The prices above are for parts only. What your dealer is quoting you includes installation, I hope! I've found that dealers are charging between $5500 and $6100 for a JCW install.

the dealer i ended up ordering from has been accomodating in every respect and even threw in the floor mats for free.

thanks again.

our mentor found it quite silly, that bmw should bring the cars from oxford to munich for pick up. but they do so.

when we were there in sept 03, one mini was for an us-citisans. but i remember, he was working for us-forces in frankfurt – i supose he ordered the car in germany.

acording to my local dealer the price for the JCW is $6060.00 they also charge $99 for the aux input instead of $40. am i getting ripped off or did i just miss something.

“Congratulations on your upcoming MINI, how exciting for you! I apologize for your disappointment. I know that the British voice was more “MINI” but it was found that this setting was causing the Navigation system to malfunction, and this is why it is no longer offered. My apologies again, if they diagnose the cause for this problem and a fix becomes available, we will notify the dealer network.”

Most of us thought that this response was not the real reason as to why the British accent was discontinued because it seems a little far-fetched that a voice track could cause malfunctions. Who knows, maybe it actually could. Anyway, that's why I asked for the real reason. There's a lot of us in the US who would love to have a British accent on our MINIs.

Cheers a very interesting read

No thump theories? …RB

BTW I'm also wondering what John's 'British accent' question refers to! Didn't know that the MINI talks….

“This is probably your power steering motor. It operates electrically while the car is running at low speeds to provide extra boost to the steering, then at higher speeds, a more direct hydraulic system takes over. “

This description of how the power steering works is not quite correct. The MINI power steering system does not have any direct steering assist from an electric motor at low speeds or any other speeds. Though there are cars out there with direct electrical steering assist, the MINI is not one of them.

The MINI power steering system is just like every other standard hydraulic power steering system out there except that the hydraulic pump is driven by an electric motor instead of a pump belt-driven by the engine as in most other cars.

At all speeds, steering assist is provided hydraulically. The (noisy) electric motor simply drives the pump that supplies hydraulic pressure. Hence the concept of “electro-hydraulic” power steering. The quote above seems to imply that there are two separate steering assist systems for different speeds (one electric and one hydraulic) which is not the case.

Thanks, and thanks to Gabe for arranging this.

its real. the pick ist done at munich. i did so. theres no way to pick up the car in the uk.

when i was in munich, on same day there were 3 cars delivered at factory to us-citisans, who wanted to make a big europe-trip with there new car and then bring it to the us. just for fun.

I paid MSRP for the car, the sport package, and the R90's. I was then charged for labor to swap the tires from the s-lites to the R90's.

Totally fair way to handle it IMO.