I love pretty much everything about my car .... except that dang fuel gauge. Just doesn't fit with the rest of the interior quality. I guess they were trying to stick somewhat with the candy corn look of the past. I like symmetry and would have preferred a more standard gauge coordinating with the look of the tach on the other side. Oh and there seems to be a little wind noise by my left ear that can be bothersome sometimes. That's all so far. First Mini and first car I've felt compelled to name. Love it!

 

I love my new MINI Cooper S. I was one of the first people in the United States to get the new model in April 2014 so I've had it for almost a year now and have ~8,000 miles on it.


Reliability - In my first year, I have had several issues, most recently the motor that moves my sunroof stopped working. In 11 years of having a Honda before this my sunroof never had an issue (and the car as a whole probably had the same number off issues in 11 years as less than one year of my MINI).

Rev-Matching - I actually really like this feature but there should be the ability to turn it on and off

Side window sills stay wet for 24 hours or more after washing the car, so even after I have nicely clean windows, everytime I put my windows up and down they cause bad streaking

Sport Mode - missed opportunity as it is fairly useless in my stick shift car since it doesn't do much

Speedometer and Tachometer - both of these should have the numbers more spread out. the range on speed is so tight there isn't even room for tick marks for each mile per hour and it makes it a little more difficult to maintain a desired speed with only quick glances

 

Sport mode firms up steering feel and increases throttle response on the manual transmission cars. Or rather, sport mode is what the car IS while the rest of the modes take away from it.

 

What possible reason would you have for wanting to turn it off?!? That makes zero sense to me!

 

If you enjoy using your skills in manually rev matching, you'd want to turn it off.

 

I found this thread interesting. I don't have an F56, but I was seriously in the market for an F56 Cooper S. I test drove one at a dealer, and liked the refinement, and the performance advantage over my 2010 non-S. I don't like the front end appearance of the F56, though.

Then, I took a test drive in another car, and instead of buying a new S, I ended up getting something about as different as it gets, except for being a two door car with a manual transmission. I ordered a Challenger R/T. The Challenger is quick, quiet, and comfortable, and has keyless entry/start, power seats, and a light in the boot. The bad thing, is that it is so BIG, but I still have my MINI, and a couple other cars. I guess I like variety in what I drove.

 

I've heard you can turn rev matching off along with DTC/DSC. You need to hold the DTC button for a long time. A short time will turn the DTC off, holding it for a long time brings up a warning that you're actually really turning it off.

I haven't tried it, and I have an automatic.

 

May or not help...

 

Just got a quote of $190 to change the default program setting for Auto Start/Stop so it is off (light is on). We have a 2014 and a 2015 S, so $380! One accident already in the 2014 caused by it. A terrible "feature" that might save a little gas in a big city, but is primarily there to raise the BMW fleet MPG. Service advisor confirms that it is one of the top complaints.

Same to turn off Active Sound Design in the S.

Do not feel confident doing it myself and don't have a laptop either. Grrrrr.

 

This seems odd...as far as I know, at least with later cars, the switch that turns Auto Start/Stop off remembers your setting. You should only have to switch it once and never have it turn on again unless you want it to. If your car is not doing this, a software update should fix this. The dealer can do this and it should be free.

To be fair, Auto Start/Stop is a big complaint because sales people aren't taking the time to explain 1: how it works, and 2: how to turn it off. People drive off and as soon as it comes to a stoplight, they freak out.

Active Sound seems to be polarizing... I don't think anyone would notice it if they didn't know it was there (I've caught some sales people by surprise - sometimes THEY don't even it's there). For the people that are aware of it, many don't mind and in fact welcome the noise rather than a quiet cabin, and some wish it wasn't there. That being said, I wish there was a way to turn it off and on without having pull fuses or firing up ESYS.

 

I need to poke around a bit... do we have a list of programming options for the F series to know about before taking delivery? I'm familiar with the earlier models, but this is a new animal. Paying out the nose to default auto/stop to off is a bad one. I thought all this time you set it once and it goes away...

 

siriuszero,

I understand how the Auto Start/Stop works. The accident in the 2014 happened before the change to the programming to save the setting. Both cars now save the setting, but to be sure, I would like the default to be off (light on). There are conditions when the car will stall upon auto start. It happened several times prior to the change where the setting is remembered. We have both driven only manual transmission cars for more than 50 years and know what we're doing. Such stalling behavior has never happened with any car in the past including Minis from 2007 to 2013. Well, maybe with a slip of the foot or something obvious.

The Active Sound Design it particularly annoying to me because I have a hearing aid in only one ear due to Meniere's Disease hearing damage to low frequencies. Typical hearing loss is in high frequencies. The hearing aid amplifies the artificial exhaust noise to a very annoying level. Otherwise, I likely would not care. I am also wondering if the ASD is doing some noise cancellation as well that might be affecting the quality of the sound in the HK radio. Perhaps someone who has turned ASD off could comment about this. The difference in road noise and general cabin noise is dramatic between the 2014 Justa (is that what we call them here?) and the 2015 S. Except for the artificial engine noise, the 2015 is *extremely* quiet.

 

Current list of codes for ESYS: http://www.bmwesys.com/guides/ and a link to the thread here on NAM discussing F5X coding: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ogramming.html - going to be working my way through the list when my car comes in!

Apologies if I've given offense. I meant for my comments to be general and not directed at you specifically. And sorry to hear about your accident!

 

siriuszero,

Not offended! Only explaining our position in more detail. There's more to it than we just don't like it.

 

I wish that the Automatic Climate Control System was truly automatic and not semi-automatic

 

Excellent Posts SiriusZero

 

Sirius my hero as usual

 

Active Sound seems to be polarizing... I don't think anyone would notice it if they didn't know it was there (I've caught some sales people by surprise - sometimes THEY don't even know it's there). For the people that are aware of it, many don't mind and in fact welcome the noise rather than a quiet cabin, and some wish it wasn't there. That being said, I wish there was a way to turn it off and on without having pull fuses or firing up ESYS.[/QUOTE]


Interesting you mentioning this. The pops and cam sound from the engine in sport mode are all over the stereo in the F56. I know because I bypassed mine. The only difference between normal and sport is the throttle response, steering and DDC. The rest is fake.


It is a very cheap BMW and can not be compared. Even the HK sound system is low res compared to the BMW ones. I know this because I ripped mine out completely and replaced it with a Focal system.

 

JohnRausch. I originally thought that there was noise cancelation going on with the ASD. It is not so though. Have a look on some of the BMW forums. Technic makes a bypass harness that will work on our cars. The car it much much quieter and way better if you have a hearing loss. So quiet that it is tough with a standard!

 

Thank you!

This doesn't make sense... As far as I know, the pops and burbles work the same way on the Fxx series as they have on the LCI Rxx MINIs; by un-burned gas being introduced into the exhaust manifold. This is a sound easily heard on the outside of the car and comes directly from the exhaust - any video of someone with a Cooper S revving their engine will demonstrate this. There are not speakers on the outside of the car, so how do you explain this? Removing or disabling the ASD module should not affect this physical effect, unless the ASD module is somehow tied into the pops and burbles.

That all being said, I don't KNOW if the F5x's pops/burbles are engineered the same way as before. Have contacts at MINI - will reach out to verify...

Did you disable ASD by pulling the fuse, coding it out, or physically removing it?

Not calling you a liar, but I want to understand

 

Wondering if this is part of the reason they use ASD in the quieter Cooper S... I know many people rely on sound to know when to shift, and not monitoring the tach.

 

I had the same issue. Reported to dealer and they fixed it. Been good ever since.

 

Siriuszero- I guess I did not explain it properly. Any pops etc that happen will happen in any mode because there is no difference in the way the engine burns fuel between them al. It is shocking how much noise is lost when you remove the ASD.


There is no ASD fuse. If you pull the fuse the stereo goes down too....but give it a try so you can hear the difference. Here is a post on the subject. Because of Canbus you have to be careful.


Interesting how this ASD thing is such an emotional issue for some people. Many people get very upset when I mention the amount of sound the ASD generates. People argue that they have worked with engines all their lives and they are hearing the real engine not a fake sound! They do this because the cars are quiet and you can't hear much because of the sound proofing.


Here's the tread I wrote on it:


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...esign-asd.html




Hope this will bring you up to speed. :-)

 

Just thought I'd chime in with my $0.02. I purchased a 2014 Justa in July 2014; things I dislike:

They got rid of "coasting" in green mode with a software update. That's likely what I dislike the most.

Slight rattle on the back sunroof shade when going over bumps

Stock speakers aren't very loud (should have gone with the HK)

USB / Bluetooth connectivity for music playback and control works A-Okay only about 85% of the time. It should be 100% all of the time. Even with USB, my iphone sometimes (15% of the time) doesn't show up in the sources list. A restart of the iphone and/or the car usually (but not always) fixes it.

Wish the gas mileage was better (as originally advertised) - but that's likely my spirited driving lol.

 

So let me get this straight, because I have a good friend with a new F56 she just got. You can set the auto stop/start to be off more or less permanently (she hates it as do almost everyone on this forum) in the new F56s but not the early ones. And the "fake engine sound through the speakers" is permanent. I could't really notice it driving her car around, it was very quiet. I couldn't hardly hear the exhaust at all, especially compared to mine. That seems like a pretty weird feature if you ask me.