No Recaro Seats for the US Market

Gabe, I’m not interested in the next generation MINI, regardless of who is the engine building partner. The advance shots I’ve seen here and elsewhere turned me off long before I knew the details of the new engine.

The fact that the car will have a totally new, unproven engine designed and built in partnership with a manufacturer that has a suspect reputation in this country (confirmed in my own experience) only solidifies my feelings.

And remember that BMW isn’t exactly ding free when it comes to product offerings. M42 engine profile gaskets, early V8 engine blocks and the current 7 series issues are just a few points where BMW’s engineering fell a little short.

Finally, I don’t have to be rational in my car buying decisions. If I were rational about it, I probably wouldn’t have bought a car whose nearest dealer is 85 miles away.

Yeah, now that I’ve seen the Recaro, I can’t say I’ll miss it that much. It’s not that the seats are a deal breaker, but I just want something special for the last year, otherwise I’ll just wait, maybe consider the new model. A factory Works package changes that though, that might be worth it if it’s not overpriced. From the factory, even with the brakes, it shouldn’t cost more than like $3900, and really it should be like $2500-3000.

I wasn’t aware the ’05 sport seats are different, that true? I’ll have to go check it out.

I’m disappointed…I have a 2003 Mini S with the sport seats and hate them. I’ve dreamed of a more supportive seat and have toyed with after-market, but didn’t want the insurance/legal questions.

I planned on buying the new mini seats and swapping them…guess I’m going after-market.

I’m just amazed that such a good handling car has such poor seats. Why again does the rest of the world get what we are also asking for. How tough is is to install a manual airbag bypass, if the sensor is the problem?

I’m way behind here and just now catching up. I was also waiting for the Recaros, I’ve had them on a 325is for 15 years and they were great, really great. But with grey insets only, I agree, I don’t care for them anyway. I feel sort of stupid that I did not order an 05 when I had the chance – and now the electric blue is gone.