The standard radio functions could be better. I don't have mini connected, and when I want access music on my i-pod I have to scroll alphabetically on everything. I wish you could wrap around to Z from A instead of having to scroll for 2 minutes before getting to ZZ Top. This a minor thing "I admit, but when you have 10k songs on your I-pod it is annoying.
Also agree that the mirrors could have a bigger adjustment range for us tall people.

 

Went for a drive today up the coast. I tried both sport program and sport button and various speeds. Dang! Definitely a difference in steering feel with sport button.

Now I'm spoiled, and wish the full sport button features were added to the automatic tranny M/S mode, not just the shifting points.

 

The dash vent is for "ambient" air conditioning. I'm the type of guy who doesn't like the cold air blowing on me in one spot. I point all the vents away from me and cool down the whole car instead of just my left hand and stomach for example. I think it's great. I think it's pointed up to cool the hottest air in the car first.



As for the engine temp gauge, I think it's weird too. BUT aside from seeing the gauge get to a big number and stopping on the side of the road, I dont think it's that necessary. Even on a turbo car.

The ECU takes engine coolant temp into account and will no doubt limit boost or engine power when it's getting hot. I'm sure it'll also throw up a warning or put you in limp home mode if it gets too hot.

And as far as shutting the car off, the car circulates water through the turbo and keeps the fan running to cool off the turbo and prevent bearing damage. On top of which you're running synthetic oil which is less likely to coke up the bearings.

 

OK, I found one that annoys me: the Universal Transmitter (garage door remote). After I finally got it programmed (several tries before I realized that it has a --very-- delayed response), I find that it has several "features" that I don't like.

First, as I mentioned, the delayed response: I have to hold the button in for at least two seconds before anything happens.

Second, the very short range: the car has to be right next to the door for the button to work (and I like to open the door as I pull in from the street).

Third, the motor has to be running. I realize this is a security feature, but I'm in the habit of shutting off the engine and closing the garage door before I exit the car. Can't do that now.

 

What I don't like most is electric power steering (that has rubbery feel at low speed) and amount of torque steer you get when accelerating exiting the turn.

I would also prefer having Sport button to be automatically engaged (based on key гыув) or at least moved to the steering wheel (as M button in BMW)

 

Let me first say that I've only had it for a week but I LOVE my 2012 CMS so much more than any other car I've ever owned. I'm participating in this thread in the hope that the BMW MINI folks keep an ear on forums like this one and are taking notes. Maybe enough voices can make changes for the future. That being said, and to follow along with the theme of this thread, here we go:

1 ) The cupholders are totally useless unless you drink Red Bull every day. I can't think of anything other than those diminutive cans to fit into those tiny pods. Seriously, I wish I could have been sitting in the car when the original designers were there to test the effectiveness of the cupholders, just to be a voice of reason. And by the way, can anyone provide a link to any cool water bottles or coffee cup thermoses that have a diameter and height that actually works?

2 ) Center rail. Again, useless. The handbrake defeats the purpose. It's been well documented and I hope the designer who approved the cupholders and handbrake location has been shipped down to the mailroom so let's move on.

3 ) For those of us without the navigation system and the fancy screen that comes along with it, the radio controls could be much more intuitive and user-friendly. How cool would it be if each mode had a button, instead of having to hit the mode button two or three times to switch from Tuner to Satellite Radio to USB and the rest. There's plenty of space on either side of the ***** while still staying within the lower part of the big Mickey Mouse faced speedometer. Also, I do wish I had a numeric volume indicator and a mute button so that I can quickly kill the volume when I need to.

4 ) The expensive Y-shaped USB/Bluetooth/iPhone connector doesn't lock into the dock connector of my iPhone. I've owned iPods and iPhones for almost ten years (which means I've owned a ton of those dock connector cords, too) and I've never had one that wouldn't lock or stay securely attached to the dock…until now. You could breath on the cord and it would come loose from the iPhone dock. That won't affect me too much in the future since I'll be picking up one of those six foot dock extender cords from Amazon and dock my iPhone just above the speedometer on a holder. I've got some non-reflective gaffer's tape to secure the connection between the cords and then I hope to snake the cord through the crevices of the dash. Still, for a car that costs this much, they really should pay attention to the details.

5 ) You need tiny baby fingers just to reach the small tray in front of the cupholders and under the dash. I'm assuming it's meant to hold loose change and that you have to use your keen sense of touch to figure out which coins you're grabbing. It's almost like three different design departments put together the dash, the cupholders area and the center rail but only saw what the others did at the last moment.

6 ) And, speaking of utilizing space correctly, there's a ton of room on the far left side of the dash, just under and to the left of the steering wheel for a foldout drawer to put change, receipts and other random small stuff in there. C'mon, MINI (or some other third party person), make it happen!

7) The covers for the cigarette lighter/power outlets (all three of them) should have the rubber caps that are attached and fold out and not the kind of caps that just come off. That's just asking for them to get lost under a seat or lost altogether. I know it's a small thing but, again, it's the little details that should separate a car in this price range from the others. I hope to fix this with another cheap Amazon purchase of cigarette lighter socket cover caps.

8 ) I didn't get the Comfort Package and now I'm truly paying for it. The AC is kinda weak and I wish I had more options for fan intensity.

9) I also wish I had the option of holding down the boot button on the key for a few seconds to have it raise up automatically.

Most of the little features that annoy me are design related and wouldn't really cost MINI too much to change. They've gone to so much trouble to make sure that the newer cars work well with the iPhone, so maybe Apple could lend them a designer for a small fee to make an already great car even better. After all, if there's any car on the market that embodies the "Think Different" ideal of Apple, it's MINI.

Again, these are all little things that kinda annoy me only because this is the most expensive car I've ever bought and I've had less expensive cars that didn't have any of these issues. However, in the end I still LOVE my Countryman and wouldn't trade it for anything.

 

I may not completely understand what you mean by "dock connector", but I'll throw this out there, anyway. When I purchased my CMS the salesperson was helping me setup and couldn't get my iPhone 4 to stay connected to the OEM Y-cable. He went back inside to grab a new one, thinking the one in the car was defective. That's when I realized that the Y-cable wasn't the problem (or, at least, not all of the problem). When I removed my iPhone's bumper case, the Y-Cable snapped right on. Of course, Apple's cables don't have any issue with the Apple bumper case.

All of that said, in another thread someone described being able to put all their music on a thumb drive and plug that into the USB connector and have the MINI stereo read everything, including playlists. Brilliant solution! I went and bought a 64GB drive and really have no need at all for the Y-cable.

 

imaginager - We're talking about the same thing, the bottom of the iPhone (otherwise known as the docking area). I actually don't have a case on my iPhone so I think I'll be swinging by the dealership to try out another cord.

 

Not sure if this is just comfort access but...

there is a button on the remote to release the rear hatch.
yet you still have to push the top of the handle and lift the mini logo to OPEN the hatch.

which is silly because if you have comfort access, just having the fob in your pocket, you can lift the mini logo and it'll unlock and pop open anyway.

 

On ours (no comfort access) once you hear the click
from the tailgate after pressing the button on the keyfob all you need to do is lift the Mini logo.

 

If no particular order. None of these make me dislike my CM, I like it alot actually. However, these things could be improved.

1. clutch engagement. soft, vague, high, chattters/skips in stop in go traffic

2. AC could be colder. its cool, but my VW/Audis basically blow ice, even the 12yr old one

3. Dipstick, its quite difficult to get a accurate reading. it naturally reads low but doesnt hold much oil visually.

4. no spare, I'm going 18 or 19 aftermarket & wont be using RF's. A spare or space for it would be nice.

5. Fog button does not illuminate when pressed(yes, light goes on, but a lit button would be even better.

6. Oil pressure, oil temp & Coolant temp should be standard on a Turbo car. I dont need 3 separate gauges, but a digital toggle would be nice. (MFA/info style)

7. Longer Y cable so I can use the navi on my iphone but place near my view..the dash/windshield. (easily addressed in aftermarket)

8. better placement of fog & sport buttons

9. useless cubby in front of cup holders, maybe have it swing out to the side or something?
(I dont mind the cupholders, I have placed DD iced coffee & bottled water in there just fine. I dont need a huge big gulpat all, let along in my car I sportily drive)

10. mickey Mouse center stack, ehh. I ignore it, but it could be a tad more suble

11. the SR shade isnt nearly dark enough. i almost always leave it covered. I will likely use a ceramic light tint for additional shade.

12. the xenon lighting could be a tad higher. I'm adding rallye lights

13. E-brake handle blocks..alot. A side pull on p/s of rail would be better.

14. over use of circles

15. Sport button has to be pressed after every start. Should be key specific




Things I really like:
A. Blk headliner
B. Outside handles
C. transmission ratios
D. seats
E. shift ****. it feels great
F. AWD/Manual/Turbo/MPG
G. Handling/Braking/Stk Exhaust note
H. trunk floor compartment. storage for 'everyday items'
I. Tilt/Pan SR
J. Key coding. (Daytime running light off for me/on for my wife.
K. It really is a MINI ;P

 

I have found any of the new cups with the slender bottoms that branch out wider fit.


The front section of the rail, especially with nav/connected is useless, but looks cool at night.

 

I see a lot of complaints about the Y-cable length. There are such things as ipod dock connector extension cables.

 

Just to reiterate the issues others have said-

Shape and function of handbrake is poor
AC is kind of weak, but I think the ceramic tint I'll be getting in a few days will help a lot.
The cubby in front of the cup holders. Its way more functional in other minis.

And to add my own-

Sunglasses holder won't hold 3/4 the sunglasses my wife and I own.
It weighs over 4k lbs.?!?!? I was shocked considering my significantly longer Subaru Forester only weighs 3300 with sunroof, leather, hitch, bike rack, etc...

 

Gutie, how would you compare your Subie to your CM?

 

Both are great to drive. The mini is a little more "luxurious" with the quieter ride but other than that it is really hard to compare. My Forester has been heavily modded, 350whp/tq (over 400 at the crank) so it is a much different driving experience. Only weight reduction I did was about 20lbs from a lighter wheel/tire combo. I would say they are very similar in passenger space, but the suby wins out in cargo space easily. I love the mini for sure though. I just wonder what it would feel like with 700 less lbs.

 

Where are you getting your info Gutie? Curb Weight for the CM S is 3053 lbs. I believe the ALL4 adds another 250 lbs on to that.

http://www.edmunds.com/mini/cooper-c...tyle=101395886

The gross vehicle weight is almost 4K, but that is the legal maximum it can weight with people + cargo.

 

I have true blue and I agree about the water spots!! Drives me crazy!

 

Not correct; official curb weight of ALL4 (manual gearbox) is 3208 lb.

 

Yeah, even my old Pathfinder is under 4000 lbs., so that's obviously an error. But his 350 HP Forester sounds interesting...really interesting No wonder his CM feels like it's 4000 lbs!!!

 

Starbucks Grande fits easily, and a Venti fits fine but brushes the seat warmer button so you have to be careful not to roast your butt while you're drinking iced coffee. Hot Grande and Venti cups fit fine too.

We have these thermos/travel mug dilly-os. They fit perfectly, don't bump the buttons, and the top is spring loaded so you can pop it with one hand. Keeps stuff hot or cold FOREVER too. Just be aware that if you put coffee that's too hot to drink in one of these, it will stay that hot for over an hour. I have to put an ice cube in when I make coffee in the morning so I can actually drink it on the way to work.

I had the same problem, and I gave the salesman a lot of grief about it, but it turns out that there was lint in my iPhone's dock connector slot, so it wasn't going all the way in. I fished it out with a needle and the thing clicks in great. I'm not sure if you have lint or if your Y-cable is defective, but it's worth looking at.

 

You can get cable extensions from monoprice.com for shockingly low prices. They don't have dock extenders—or at least didn't when I ordered—but I ordered a USB extender and a stereo 1/8" extender, and it works great. You can't do video/plugin that way with connected because the stereo extender doesn't carry a video channel, but I don't use those, so I'm happy. I still get album art, playlist and song selection, and good sound.

 

The boot button on the remote is really quite silly, at least with non-comfort-access. You have to pull up the logo whether you pop the boot or not, and the logo works unless the car is locked. So all you really need is lock/unlock. All the boot button is good for is accidentally popping it so when I drive off, I get a "boot open" error.

 

The value of the boot open button, well at least to me, is that it doesn't unlock the other doors. Open the hatch with the button, place items inside, close the hatch, and all doors remain locked.

 

The boot button is pointless with comfort access as well. There is literally no use for that button.