Armrest
I had bought the MINI armrest from the Wood Company even before I got my car. At that time it seemed to be the best armrest option out there - even though it screwed into the rear cupholder, it matched the interior and had storage as well. Right after I got the car, Mini-fini announced itself and that it would be offering an armrest as well. It wasn't clear from the pictures on minifini.com whether it also used the rear cupholder, so I held off installing the one I had until I knew for sure. When it finally came to light that the mini-fini armrest also rendered the rear cupholder useless, I went ahead and installed the one I already had.
Here's the armrest open closed and open:
Here's a straight down shot at the cupholder during test fitting before, closed, and open.
Screws and felt that came with it:
The 2 squares of felt were supposed to be put on the back of the seat belt clasps, but I wanted to protect the top of the e-brake console more, so I put them on the underside where it would make contact.
The bottom was lined with felt, but not the sides. I had bought a
few shetts of what I thought was black felt,
but when put beside the felt below, it was obvious that it was a very dark brown.
But it was close enough.
Here I traced the shape of the bin on the back of the felt:
Pretty good fit - the camera lies. The brown felt is barely distinguishable from the black in real life.
Screw the bracket into the cupholder:
Covered the screws with the supplied felt semi-circle:
I'll stop here to mention a few things:
1) The color of the padded armrest is an almost exact match for the color of the seats
(mine are panther black leatherette). The slightly different texture
of the materials causes the camera to make it seem the colors are further apart than they
are. But it's virtually a perfect match.
2) Although the seats can move forward and backward freely with the armrest installed, access to the inner seat-back adjustment levers is awkward at best. If you often use this lever, you might not want this armrest.
3) How much of your elbow is supported by the padded part will be solely determined by how far back you usually have your seat. In the picture below, the padded top is as far forward as it can be (fully open), and the seat is in my normal driving position (I am 5'7"). My elbow is only supported by the front few inches of the armrest. This was a little disappointing, but after trying it out, I think it's acceptable. If you're shorter than I am, or if you like the seat very much forward, the armrest might not be usable for you. So if you buy it, check this out before driving the screws.
Here's a shot of the back of the armrest in the same position as in the picture above:
