A friend of mine bought new a 2011 Clubman S and I fell in love with it as I drove it for a few years!! Therefore I knew exactly what I wanted when I got my own MINI!

I picked up a CPO 2016 Clubman S in Sep 2017 that had been a "personal lease" to one of the Dealerships VP's wife. Lucky for me she liked her BMW better - so after 12 months there were only 7k miles on it!! But after a few weeks I noticed that there were a few things not right that I am shaking my head about. If anyone can confirm or deny these issues - please do!

1) The rear sunroof doesn't pop up to vent when the front sunroof is popped up to vent. The answer I got from the Dealer was that in the 3rd Gen models, the rear sunroof is stationary at all times. Is this true? or is it a programmable code option?

2) The front hood scoop grill on the bonnet that has defined S models is now a fake? They put a black honeycombed plastic piece to remind us where it used to be? Why reduce the air intake ventilation?

3) Why do away with the CD player?!! Call me an old timer - but I hate fiddling with my phone to hear my music. It has the Harmon/Kardon MINI Connected multifunction center display. Maybe someone knows of a standalone/bluetooth CD add on?

So are there any computer hacks that could help sunfroof issue?? Thanks to anyone that can share their knowledge or maybe tell me what MINI was THINKING when they designed the 3rd Generation.

 

One of the reasons we bought a 2013 R59 was because my wife wanted a CD Player.

Jim

 

1. correct
2. correct
3. CD's are dead. Put them in your computer and rip them all to files and move onto a USB stick. For less than $20 you can have all of your cd's in the car at one time. Seems like we have to talk someone down on the CD thing weekly now.

MINI was thinking that pop up sunroof portion in the back is more expensive, and more stuff to break. Hood scoop being real provides zero performance benefits as the intakes are designed to suck in air from the front baffles. CD's are completely outdated and of no use for most buyers these days except a small percentage of folks. I was an early adopter of CD technology and paid a fortune for a player when they came out. I also ditched the thing as soon as they started putting USB's in the cars.

 

My wife wanted a CD she got a CD. Ripping a CD is so yesterday more trouble than it is worth.

Jim

 

Thanks for providing some insight as to MINI's design thought.

As for CD ripping - I'm too old school. Yeah I know put it on a USB Drive and have them all there - but that takes a long time to do. And once its on the USB - I still have to find and select what I want to hear. Say I want to listen to only the Dave Matthews Band CD "Everyday" - take the CD and load it in the player. Voila. Done. The other way is using an interface to scroll and select the tracks - or create playlists of every CD. After listening through the album/CD one or twice, just eject and pop in say my Adele CD. I have XM/Sirius service - but i still end up surfing through the channels to find something besides the DJ talking. OK getting off my soapbox....

But really - thanks again for the help guys!!

 

I too was a little bummed when I spotted that the hood scoop was non-functional. If you look at the underside of the hood, it appears there was some intention to use it for air intake, as there are two need squares that match up to the air intake piping below. Either something was nixed for cost or it just didn't prove out to be worth the design effort. I have thought about cutting holes in the lower intake duct and adding a foam seal around the squares to seal and add another air path to the intake, kind of like the old Buick GS intake snorkel seals:

 

Yeah, I fought this for a long time too. However, I added a 2nd USB port that is accessible under the dash on the driver's side (you can place it anywhere you like). I have my whole CD collection (400+ CDs) on a thumb drive and it's always plugged it. I just took one stack of CDs at a time to my PC and would rip a few albums a day until I had my whole collection saved. It took me about a month (and I grumbled the whole time). I use the stock USB port for podcasts (don't like using the phone). When I want to listen to an album, I just call it up and play it. When it's done playing, it will resume from the start and repeat forever unless I want to play another album. I have to admit that after kicking and screaming for a while, I like having my whole CD collection at my finger tips. Selecting a CD from the thumb drive is quite analogous to and just as easy as (easier actually) selecting a physical one from my CD closet. Since I listen to a lot of podcasts, having the second, permanent "jukebox" is really slick. After complaining loudly, I have to admit that I prefer having my whole collection immediately accessible.

This link explains how I did it.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-usb-port.html

 

I like that idea of fabricating a secondary air intake with foam snorkels into the OEM intake! Unfortunately, the only alternative being the EVENTURI set-up which is quite costly. I’m really surprised that there haven’t been any other “homemade” alternatives.