O.K. -- may be a silly question, but here goes; I have the "Comfort Access System" and wonder if there is any way to get a blank fob to go into the hole and fill the gap. Anybody hear of such a thing?

Try ebay - they have cheap unprogrammed ones. Or find someone who sold their Mini but forgot to give the buyer all of their keys.

Why not just use the key to your MINI in the key hole?

Seeing that I only need to keep it in my pocket and I paid for the feature, I want to "clean up" the look of the dashboard. The opening on the end of the key would also. Be a great place to hang one of those tree air fresheners.

This is the first car that I have owned that has this feature and it does take some getting used to, but I'm already liking it. Yesterday, the fob went into the coin pocket of my jeans and stayed there all day. Never had to remember where I put my keys down.

Us old guys need all the help we can get.

There is also the fact that the key gets its recharge when in the dash port. Over time your keyless entry will eventually run out of juice.

Understood. Where you see it as you "need" to keep it in your pocket, I see it as you "want" to keep it in your pocket. But having a tree air freshener hanging place kind of changes the equation.

Just be sure your jeans are not within "range" of your MINI when you go out to drive in another pair of pants and forget to take the fob. One guy I heard about did that and drove away without his fob. He got to his (work) destination and all was well till he came out and the car would not open because he didn't have the fob with him.

My SA told me of another guy who had his fob on his workbench in the garage, got in the car and drove off without it. Same result.

That's a very good point!

I thought these systems would shut the car off after a few hundred feet with no key inside.

If i remember right, on the gen2 cars with the comfort acess option, the keyfob has a replacable battery, cars ordered without this option has the battery that charges when in the slot. The intent is to ensure you never need yo put the key/fob in the slor.
one suggestion....leaving a key/something that looks like a key in the slot MIGHT get a shady individaul to think you locked your keys in the car, smash a window to get in, thinking they can driveaway on a joyride....hate to suggest it, but some thiefs look into cars pretty closely to check for gps, phones, etc.

Hi Retired Rev! I too was looking for something to plug up the ignition fob slot with when I came across your post. Have you found anything yet? I could have sworn I saw a picture of something once, but of course I can't find it again. I was thinking of maybe getting a gobadge to try and put over the hole. Something like this one perhaps http://www.gobadges.com/product-p/3cd-j-mini-15.htm

Two minutes on eBay and I found this.

How about getting it and not programming it?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MINI-COOPER-...sories&vxp=mtr

Not true. Ours has a battery. Back pops off. No charging feature. :(

What I'd like is an "empty" one -- one without any guts. No need to introduce alternative electronic codes and such.

No, that would be very dangerous! It will put a warning on the tach that there is no key inserted.

Haha, good one I can think of nothing better to temp a car-jacker with, than what appears to be a key in the ignition.

What about instead of filling the spot, use it as a little display spot. Is there a toy mini that small?

I am assuming you have no spare keyfob?

If you do, just remove the battery and leave it in the spot. If not, buy a spare off ebay and leave it unprogrammed.

r56's with comfort access DO NOT have rechargable batteries, as stated above.

We have a 2G(?)USB jumpdrive we bought from MINI Canada, that looks exactly like a regular key fob, except the tiny silver rectangular metal male "usb" part, that plugs into a computers usb port.
I wonder if it would actually fit into the slot in the car or not?

I guess I'm a dinosaur, but being able to start and drive a car with the "key" in my pocket, on the seat, or anywhere else except the "ignition" where it belongs adds zero to my sense of comfort.

I do like being able to unlock the door or hatch with the key in my pocket, however.

One advantage I found with keeping the fob in the ignition: when it is withdrawn, ignition is switched off and radio readiness shuts down. The car actually assumes you're getting out and not planning on hanging out inside the car.

Remember the fob stores a large amount of your vehicle data. Every time it is inserted it updates. Service advisor recommended rotating them so they are both kept current.

Story goes guy drops off car with spare fob after hours repair. Dealer reads fob, mileage is 28 k. Does warranty work and and then see odometer reads 49k ( out of warranty ). Guess who pays.

This is a very good point. It won't start the car, but it won't save your windows either.

Maybe y'all with comfort access can get Robin Casady to fabricate a beautiful mahogany piece to fit into the key fob slot .

Maybe you could store quarters for parking meters in it.