I have the small LCD orange/black screen radio in my MINI F55. Is there a way to play the music via Bluetooth just like how the phone calls work? I hate having to plug in the cable every time I get in the car.

Are there any accessories I can buy for using the cars speakers/mic seamlessly for phone calls and music streaming every time I get in the car?

 

If you don't have bluetooth audio streaming built in, you can use your aux jack and get this thing:
https://www.amazon.com/Kinivo-BTC450...nivo+bluetooth
Acts as a bluetooth receiver, you pair your phone and it streams phone and music to your speakers via the aux jack in your car. I had this in my 08 S and worked great, but it turns off as soon as you turn off the car unlike factory bluetooth audio.

 

I have seen this and other similar products, but have the following questions.

1. Will this automatically connect to the phone when I start the car?
2. The car already has a built-in bluetooth setup for phone calls. Will this interfere with that?
3. Will I be able to use the steering wheel volume and forward/backward controls with the music streamed through such devices?

 

1. Yes it will, when you start the car your phone should automatically pair if it is remembered on your phone.

2. I think it depends on the phone, I'm not sure whether you can have two bluetooth devices paired at once which would be the case if you wanted phone audio through car and media through this device. I took phone calls using this small device and receiving/sending audio was not a problem for the other caller.

3. Not with this device that I linked. There are other devices that connect to the iPod Y-cable and I think they will let you use the steering wheel controls. Might be more expensive but I haven't looked into it at all.

 

I've bought this one yesterday, waiting for it to arrive.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It doesn't interfere with the phone calls and you can use the steering wheel controls.

 

Looks great. Waiting for your feedback. Looks like it uses the USB and Aux ports. If so, do I have to use the cigarette lighter socket to charge the phone, instead of the USB port?

 

Yes you would have to use the cig lighter socket, which is probably better anyways because it can provide more power vs USB port for faster charging. The link from jmminics is definitely the way to go for a more integrated solution (using steering wheel controls, which I now have on the 2013 and is wayyyy nicer and less distracting than unlocking my phone to change songs)

 

I second 3lusive. When I first got the car, I was using the usb port to charge my phone but that didn't provide enough power and battery level would stay at the same level. After doing some research I just bought an Anker usb adapter for cig. lighter. Now my phone charges fast.

I'll update when I receive the bluetooth device.

 

I installed it and it works perfect except the screen doesn't display song info because I have an Android device :(

 

Awesome! Thanks for reporting back. Will the screen show song details for iPhones?

 

No problem. Yes it does, saw it on amazon question/answers.