Dec 30th, 2003
The 2004 Accessories catalog is out and there are some notable additions. Here are a few:
- Walnut dash trim kit $521.50 (Finally available in the US)
- Bluetooth Hands free phone system $450 (First posted here this past summer – The MINI and Bluetooth)
- Front foglight blackout panel (for the aerokit) $79.00
- Front chrome grille: Bonnet $72.75, Front upper bumper $24.25 (MCS) (mentioned here last June)
- Sport exhaust (MC only) $675 (was available last year but noone seem to know about it as it sold very poorly)
- Tail lamps with white turn indicator (same as current ones but white where there is orange) $250
- Sunroof wind defector $129
Nose mask (synthetic leather for MC or MCS) $98.50
- MINI link system (MINI-Fini Sport link system) Bike rack $TBD / Sport link $TBD
- Interior Carbon Fiber trim kit- Door panel tubes and all of dash except for the airbag panel over glovebox $150 (I believe this just lays over the current plastic and isn't a true replacement)
- Rubber floor and boot mats with “S” logo $69.95 & $58.95
- Sheepskin seat covers (Grey, Black, Beige-only center strip of seat) $240
- Alarm system (from 9/03) $295 (I believe this is much more plug and play than the previous system and very similar to the current 3 series system)
- Protective Boot cover- lines entire boot area $186
- Leather armrest $260 (I believe this is the MINI-Fini armrest that I reviewed in August)
Dec 29th, 2003
Netscape Autos has just listed it's “10 best steals among new cars” and as you can imagine the MINI fared well:
Where there are wheels, there are deals, and some deals are steals.
Which are the 10 best cars for the money? To start, obviously, they're not the most expensive. And, they're not necessarily the cheapest. They are, by definition, the 10 best values for your hard-earned cash…
Most Fun Motor Car: Mini Cooper S
It's got an amazing fun-to-drive quotient. There are 163 horses hidden in a four-cylinder engine, matched to a six-speed manual gearbox in a crisp-handling car that's just supercharged, pure fun. The interior shines, with several color choices for door and dash, so it's customizable at the dealer at no extra cost. The fun mobile gets more points for the huge sunroof — almost a convertible. Loaded with sport, leather and performance packages, it comes in more than $1,000 less than its nearest unloaded rival, the VW convertible turbo. Approximate price: $24,000
Dec 28th, 2003
Here's a recent email I received from a friend looking for some Sirius radio install answers:
I need your help. I saw your XM radio hookup info on the site and became very interested. My wife and I want to get some satellite radio action hooked up to the MINI, but we want to go with Sirius, since we're both total NPR geeks, and Sirius has all the NPR programming; XM has none. I don't want to pay the dealer $700 to install the Sirius in my car, and I don't even want to pay $300 for the MINI specific tuner. But I do want a nice clean install (hardwired, with MFSW support–not some silly handheld unit), much like the XM install using the Blitzsafe. I have searched high and low, and I can find very little information about Sirius hookups (probably because people are just getting it from the dealer).
Sirius is currently offering a deal where they'll actually give you a free tuner if you just buy an antenna ($50) and a year of service (which I had planned to do anyway). But this deal is only good through the end of December (i.e. 3 days from now!), so I've got to hurry. I'm wondering if you've heard anything about anyone hooking up a Sirius tuner to their MINI and/or if you think there is any sort of adapter (Blitsafe?) that would allow some sort of boot operated Sirius action. And also: I'm aware that there exists a Soundgate adapter that is supposed to do all of these great things, but I'm hearing that it's currently out of stock everywhere on the planet AND that it may not work with the H/K radio (which I have).
Any thoughts? I'd really appreciate it, and as I said–I'm on a tight schedule as far as money saving goes.
Dec 24th, 2003
I'd like to take this time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays! I'll be laying low for the next two days so enjoy all the recent posts and the rest of the site!
Cheers,
Gabe Bridger
Dec 24th, 2003
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MINI.com (the MINI international website) has some great flash movies of MINIs moving in and out of an apparent “Winter Wonderland”. These are actually some of the coolest MINI shorts I've seen in some time and I can't help but think they'd do well as commercials in some sense. You can check them out by going to MINI.com and clicking on “MINI Winter Wonderland” or by downloading the Flash movies individually below:
MINI Go (PC) | MINI Go (MAC)
MINI Snow Dome (PC) | MINI Snow Dome (MAC)
MINI On Ice (PC) | MINI On Ice (MAC)
MINI Sledge Tuning (PC) | MINI Sledge Tuning (MAC)
Dec 24th, 2003
Since my Ice-Link iPod adapter hasn't arrived yet and my review will be later than anticipated here's a good installation guide from Mark in Atlanta (as posted on North American Motoring). I'll should be posting my own with a full review sometime after the new year.
