US MINIs Get Different Seat Designs

I can live with the lack of that lump — given my legs it wouldn’t fit, but what’s the difference in the English Leather? I’m seriously thinking of the black with the white piping and cream color line in a PW/B or LiB/B and if they’ve messed with the the look of the non-punch leather…aaaagh!

If I was configuring an R56 MINI today, I’d sure wonder what other suprises were in store.

So much for hoping the R56 seats would be an improvement over the pathetic R53 sport seats… :(

My guess is there must be some regulation about having a certain flatness to the seat for the sensor to work well for light occupants. May not even be something in BMWs control. Maybe as time goes by the US seats will wear better and we’ll all be glad they don’t look as nice given the alternative.

I must say,I am very disapointed.I think bmw underestimated the us byers and they came up whith that quick and cheap solution.At list lets hope they will have a monocolor choice,so they can hide the uglyness of it somehow.

Ah yes, thank you DOT for again giving us the short end of the stick seat-wise. Sigh, I guess this means we won’t have recaros either.

I have English leather in my 06. I like the feel and look of it but I think it would be even better if the European seat bottoms were available in the states. For all the great ideas that went into making the MINI. I’m surprised this small detail couldn’t be worked out to work with our airbag laws.

Would major work be involved in replacing the seat bottoms as far as a the airbag is concerned?

Are you sure this is indicative of their final design, and not some sort of design compromise for the configurator? Miniusa.com has pictures of both the sport seats and lounge seats featured elsewhere available in screen filling resolution (in the gallery). If they don’t plan on offering those in the USA, they really should remove them.

geeze. I’ve been salivating over the new seats. once again we get shafted.

What about Canada? For those people really, really anxious about this issue, if Canada gets the same seats as Europe, importing vehicles from Canada isn’t particularly difficult.

Why not just do like the 350Z, where the driver’s seat and passenger’s seat are different?

AFAIK the weight sensor is in the driver’s seat as well. It allows the airbag to deploy at different rates based on the weight of the occupant. So both seats have the same problem.

I think Mini has tried to accommodate the average American. Mini has learned a lesson with the first generation cup holders. Lets face it it is one thing to retrofit a American sized cup holder and another to retrofit a American shaped seat.

You all are too critical. All you’ve seen is an illustration. I reserve judgement until the car is sitting in front of me. I have to also say that the U.S. version of the English leather seats for the 2006′s isn’t bad at all compared to the way it looks on Euro spec cars.

“US mandated sensors”

so ALL new cars in the US have sensors in the seats?

seems I’ve seen recaro style seats in several new vehicles.

HOLD ON EVERYONE-PLACE THE BLAME WHERE IT IS DUE: taken directly from the NHTSA website:

Does the Federal government regulate SABs?
Unlike front air bags, SABs are not required by NHTSA. Because they are not required safety equipment, the federal government does not mandate that vehicles be equipped with SABs. NHTSA has recently proposed an upgrade to the federal standard for side impact protection. The standard establishes occupant protection performance requirements, but does not mandate particular technologies to meet those requirements. Manufacturers may meet this upgraded rule with various types of innovative head, chest, and pelvis protection systems, such as SABs.
In or about 1996,The government began drawing up requirments for vehicles to be designed to withstand a 26 mph side impact WITHOUT FATAL INJURIES TO OCCUPANTS. The Government further suggested strongly better/stronger DOOR IMPACT BEAMS be utilized. It was vehicle manufactureres who had by then discovered that airbags were a great sales tool, that put forth the idea side airbags are a good thing. Head airbags, which deploy from behind the headliner and protect your noggin from a crash impact with the glass and other hard areas in the side of your car, work EXTREMELY WELL. however, dont expect that worthless litle air bladder in the side of your seat to do much, cause they dont. tHE nhtsa WOULD STILL PREFER BETTER IMPACT BEAMS IN DOORS instead of seat airbags, but the head bags do work.

It’s too bad we’re not given the option to turn off the airbag with a key as the EU versions can.

It’s obvious that no one at BMW & MINI is paying attention or they just don’t care.

so sorry, thought this was about the side bolsters-however- craig, I agree with, but as robbie pointed out, lots of cars meet this and have cool seats. AND if people didnt insist on putting infants and small children in the front seats, we wouldn’t have this regulation. It isnt the governments fault we get safety equipment that isnt cool. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not much of a defender of buraucratic bs, I just work in the automotive safety field and hear too much “it’s the governments fault” when in fact, the government pretty much lets the automakers build what they want, as long as it meets the regulations.

Are you guys sure it’s just that the configurator isn’t messed up?

Gabe: Thanks for the response. MINIUSA really does, however, need to get the quality control around their website. If you click on “Shop” from the MINIUSA.com website, then “Order a Brochure”, a beautiful picture pops up of the Lounge Leather seat with the “non-USA” style cusion. The picture is even for a left-hand drive car!

All points well taken, but I have had my GP for just over a month now and do wish I had the Recaro seats that the rest of the world got. It took NO effort on MINI’s part to find a replacement (the checkmate seat). I knew this before the car came so it wasn’t a surprise just a disappointment. They went to length to make the GP different in most ways and then threw those seats in as kind of an afterthought. If it’s not mandated, why not make it an option, I would’ve gladly paid extra for the Recaro’s but was never given the option?!