Aloha. I will be relocating to Honolulu from the mainland within the next couple months. I'm looking into ordering a Mini S Convertible and selling my 2001 BMW M3 so I don't have to be bothered moving it over. Have a few questions.
1. Does the local dealership charge over MSRP on the convertibles?
2. Does the navigation work on the island?
3. Where is a good place to go for custom stereo? I'm going to need a custom enclosure made for some subs.
4. Where is a good place to buy rims? Interested in probably Volk, Iforged, or HRE.
5. Are the mechanics at the dealership knowledgable? Sure hope they are better than the ones here....

Hope you guys do track events. I'm going to miss taking my M3 to the track.

Mahalo.

 

icode4food,
Aloha from Hawaii and welcome to NAM.
1. If you order a new MC or MCS cabrio then it is MSRP.
2. NAV works but you are limited to an island 40 miles wide.
3. Lots of options. I'd try Island Sound (the owner is still doing work).
4. Try Eurosport or Hypersports near Comp USA in town.
5. Knowledgable about what? For fixing MINIs they are OK but for aftermarket upgrades you might know more than they do.

Don't forget to let us know once you get to Hawaii. For the dealership try contacting Randy A. or Mary Q. Tell them minihune sent you.

As for track, we do monthly SCCA solo II, bi monthly SCCA lapping, and two driving events per year, the last was a two day driving school at Hawaii Raceway park in the campbell industrial park area near Kapolei.
There are also Superlap events several times a year at HRP and next one is Dec.18th with some MINIs participating.

 

Why not just bring the E46 M3 over to HNL? A recent transplant from Cali contacted BMWCCH Secretary (he's and 02 and CS guy) and inquired about E46 M3s in Hawaii. He was told there weren't very many and it would be a waste to bring it here. So, the M3 was sold and a MCS purchased. Unfortunately, he found out upon moving here that there are lots of E46 M3s in Hawaii!

Regarding rims, you might be better off buying them on the mainland and installing on your car (if bringing the car here) as shipping gets quite expensive for parts.

The dealership has competent mechanics that are familiar with factory installs and eqpt. If you are getting into aftermarket stuff, as minihune said, you are probably more knowledgeable than the tech staff. Also, one thing I noticed was that if there are problems with your car, more info on the problem and repairs is available via NAM or MINI2 than the dealer.

As for track events, BMWCCH holds 2 High Performance Driving Schools each year, Spring Fling and Aloha 500. These events are sponsored by BMW of Honolulu and offer expert in car instruction and lots of track time. For more info go to www.bmwccahawaii.com. In addition to these track events, we also have several "spirited" island drives throughout the year.

As minihune said, SCCA holds monthly SOLO 2 and bi-monthly lapping sessions. There are independent lapping sessions such as Superlap and if you are into in, Drift Session.

If you are here in early January, JN Automotive is hosting Track days on January 6, 7, 8 and 9. World reknown racers Ivan Capelli, Michael Galati, Doc Bundy and Corvette Z06 Development Engineer, Jim Minneker will be doing demo laps in Corvettes, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Maseratis and Lotus'. Audi is even shipping over Mike Galati's World Challenge RS6 for the event! FYI. JN is the local automobile dealer for Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, Maserati and Chevrolet.

Anyway, Welcome to Hawaii!

 

>>>>> Uh, that'd be me.

Going from an E46 M3 to the MCS is something to get use to; however, there aren't that many roads here to make use of the M3 (unless you track a lot) so I don't really regret the switch too much.

Shipping a car over is no big deal. If that's the only reason for selling your car, I'd keep it. For wheels though, make sure you buy them and ship them with your household goods. The supply here is slim-to-none and the cost of shipping is outrageous!

 

Make sure you've got insurance that covers the shipping on your car. Err... come to think of it, I'll just go ahead and reccomend NOT using Matson to ship your vehicle. They smashed the front end of our 1971 Mini and blamed it on "soft brakes"...the same "soft brakes" I used when driving around at last years Spring Fling at the raceway.

"5. Knowledgable about what? For fixing MINIs they are OK but for aftermarket upgrades you might know more than they do."

As long as you don't have an electrical problem, you can probably safely assume that MINI of Hawaii will fix it in 3 or 4 tries. If you're lucky, they won't damage your vehicle.

 

Thanks for all the info. I'll try to see if I can fit the Track day event in early Jan into my schedule while I'm out there. Will be busy looking for a condo and spending time with family.

 

Hi, icode4food! Mark January 23 on your calendar. Much looking forward to meeting you. Happy Holidays:smile:

 

you have PM