Hi,

I am a newcomer to Mini. My wife has a 2015 Cooper (non S) with a 5 speed manual. Since the day she bought it, she has complained about inadvertently selecting reverse when she wanted first gear. I have driven it quite a bit, and I have to say that I agree that it is way to easy to put it in reverse by mistake. We live in San Francisco where stop and go traffic on a 20 degree incline is normal, so this is a major frustration. There is no reverse indicator light, or gear indicator of any sort, which just compounds the problem.

At first, I insisted that we would just get used to it, but 6 months on it is still a problem. Not quite as often, but my wife and I are both fed up with this design. We have both driven manual transmission for a lot of years, but always with shift pattern where 1st was up and left (Honda, GM, etc).

Does anyone know of an aftermarket shifter or mod that introduces a button or collar detent to block the transmission from shifting into reverse. I know this existed on an older BMW that I drove a few times. If not, has anyone ever tried putting a stiffer spring into the reverse gate? I tried searching for this question and turned up a few discussions about the Cooper S having a very stiff spring that the driver had to overcome in order to shift into reverse. I do feel a spring in our Cooper, but it is very soft and doesn't stop me from sliding right from Neutral into Reverse at a stop light.

I have seen the Cravenspeed shifter retaining clip that is supposed to offer a tighter feel with less play. Can anyone comment one this part? Does it help at all with the ease of shifting into reverse.

Thanks for reading!
James