One of the most annoying things about the Y cable that comes with the mini connect is that it is way to short. I have found a solution that keeps the required cable in the hookup, but now gives me 6 feet of cable.

I just tried this in my countryman and it does work. I use a dock extender cable (I bought a 6' dockXtender made by CableJive, available on Amazon).

Simply plug it into the dock end of the original Y connector and you now have a cable as long as you need it. Mini Connected recognizes it fully and everything works great. Now I can mount the phone anywhere in the car (I use Craven Speed's smartphone mount) and have full functionality. Plus if I need the phone for navigation, I can now safely see it.

Of course any mini connect app such that requires the insert still will need the insert.

 

CableJive's dock extender cable looked sweet to me, but I couldn't pull the trigger on the relatively steep $31.95 price tag.

On a hunch, I sprung for the Cosmos Sync & Extender Cable Combo which bundles a USB/dock sync cable, dock extender cable and handy little velcro cable tie and all arrived in a little reusable ziptop bag for the frugal-friendly price of $8.99! And I have Amazon Prime, so shipping was free for me.



Enough extra length to get the dock connector over to the left side of the steering wheel where I installed a Craven FlexPod for my iPhone 4 and confirmed that it neatly drives ALL the signal you need from iPhone to Connected screen: audio, album info, video, charge and data.

 

they sell similar cables on ebay for $4 bought one a while ago and it works great.