I just ordered mine today... now the wait begins.

[Eepers]

Hey all! Just signed up and wanted to say hi. I'm in the Raleigh area. I ordered a Sidewalk edition JCW today from FLOW, and can't wait for it to get here. They told me about 8 weeks, I hope they're right.

I know resale on MINIs are good, but I must say I was a bit taken aback on how little they were willing to negotiate on a completely loaded out car. They pretty much just ended coming down $500 on some accessories, and I'm pretty sure that was due to my comparison shopping with the Charlotte dealer.

I feel like a bit of a poser because I haven't really been all that interested in MINIs before, beyond seeing the occasional one and thinking "hmm... those are neat". But the lease is up on my BMW Z4 this August and I wanted a 4 seat convertible so I ended up test driving an S version and loving it. I drove it back to back with a 380HP Audi S4 convertible and got out thinking the MINI was just WAY more fun to drive. Guess I'm not old enough for the "luxury" version of performance yet, haha.

Anyway, HI!

[wscruiser]

Welcome to the group, and congrats on your new MINI purchase. I know those 8 weeks will seem like 8 months, but it will be worth the wait.

I know how you feel about Flow's firm pricing, but when you're 1 of only 2 dealerships in the state, you can pretty much name your price. Atleast they're not marking up the MSRP like some dealers are doing in other areas of the country.

[Vango]

Welcome to the club cant wait to see youre new ride..

[BlimeyCabrio]

Welcome and congratulations! Can't wait to see your Sidewalk! We'll start having some more frequent Raleigh area get-togethers and drives later this year (yes - that sounds like I'm committing to something...:) )

I know what you mean - if you're shopping for a 4 seat convertible, and you want to have fun, one drive in the MINI cabrio is all it takes... it pulled me away from Audi, Mercedes and BMW verts, all of which were considerably more expensive... and there are a few aftermarket things you can do to your new cabrio to take the handling to the next level... see my blog...

You got more outta Flow than I did, FWIW. And, yeah, just be happy you're not in California.

[simplygriff]

Congrats! Welcome to the club!
-G

[HPUdrew]

Awesome, welcome to the club. I just saw a sidewalk edition at Flow the other day, must say, that leather is NICE!

Drew

[minimark]

Welcome and congrats on the new Mini!:cool:

[Eepers]

Thanks for the warm reception. Yeah, I was super impressed with how it drove. I've had 2 miatas before and my Z4, so I'm a fan of the small convertibles, but wasn't expecting the 4 seater MINI to offer such a great driving experience.

It looks like the upgrades people reccomend are air intakes and pulley systems. (Do those affect warrantees?) Since those don't seem to be dealer options, are there shops around Raleigh for getting that kind of work done?

[HPUdrew]

I don't know of anyone in the Raleigh area, but we're lucky to have a certified MINI-tech that runs his own garage in Thomasville. Trust me, if you enjoy modding cars at all, you'll likely spend a lot of time there. Dan Zipkin is the man and the site is www.grassrootsgarage.com for his info. There is a lot of info in here about him and his work, lets just say, Tar Heel MINIs is BLESSED to have someone like Dan as part of our crew.

Oh, and there are certainly a few "must-have-mods" for the MINI. I haven't installed a pulley yet, but plan to this summer. Intake, Exhaust, Supercharger Pulley, and Rear Sway Bar are all "must-have-mods" in most of our books.

I'm looking forward to seeing a Sidewalk MINI roaming around here soon. Please feel free to join us on any events before your MINI arrives also.

Drew

[BlimeyCabrio]

Peruse my blog (http://blimey.gomotoring.com) - includes a writeup on this week's trip to GrassRoots Garage for pulley and exhaust mod. I already had an intake. Ditto on the swaybar. On a cabrio, the M7 Under Strut System (USS) also makes a BIG difference IMHO. Info on all this stuff is on my blog.

For what it's worth, I asked the EXACT same question ("any good shops around Raleigh?") when I first got my cabrio - and was pointed to Dan. Took me 6 months to get there. But worth the drive. :)

[Eepers]

Fantastic info! Is the sway bar you speak of the same as the JCW Strut Brace? I ordered that, but that doesn't sound like quite the same "bit of kit" as what you're talking about. Also, is the "parallel-flow sports twin exhaust" with the JCW package good stuff, or something that should be upgraded further?

Did any of those mods void your warrantees?

I'll have to check the blogs out, those sound incredibly useful!

[BlimeyCabrio]

Rear sway bar (actually "anti-sway bar") is part of the rear suspension under the car. A beefier, stiffer, adjustable rear swaybar allows you to remove the understeer that is inherent in these cars. Makes a noticeable difference in the "eagerness" of the car to rotate around a corner - you feel like you're having to steer "less hard" to get great cornering response.

Others can comment on the JCW exhaust - I'm not very familiar with it vs. other options. I think it has more backpressure than some other options, which may or may not matter.

Whether mods void warranty is a sticky issue. By law, a dealer or manufacturer can only void a warranty if the aftermarket part caused a specific failure. But often dealers ignore that and jump to the default "It WOULD be covered by warranty, but since you installed X, that voids it" response. In which cases it pays to know your rights and ask them if they know what the law says, and ask if they are prepared to prove in a court of law that your mod CAUSED the failure. Another approach is to keep your aftermarket parts and, when in doubt, return the car to stock before making a warranty claim. Practical for some mods, impractical for others.

There's no reason I can think of that a swaybar would impact warranty.

If you're getting a JCW car, I assume it will have the JCW intake - which I wouldn't upgrade further. The JCW also already has a smaller supercharger pulley - some debate exists on how much smaller, but somewhere in the 10-15% range. Some folks opt to upgrade to a 17% reduction pulley - which WILL void warranty on your supercharger, but shouldn't impact anything else.

Frankly, with the JCW kit, you're already getting a lot of upgrades. The only things you may want to pay attention to early are a few suspension add-ons - rear swaybar, M7 USS, and maybe springs. These can all have a big impact on handling of the car, and aren't a ton of money...

[Eepers]

Excellent, doesn't sound like those types of suspension and rigidity mods would be something that could be pointed to as a problem for warrantee work anyway.

I should of put more about me in the first post, but better late than never. I'm a game designer for Epic Games (last game was Gears of War) and I do a good bit of graphics work. So, if anyone would like to send photos of a car and try out different graphic touches or stripe configurations, lemme know, I could probably help with that. Also, before getting into games 10+ years ago, I worked in a Vinyl shop applying the stuff, so, if anyone in the Raleigh area is interested in playing with some additonal stick-on fun, I could probably help out with that as well. Lastly, I'm friends with a guy who owns a local sign shop, so getting vinyl cut at a discount is probably doable as well.

Hope that's all useful!

[Eepers]

Oh, lastly, as a hobby I do woodworking and recently picked up a computer controlled router so I can more or less scan in a 3D part up to an inch thick, modify the design and cut a 3D custom repro out of wood. I'm still working on getting my shop set up in the house I just moved into, but I may experiment down the road with some custom wood trim pieces, assuming those end up being reasonably easy to remove.

[BlimeyCabrio]

Eepers,

Thanks for telling us more about you - may take you up on some vinyl design and install in the future!

Very cool to hear that you're a game designer at Epic. My 10 year old son is a gaming freak and dreams of someday working in the business. Maybe later this summer after you have your Sidewalk we can arrange for him to meet you at a club event - he'd love to talk with you about what that's like!

[MidnightDave]

Welcome, great car and good bio, looking forward to meeting you and the "sidewalk" in person, soon! You'll have a blast with the car and this club, on the 'net and in real life! ;-)

[KillerKar]

Hi!

Welcome to the group. It'll be a pleasure to meet you at our next gathering! You're in with a great bunch of folks!

[mrry550]

I haven't installed a pulley yet, but plan to this summer. Intake, Exhaust, Supercharger Pulley, and Rear Sway Bar are all "must-have-mods" in most of our books.

So, here is the money question - do these mods negate my 4-year warranty? :D :D My car is only a 2006, and I'd hate to lose the warranty on it.

[BlimeyCabrio]

So, here is the money question - do these mods negate my 4-year warranty? :D :D My car is only a 2006, and I'd hate to lose the warranty on it.

Well, that depends...

1) you CAN buy JCW (John Cooper Works) stuff and have it dealer installed. That retains your warranty at the cost of overpriced mods that underperform - in some cases.
2) any mods only void the warranty on stuff they rationally affect. So pretty good chance that a pulley would void warranty on your supercharger if it exploded (which almost never happens... only failures I've heard of were from doofuses who didn't know what they were doing and botched the pulley install - which will not happen with Dan Zipkin). Not much that can go wrong as the result of a swaybar install. Likewise with intakes and exhausts. Though in theory, if you had some rare, catastrophic engine failure, the dealer and/or MINIUSA COULD give you a hard time about a pulley, intake or exhaust. Ultimately, if it happened to me, I'd take them to court and make them prove that my mod caused the failure. They would likely lose.

I was warranty fixated for a couple of months. Then I looked at the HUGE number of people who mod these cars vs. the TINY portion that have any warranty issues and decided the benefit outweighed the risk. But that's a decision each person needs to make.

[MidnightDave]

Ditto and for that reason, and after a discussion with an unnamed tech at an unnamed dealership, I've done CAI, exhaust, RSB, engine damper, boost guage, tires, Wet Okoles, rear seat delete, and NOT the pulley, or big brake kit, b/c that SC is the only thing, IMO they could question and might prove expensive/a PITA to negotiate--the brakes are just waiting on my penny jar to fill up. ;-)

[mrry550]

I was warranty fixated for a couple of months. Then I looked at the HUGE number of people who mod these cars vs. the TINY portion that have any warranty issues and decided the benefit outweighed the risk. But that's a decision each person needs to make.

My husband did say that the pulley install was so common that mini more than likely would honor the warranty regardless. I think I would have a better chance getting Flow Mini to agree than the dealership in Miami.

I have had to use the warranty since I got the car - it's an auto and it still does not shift at the right time. It gets confused? I dunno. So, it goes back to the dealer occasionally for them to check at it. Also, the car pulls to the right a lot - so again, another warranty item.

None of that would be affected by a pulley though, so ... :)

Are you still under warranty yourself? Is Flow Mini the only place around that Mini allows you to take the car?

[BlimeyCabrio]

Still under warranty - Blimey's only 7 months old. But he's been driven like a 4 year old. :cool:

I have the auto and it shifts funny sometimes. I just think that's the way it is. I just live with it. It's a blast in manual mode - and I believe a REAL advantage on the Dragon in manual mode - two hands on the wheel, shifting in corners if needed, not having to think about the clutch... really makes fast driving EASIER on the Dragon...

You can have warranty work done at any authorized MINI dealer. Only two in NC - Flow, and Hendrick in Charlotte.

[HPUdrew]

Honestly there isn't much that Flow or Hendrick will complain about. On occasion people have been asked to remove a mod and then bring it back in to have something fixed, but I have not heard of anyone being turned away for a mod yet. I really think with the standard mods that most are doing to the MINIS you shouldn't have any trouble. Have Dan at Grassroots Garage do the installs and you'll have even less to worry about. He can probably fill you in on the details better than I can too.

Drew

[mrry550]

Thanks guys - makes me feel a little better about modding the car. :)