your order doesn't specify both 255 sport steering wheel and 249 Multifunction, I think that you are going to get a 300 leather wrap. My MA has been totally upfront with me on this and I'm not mad at him as suggested in someone else's reply. He told me they changed the meaning of the codes and weren't real informative to the dealers. This is a big problem. One of the things that prompted the bulletin was the mass numbers of people ordering ala Carte the steering wheel, hence the correction.

I sent MINI USA an e-mail, who I am livid at, and asked how I could be purged from the owner's lounge database as I would not take delivery.

 

Right now I'm driving an '04 MC manual. It's just an great car to have. I know the '07 auto is not a cvt and probably better than the '06, but I highly recommend the manual. Maybe they did you a favor by screwing up the order. Now you don't have to wait that long to get the manual that you really want.

 

Thanks MiniC for the kind note. I needed it after getting kicked in the gut.

 

You're welcome,
Enjoy your new MINI!

 

OBC wouldn't be related, as it's standard.

But -- don't trust what the OL says unless something is there that shouldn't be, or a package isn't showing up. It's not a complete representation of the order, unfortunately.

Check with your MA to see for sure. They should be able to check the order and verify what's actually there. If you ordered with the Premium package, you should be fine, because that package includes MFSW.

 

Yes

 

I just checked my order info that was sent to me from the dealer back in December and found these two lines so I believe that I am OK.

249 Multi-function steering wheel Blocked
255 Sports leather steering wheel Blocked

 

Maybe I'm the only who who thinks this way...but I think cruise should be standard, as it is on most cars these days. If you don't ever want to use it, then don't...not like it weighs 75 pounds or something. It even makes resale easier, around here it's almost impossible to sell anything without cruise.

I know a guy who just bought a new Miata and was very disappointed to discover it didn't have cruise, he just assumed it did and never checked or ask.

 

Honestly, I doubt something was changed. To the best of my knowledge, the online configurator never mentioned it as being standalone.

I'd bet dollars to donuts that the problem was in the order-system configurator's data for the US, and that should have included a rule that wouldn't let option 255 be ordered without option 249, generating invalid orders. This is how configurators blocks things like LSD requiring a manual. It's a simple mistake in and of itself. (The online configurator should be driven off the same data, IMO, but it doesn't appear to be.)

What is asinine, IMO, is rolling back the order to be the 300 steering wheel. What they should have done is change the invalid orders to add 249 and they should 1) fix the SW ASAP (probably data-driven, easy to do) and 2) eat the cost.

The policy should have been, "Some customers placed orders for the sport wheel without the multifunction, these orders have been flagged as invalid and have been placed on temporary manufacturing hold pending resolution with the customer. If no response is received withon X days, the orders will proceed with option 249 added with a factory discount for the difference. "

Never give the customer less than what they asked for.

 

MINI seems like a great experiance all around, but the company itself seems a bit arrogent, not the dealer, just the company building the cars. There will eventually........ come a time when they will have to give better customer care, but when people pre order in august , pay full sticker or more, they know they got you!

 

Totally agree with you dwdyer!! They should have known nobody would order a leather steering wheel for 300 with out MFSW. I would rather them have sent an option I didn't want then to not send the most important one.

 

I just looked again at the build a mini at MINIUSA.com, and it still shows only the three spoke sport leather wheel as a MFSW option. You can't buy the wheel without it according to the configurator.

I guess I'll just deal with it, because I don't have time to wait for another car, but I am disappointed in the configurator which still has the same issue.

Randy

 

All the price and ordering PDFs out there like in this thread indicate the same thing. Ask-MINI is going to let me know tomorrow what I'm getting but there is no mention of MFSW in what they can see now.

As a member of the R56 optimist club, I'm sure MINI will make any of us effected by this happy somehow, right?

 

We'll see if miniusa provides some form of retribution (i.e make us happy) I'm affected. Sent them a scathing e-mail, will post reply when I get it.

 

I have a bad feeling about this!

Does the description in the owner's lounge say "multi-function" for anybody?

Mine just says leather sports wheel and does not mention multi-function. I pointed this out to my salesman the first time I looked at it, and he checked the order at that point. But there are other things that seem incomplete about the description there - no mention of the color of the roof - so I never thought about it again.

 

The price in the Configurator for the 3 spoke has always been $550. never said $300.
The ala cart price desicribed in the package for Premium Pkg says 3 spoke MFSW as being 550. so why would anyone assume they were not getting the MFSW when ordering it ala cart?
Sounds like MINi would have to do something. The logical choice would be to provide the owners the cars as they are - not charge them for the 300 wrong part price and make them happy in some other way or allow them to reorder and provide a lesser value goody. I hope they notify everyone who this has happed to before the disasterous surprise on delivery day!!
If they don't tell everyone before they go to the showroom that would be terrible.

 

Yeah - I have to agree. If its not the MFSW, then there should be no charge. I was not interested in the "sport" wheel - I was interested in the MFSW, which just happened to be only on the sport wheel. If they are not delivering the MFSW, then they ought to eat the wheel, or just swap it out for the standard wheel - I'd be fine with that.

Damn - I am addicted to the radio controls on the wheel in our other car. I'll miss that if the order was blundered. And I do like cruise on the highway - stops me from creeping up into speeding territory.

 

For those that will reorder the only consolation is that a reorder should take far less time. Maybe they'll fast track the redos and you might not loose much time at all.
My guess the next two weeks other orders will be pretty light due to the fact that most buyers will wait for the launch in 2.5 weeks before ordering at this point.
On a SW related question -- I went with the standard 2 spoke leather wheel -- the only difference in the 2 and 3 spoke (without the MF) is the 3rd spoke right? What else makes it a "sport streering wheel". Is the leather better on the 3 spoke because the 2 spoke says leather also in the configurator?

 

I think if my wheel is wrong and they can't fix it, I'm going to take that opportunity to check out the R56s at the 2 closest dealers, including my own I suppose, and see if I really want what I ordered before I order it again. I've been waiting since last summer, why not 2.5 more weeks? I wonder how many hard to sell cars the dealers will end up with? I just can't imagine buying a 15k car without cruise control much less one that's over 22k.

 

I've already reordered. May check out what dealer has in Feb and launch, but in all likelihood, I'll just wait on my reorder. Did same reorder with a noteable exception. Ordering an MC, I decided to add another months wait and get 6 speed manual instead of automatic. Manual becomes available on 3/07. Using some of 1350 savings on hi-fi upgrade.

 

i just spoke to mini usa...they said option 255 is the leather sport steering wheel with multi-function and wouldnt have a problem. then again I wont be recieveing my car till april

 

I just learned from my salesman that my order got caught in this snafu. He said he was going to check with service to see if they can change out the wheel, but of course the word here on NAM is they can't.

 

Sixblade - you may not be affected as according to the bulletin the 255 option for sports steering wheel (which was never really an option according to configurator) is going away after feb 26 and the only option is MFSW. Should have been that way from the start according to the configurator.