hey all, new guy here. If this isn't where intros go, let me know. Quick note, just signed for a '15 Mini Cooper S 2 Door. 6MT. The car is a little demon, test drove a '13 with just over 30k miles and then the 15 (with 40k) and wow, the 15 is so dialed in. Going from a 12 Audi quattro which is a great car but somewhat uninspired driving.

I'm beyond pissed off though about the satellite radio thing. So annoyed in fact that I did a cursory check about backing out of the purchase out of principal.

heading to MINI Peabody on Monday to take delivery though.

-an3ony

 

Welcome aboard. I too own a 2015 S and love the car. UR are correct about uninspired when comparing an Audi. I test drove and TTS and was less than impressed with the way the car responded (mine and the Audi) were both automatics. I had to downshift the Audi to get it to respond to pedal input. Mini seemed to always be in the right gear. Audi Salesman and I did his car first than mine (test drove w/ me testing response). He said my little Mini was very impressive and mentioned that maybe if I bought the TTS and put a tune on it I could get similar response.

Not sure what the issue is w/ the Satellite radio. I let mine lapse and use a thumb drive for all my music (for me $ spent for entertainment value wasn't there). You can integrate your smart phone to the car to get access to pretty much anything out there. Amazon is intro'ing "alexa auto". which may be worth looking into. Uses your smart phone, but will allow you access to anything (including Sirius stations if subscribed) via voice command.

As a side note, Its my understanding that even if the car was ordered w/o Satellite radio, it still came with it built in..and can be activated after the fact. NOt sure how it's done, but others here can likely help.

 

Nice avatar =)

 

 

Nothing special, I just copied songs from my Windows Media player to the Thumb drive. I both directly copied using Windows explorer (basically dragged the file folder to the thumb drive and clicked copy) or did the "Sync in media player, Both ways play fine. I also Imported all my "60's" tune to the internal HD in the car (using a thumb drive). I can switch from the thumb drive (Current blues and rock) to the internal "60's Oldies" using the media icon in the car.

I use the USB on console (in front of the shifter). I have a 32 GB drive with over 10K songs. All of which I like, for me it beats any playlist on Sirius. Additionally, If I want to skip that song I can. I run full shuffle mode w/ mine so I'm listening to the greatest playlist (for me). w/ a different song by one of my favorite artists each time I go out

If I have the urge for news or talk, I run my phone via BT. I cannot remember the last time I did that though (it's been a couple /three years ago).. You get completely different news depending on what station you listen to.so I'm pretty much done w/ that.

 

 

Is that Peabody MA? If so make sure both your keys work. I bought a 15 cooper last April from them and one of the keys they gave me wasn't even for my car. Just out of chance I didn't use that one until about a month later and I had to fight with them to get another one for free. Just make sure you check everything because they were real dicks about that key.

 

I use an open source media player called Clementine. Not that it's the best thing in the world, but it is simple and can save playlists in the MU3 format which works with the Mini.

 

I will check that out. Have not tried the MU3 format. I've been using MP3. I know many find MP3 file format to be inferior to some of the others. I run my songs fairly well compressed preferring quantity to quality for my traveling music. At my age, with years of rifle ranges and artillery fire missions under my belt, listening to MP3 songs in a car with "dump trucks to left of me and motor cycles to the right", then the ambient road drone from the tires, MP3 seems to work fine for me, as I can still discern the melody and lyrics (at a higher volumes of course ).

 

Stealers Wheel reference, very well done (if intentional).

 

Sorry I wasn't clear the MU3 is the playlist format. My files are mp3 and mp4 mostly downloaded from youtube using youtube-dl

 

Hey, thanks very much for the inside tip! I did check and both were for my car. Knock on wood, they were really good to me. Also, slight update, this car is a little ƒucking ROCKET SHIP. I couldn't be happier. I'm going to try that USB thing. Its weird, there's something about having a DJ that I like.

 

Hopefully you have no issues. The actual sales experience was fine. I had shopped around a bit they gave a good deal on the Mini and more for my trade in than other dealers offered So everything was great till I had an issue with my key. .

The thing that really pissed me off was the salesman Gary didn't respond when I emailed him about the key. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt figuring that he didn't see my email or was away on vacation so I emailed the manager. Gary then replies to the email I had sent so the little weasel had it all the time. That's when he tried to pull the one key policy.

 

yep, that's a **** move on his part. Do you have your car serviced there? I was debating having them install the Dinan rear muffler.

 

+1 Love it!