I saw the F56 "S" at the Philly Auto Show yesterday. Everything is bigger, even the side mirrors... BUT


I think what is going to make this model a good seller are the upgrades to the electronics and safety features.


While I personally don't care about most of this, I believe most people do.


These electronics, infotainment systems, safety features are here to stay and they will only get more complicated and intrusive over time but they will sell cars.


ttwii (that's the way it is)

 

Agree- but also to most of the public, the car will still look the same- but it looks to have a much nicer interior and interface for the electronics. The "toys" in a car are where its at with many people. Its the same thing with cell phones- bigger screen, more features, etc. Nobody advertises how great the call quality is. MINI is trying to keep the fun driving experience along with the stuff the public wants to keep relevant as a car company.

 

My guess after reading several of the reviews is the car interior is improved, especially the seats (which I think are comfortable now). The exterior is a wash, not terribly different. Performance better for the Cooper, not so much the S. Electronics will be the biggest difference I agree. Heck, I can command my new TV and use gestures and stuff to change channels. Think I use that? I've never used most of the Smart TV stuff.

 

I hope the upgrade in electronics is accompanied by an upgrade in the quality of those electronics as well as the reliability. More complexity equals more potential problems. I'm keeping mine simple.

 

Electronics can certainly sway some buyers, especially the younger ones.

But. To me the important factors of buying a car of this type, which is basically a sports car, are looks, performance, drivability, reliability and then features. Here is how I look at the F56.

Looks. No thanks, at least on the "S". The front end is awful. I can't get in a car everyday when the looks are just terrible. It could have been so much better. Don't they have focus groups at Mini?

Performance. I don't see the improvement on the R56S. It is not faster to 60. It may corner as well or better though. I would like to see a road test comparison of the F56 and R56.

Drivability. It seems there are some improvements here which are worthwhile, with a better ride. I like that idea.

Reliability. We will see. It likely will be better than the R56S, and hopefully not have all of the recalls, like timing chain, water pump, fuel pump for the turbo, etc. That has been disappointing to me on the R56S, even though Mini has taken care of those issues for me.

Only after all of these would the features of the car like electronics be significant to me. Electronics that are well designed, easy to use, provide useful new information and are reliable, ok. But the history of both Mini and BMW, and not been the best on this area. I will also say that I will never have run flat tires again. That was the worst feature on my R56S.

Ultimately, it seems to me that all of these things sum up to the personality the car has. The R53 and R56 definitely have that special Mini personality. I am not so sure about the F56. It just seems to have lost something. Every time I get in my 7 year old R56S, I have a smile on my face. And when I drive it, even more so. But I don't see that happening with the F56S. I just can't look at that front end.

 

Folks will get over the looks... Navi, electronics, social media, dumb smart phones and smart dumb phones will sell. Don't be surprised that the next gen of homo sapiens will line-up to have chips plugged onto their craniums in exchange for free music subscriptions. They'll even volunteer to upload their brains to the cloud each night.

Imagine... FB, Google, MS et al will know exactly when you take a dump and start turbo-charging ads via Virtual Reality as you empty your tank.

 

I don't post here often but this thread made me chuckle. You guys remind me of my grandfather refusing to buy a car with power windows back in the 80s because it had too many parts that could fail.

 

lol - back then your grandfather was probably right.

my original point was that there are a generation of newer drivers that grew up with electronic gadgets everywhere and expect / want them in their cars... not judging, just stating my opinion.

To me (and yes i AM old ) these electronics (not including abs, lsd, dtc) add nothing to enhance the driving experience.

 

I also am "oldish", and I love the electronics. In fact, go look inside a Tesla model S. All you notice is the gigantic ipad like screen that makes up most of the center control stack. Its what everyone talks about. But if you look closely at the rest of the interior, its just OK, and actually not so hot for a 90,000 car.

The electronics make up the interface with which we interact as we drive. Remember when car "radios" had analog tuners and you had to tune into a station to get good reception. Now we hit a button, it selects the station and gives us information about the song etc. on a screen. A much better system, and more reliable too, from what I can remember.

Also, much of the really cool stuff (electronics wise) in the new MINI interior is optional, so purists can leave it off and concentrate on the performance options instead.

 

Well said. I too am "old" and grew up driving manual transmission cars with roll up windows and AM only radio. Many owners here can attest to the problems with MINI's electric windows (myself included) who needed a "software upgrade" to make them work properly. The purpose of the car is the driving experience, not whether you can check your text messages or Facebook page. Give me back manual windows and a simple radio and less time in the shop.

 

I'm also old and most of my early driving was in Renault Dauphines and VW Bugs, but the electronics and powered window-type items that give me a back-up camera and make driving easier and safer are real benefits. Encouraging brain interaction with enhanced cell phone/internet connectivity, I can do without -- and wish others would too.

Had never thought of getting a Mini before these F56s were announced, but am looking forward to putting a deposit down soon.

 

I agree that simplicity is easier to live with, but the direction of cars and the industry, the technology in the MINI is well behind that of many Japanese or Korean brands.

Also, I am not one to speak about having a simple vehicle as I am strongly considering the move to a i3 or a Tesla Model X in about a year.

 

I'm a young-ish guy (30.) and I like tech. I have an android phone, I run Linux on my laptop, I have a 3D LED TV, etc.

But I don't want more and more bloated tech in my car that is going to look and feel dated in a year anyway.

 

I tend to like technology. The problem with tech in cars is that I frequently find it does not deliver as I'd expect it to. Plus, given the physical constraints of vehicles, keeping them up to date seems to be a major problem for the manufacturers.

A good case in point is MINI which jumped on the Apple/iOS bandwagon. They are now woefully behind where the market is for users with smartphones, so any tech they had deployed in their vehicles is useless to the majority of buyers.

Another example to me are built-in gps systems. I have yet to come across one that works as well or is as flexible as the cheap Garmin unit I installed.

I do agree though, for many younger buyers, tech will help sway them to make a buy.

 

A cars personality is definitely a combination of many factors, but foremost among them is how it drives. I look forward to an actual test drive: Some of the early reviews say that the F56 handles far more like an R53, than an R56, despite its additional size.

Is that really the case? I don't know. The R53 was, IMHO, A hard to match highpoint in automotive development. Not too expensive, amazing handling, fun pseudo–retro-styling, easy to mod for power and even better handling. A rare combination.

Despite my reservations when I first saw the 56 photos, I'm glad MINI is not resting on their laurels, and is continuing to develop and evolve the design while remaining true to many of the original Mini styling cues. Even if some of us disagree with some of the details, like the taillights and nose :-)

(I think the new taillights are adorable. But I also enjoy the oversized, sticking out taillights on my wife's countryman too. They're just fun. Like a puppy's outsized ears.)

 

I think the tech is cool but I agree that it will feel outdated in a few months, or even immediately. I personally think automobiles should just come with a nice set of speakers and a decent amp to push them with a cradle in the dash for a tablet. My iPad can do everything a car stereo system and gps does and then some. There are already some cars out there that update firmware over wifi while sitting in your garage (Tesla comes to mind), so why not just have tablet connectivity come stock with first and third party apps to control your music, gps, monitor speed etc.? Imagine how far social commute apps like Waze could go with hard wired integration to your vehicle! My dream tech for my MINI is a gps that you can have a predetermined route mapped out for a spirited weekend run with some friends. You could have real time map locations, speeds, and distance right in front of you sending your competitive nerves into overdrive (or to the grave haha!).

I realize I sound like an eighteen year old (I'm actually 30) that wants real life driving to feel like a video game but you can't deny how awesome that could be even just in normal driving conditions The technology is there to do so much with what we already have in our pockets, car makers just need to wake up and realize that their stock components are looking more and more like generic "futuristic" tech from a bad 90's sci-if flick.

I'm off to the App Store to see if I can find anything like what I just described...

 

Sure, but then it burns down your house... is that really want you want?!

 

I call that a Garmin 755 such as the one I mounted in my MINI. Alas, the newer model Garmins don't really support that kind of functionality any longer. And Google Maps has completely screwed up their route building function. So I don't see MINI or any other automaker going down that path any time in the near future, if ever.

Even if an automaker adds some routing ability, it may be near impossible to get them to recognize that some drivers are looking for something other than the quickest route from A to B.

 

I worry intensely about people becoming over confident and dependent upon safety features to the point of abdicating their responsibility for attentive driving until one of those features fails and leads them to their or someone else's death. If something like that happens, where will the ambulance chasers point their greedy fingers? Nanny is rapidly over-reaching. Seatbelts and airbags are life savers to be sure but if I don't have to watch traffic because my car will stop for me until a fuse blows, well then...

 

This.

I find it interesting that the auto industry, federal gov't, NTSB, IIHS, etc. all want drivers to pay more attention to the road and traffic than to gadgets like smart phones, yet auto makers keep adding more gadgets to cars. I foresee many people becoming startled or puzzled by the myriad alerts and infotainment feedback and losing track of where they and/or other drivers are on the road.

I'm also in the camp of "more features + more gizmos = more to go wrong" especially when we're talking about radars, infrared cameras, HUD projectors, yada yada. I prefer my R53 and the KISS principle when you approach the tipping point as we are now.

 

I don't think the electronics in the F56 will be that radically different than the 2014 R56 other than the HUD thingy (which requires the wired package that includes NAV btw, so a lot of people will skip it because of the cost). And you can't just stick a tablet in the dash because laws prohibit watching movies and stuff in the front seats while driving.

 

I started driving when the operator had three pedals, a steering wheel, heater, mirror and windshield wipers. For a little extra a guy could buy an AM radio. Upgrading usually involved a rear seat speaker.

I just bought my MINI last month and immediately became aware of a problem with all the electronics in my car. Unless the driver is old enough and wise enough to know better he could easily allow himself to be distracted by all these 'gizmos' as easily as people are distracted by texting while driving. None of them do anything to add to my driving pleasure and will only contribute to people having more accidents because of operator inattention.

 

And we knew how to and actually use hand signals and park a 3 speed column shift vehicle on a hill facing either up or down hill.

 

I say we ditch the cars and go back to horse and buggy! Who's with me?

 

I'm in!





:-)