We have a 2018 Countryman Cooper S All4 with the BMW B46 4 cylinder turbo engine and Aisin 8 speed automatic. I am posting this in case someone else is having an issue. It's a cautionary tale, since with modern electronics our cars have multiple computers which have to be updated occasionally. We update our phones and our computers. Why don't we update our cars? Besides the obvious, which is that the dealership won't check for updates unless you bring the car in with a problem, one impediment is that we have to bring it into the dealer for these updates and the diagnostics cost money, but sometimes this is money well spent. Another impediment is that not all cars have OTA (over the air) updates that can be applied via WiFi or using mobile internet technology. This is changing. My SIL's Nissan Qashqai has OTA updates so a premium brand like MINI will likely get this in the future.

Here's the gist of the issues we were having with the car: The car had an intermittent cold start stumbling/stall issue and also an issue where the car would hesitate while driving. The car didn't show any codes (I have a Snap-On reader) and the fuel economy remained stellar. I booked an appointment (very easy) and I brought it in for service at MINI of Halifax in our Nova Scotia home.

They re-flashed the ECU and the Transmission Control Unit (TCU) and applied 3 years (!) of updates. They also reset the adaptations for both the engine and the transmission. The car now works beautifully. The reprogramming transformed the car and it no longer hesitates while driving it and the cold start stumble has disappeared. Other than an issue where they inadvertently deleted my maps and disabled Apple CarPlay (oops!) and which they put right, everything is so much smoother. They did caution me to use brand name gas (Shell preferred) and to avoid purchasing at my corner gas station as certain additives and detergents are crucial to the engine’s running and long term health

Good info. Had my 2018 PHEV in for a check engine. Along with the new valve cover she got 3yrs of updates. Had just had routine maintenance so I guess for that they don’t check for updates.