Hi all
Can anyone perhaps tell me when MINI switched door handles from the 'squeeze' type handle to a 'pull out' handle? My wife is becoming increasingly frail due to illness and is having great difficulty squeezing her driver door handle on her 2012 Countryman S, sometimes reverting to holding the unlock button to roll the windows down so as to access the inside door handle.
I took a newer Cooper S 3 door for a drive a few weeks ago and was surprised to fing tyhe door handle design had changed to a 'pull out' type design. Way easier for her to open.

 

2014 for the hard top, 2018 for the F60 Countryman. I don't know the others off the top of my head.

 

Thanks, the 3 door S I took for a drive was a 2016

 

Yep 2014+ that was the big change,.

 

Thanks for the info guys, now, next question, is it possible to convert from the squeeze to the pull type?

 

Nope. If you have the squeezer type , use a little wd40 and spray in the joint at the pivot of the handle and grease/spray in the lock itself. This will help it work like when it was new, These handles/lock gum up over time.

 

This should help for sure. I did that a while ago and handles became a bit smoother.
But nothing you do will bring it to the same level as gen 3 handles/locks. I wish my car had such soft door close/open ever since having gen 3 as a rental for a day while mine was in for service.

 

Here is the gen 1 MINIs https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...wont-open.html



Here is the Gen 2 MINI: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...le-sticks.html