hello there, just bought an '06 cooper s. so much fun to drive. my las car was a 335xi so it's quite a change but at least still in the bmw family.
anyone who has info on adding bluetooth please let me know.

 

First off, welcome to NAM and the MINI family!


Do you know if your MINI has the "convenience" package? On the steering wheel you will see two buttons to the left of the horn (other than the normal buttons for the radio controls). If you do have that, then your car is "bluetooth ready" you just have to have the dealer install a bluetooth system.

Or you can add a system that works for all cars, check around the forums. There are a lot of threads on bluetooth information, you just have to do some searching.

 

thanks for the reply. I do have the phone buttons on my steering wheel. I'll give the dealer a call and see how much they want to gouoge me for the BT add.

 

There may also be DIYs for this, I'm not an expert are car bluetooth so I am not sure how things are wired to it in the MINI. But you may be able to save a lot of money by doing it yourself and just buying the things you need.

Good luck!

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

I would be intrested in the bluetooth add on as well, let me know what you find out from the dealer. i have a 07 MCS but im sure the prices arent much off.....

 

congrats n welcome

 

ok so the service guy at the dealer said it would be approx $2k to do a factory type install and that I should go to radio shack.
There has to be a better/cleaner option. Anyone have any ideas?????

 

Here is one option: http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/b...-free-car-kits

Parrot Bluetooth systems seem to have come up on threads, they seem to have a relatively easy installation. But, I don't think you will be able to use the buttons on the steering wheel with any of their models.

I wasn't able to find a good link on a DIY for an OEM kit. Let's see if anyone else comes up with something.

 

is it something that could be just bought off a car from the junkyard, like a different deck that would have the bluetooth function built in and would just activate the bluetooth button that is already installed. Seems like it would be pretty dumb of mini to make completely diffrently wiring harnesses for a bluetooth and nonbluetooth models?! theres got to be a better way..... anyone?

 

OK finally spoke to a Mini dealer that knows something (Hartford CT). Apperantly for the R53 you need a specific kit and they are showing only 11 of these kits available in the entire country! I called 2 dealers to check pricing one was approx. $630 (Hartford) parts and labor and the other was $970 (Fairfield). Just as an FYI for anyone in the CT area, I found Mini of Fairfiled to be very difficult to deal with and not very knowledgable on the phone. Although I work much closer to Fairfield I would certainly give Hartford my business to save $300 and also because they were much more helpful and curtious. Now to decide if "factory installed" BT is worth $630....... that's almost the price of new performance exhaust!!! Hmmmm.

 

Are you against using an in-ear headset?

There is even a MINI brand one.

 

Thats awesome! Thats just the Plantronics explorer 925! great headset BTW!

 

I wasn't sure if it would be a good headset or not, so there you go! Good headset and it has the MINI logo on it.