We are the proud owners of a new 2013 Cooper S hardtop. It's got the mini connected with nav, Chile Red, with white roof/mirrors. White racing stripes and chrome bonnet scoop are are order... to make it a little unique to us.

With only 29 miles on it so far we are only JUST beginning to enjoy it and have a long ways to go to figure all the options out.

The cooper is my wife's DD, (mine is a '12 4Runner), but she looks to me for all questions, mods, upgrades, etc.

We are in Ventura, CA and looking forward to meeting local Mini owners and hopefully an AutoX event or two.

 

Congrats! I special ordered my 2013 MINI Cooper Hardtop (non s) in Ice Blue, it's currently on the ocean between Europe and the US. I'm coming from driving a 1992 Toytoa Corolla, so it's a big step up! Anything you don't like about it? anything i should be warned about?

 

now that is what i like to hear!

congrats on the new MINI!

 

@Minnie'sMINI - The fun aspect of the interior is great and looks cool, but it takes some getting used to when trying to use it on a daily basis. Little things like the window switches being in the center consul under the stereo, that just isn't intuitive.

The only thing I don't actually like is the lack of touch screen for the mini connect. I have the Entune system in my '12 4Runner which is very similar, but it uses a touch screen which is far easier to input than Mini's joystick. Ideally there would be a combo of both as there ARE times with Entune i wish I had a joystick (like moving a map around). The mini connected system is pretty interesting, and has SO MANY options and features I think it will be quite a while before we get them all under control (not a bad thing).
The Navigation works better than most OEM systems, but nothing special, and for sure not as nice as a simple Garmin. The icons on the left are numerous and a bit confusing, again we will eventually get used to those.

Frankly the Mini is all smiles and lots of fun. If you have Mini connected with Nav, just plan on spending some time to learn the system.

 

well, I'm not too worried about getting used to the window switching being on the center consol, cause i'm used to hand cranking my window every day when i drive in and out of work! I didn't get any special features like Mini Connected, i got the basic stripped MINI cause really the Auto locks, auto windows, and cup holders are all new and luxurious to me! I also got the stripped MINI cause my original budget was 22,000 and the lowest my dealer could go was 23,000 so I didnt' want to spend any extra on the features I probably wont use.

 

I'm coming off a touch-screen nav system on our "former" other car and while I am aware of the limited input modality of the MINI, I am wondering if - after I get used to it - it will be safer for the driver. The touch screen REQUIRES one to look at the screen, while with the joystick one can get used to click counts and keep the eyes more on the road. Guess I'll find out once I take delivery in 6-8 weeks (Green Park Cooper S HB, ordered today).

I got the Connected with Nav as well. Being a solid Android user with a new Galaxy S3, I had misgivings until I saw the non-iphone functionality of the system. With my non-iphone, I was streaming Pandora through the car in no time. I certainly won't be doing Facebook or Twitter while I drive, but suppose my iPhone equipped passengers can.