Poking some sticks in the fire... for my '09 S Has anyone swapped the base radio with the nav unit/radio? From: To: Is it a direct swap or is it so far involved its not worth it?
I'm going to think that the expense is not worth it. You would at a minimum change the Instrument Cluster. The base part is 62-10-9-228-486 with an MSRP just north of $700. Then you need the center screen bit, 65-50-9-233-620 that runs about $2K. I'm sure there a bunch of other parts you'll need, plus then having it all coded at your friendly local MINI Dealer. I'm sure it can be done, just not sure the cost is worth the end result. But, only you can decide that for yourself.
It would be so difficult and expensive that it may be cheaper to sell your MINI and buy another with Nav already installed.
I agree that I am sure it would be a nightmare to try and do. On my Porsche the two radios are a direct swap so as far as parts are concerned it is easy to do but you can't buy the NAV radio for anything under 2K and the dealer will tell you that it is like 4 hours of labor to recode the car for it to work. So you are looking at around $2500 to do it on a car where the swap is easy. On our MINI's it is going to be even worse by a bunch.