Bear with me. I'm used to a Miata with no ABS, auto door locks etc. I just this week bought my first automatic. A Mini Cooper S, pretty much stock. The only options were locking wheel nuts, The Automatic gearbox and a short antenna thingy.

Anyway, Today was my first day with it. Took my wife to work, came home. Went to go through the car features and see what was what. I was parked in the driveway and figured I'd move forwards towards the garage where a shade tree covers the 20 feet in front of the door.

First instance

Started up, put in drive, raised parking brake.Went forwards about 10 feet, car suddenly brakes about 10 feet from the garage door!! Won't budge, every time I tried to go forwards it would lurch and slam on the brakes. Reverse was fine, so I ended up backing up to where I was before. (initially thought maybe it was some silly safety feature).

Second instance

Picked up the wife with no incident, 3 hours later thought we would put our three pugs in the back with the seats down, take them to a nearby park (one of the reasons we bought the car to compliment the Miata).

Anyway, everyone is in the car, back down the drive, down the steeper incline of a sngled curb and then started to back around into the street. Car does an emergency brake and I'm not touching the brake. Put my foot on the brake grumble at the wife. Try to back up again and bam, car brakes again (there is a storage container on the street near the car but nothing else unusual going on)

Third instance

Decide to go forwards and turn to the left, to drive down the street, all is well. Approach the first intersection a couple of houses down. Start to press the brake extremely genrtly and Bam, car does an emergency brake at the intersection (there are no cars) Dogs are a bit scared and I'm anxious in case it does it again. Get to the park, park with a good distance on both ends of the car in case it happens again and I can't get out of my parking spot.

No more problems, get home ok without incident.


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As I said this is my first modern car, and first auto. I'm used to a manual. I seem to recall reading something about older? minis doing a ABS brake check after you first pull away in the car (this seems a bit excessive though)

I also read something about brake assist (I don't think my stock S without any fancy packages has this). Apparently if you remove your foot from the throttle too quickly it can prepare to emergency brake. I don't think I have this feature.

Could it be my being used to a manual has me moving my feet to fast or erratically for a auto user (seems unlikely). I have only driven an auto about 3 times in the past, rentals on holiday or when the car was in the body shop. Never had anything like this happen. They have all been gutless wonders including the base 2014 clubman I tried before buying this car.

If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears. Otherwise I have a date with the sales assistant, where I can ask any questions I have on the car. Right now I'm a little nervous that this might happen with other vehicles around. Emergency stops with someone following is not a good thing. So I'm pretty anxious.

Cheers!

 

I would call the dealer and have them send a rollback to pick up the car. I would consider it unsafe to drive with the symptoms you describe. Mine is manual, but I've had several AT equipped loaner Minis while mine was in the shop and have never experienced anything like what you are describing.

 

Yeah. I was really tired after a week of not much sleep. But last night in that moment between being awake and asleep something daft occurred to me. I'm used to a manual MX5 (daily driver the last 14 years) and it has quite widely spaced pedals which make it somewhat tricky to heel toe in but there is quite a lot of room so long as the non adjustable steering wheel doesn't hit your knees.

I have size 11.5 US shoes and it occured to me that the symptoms could be caused by something as simple as accidentally touching the brakes when pulling off.

So this morning I disabled traction control and looked at the pedals for the first time. Sure enough the throttle is recessed way back from the brakes compared to my MX5. And when I put my foot on the throttle, I have to have my foot almost or touching the sidewall to avoid the brake pedal which is fairly close and wide. My MX5 had more space to the right of the throttle.

Bearing that in mind, there was no drama taking my wife to work or on the way home to my office. I'll put the traction control on tonight and try again.

Normally in a manual, when your about to stop you engage the clutch as you brake so if you accidentally hit the throttle there will be a lot of noise and no momentum. In an auto if you push the brakes especially when the pedal is 1 - 1.5 inches closer than the throttle, you basically do an emergency stop.

Feel a bit stupid if that is what it was. If it doesn't happen again in the next couple of days I'll assume it was the wally behind the wheel and not the car. I've only done 50 miles in it so far, so not much time to get used to the new car or an automatic.

Hoping that is all it is anyway <feeling embarrassed> lol.

 

I think that is all it was. 14 years of driving a manual MX5, my feet automatically go to that position. I checked when I first got in the car this morning and my right foot doesn't go quite far enough to the right.

Funny how muscle memory works. I must be getting used to it now, hasn't happened since my original post and the car is feeling more natural to drive. Especially when I can downshift a gear or two when coasting towards a light or braking for a corner.

 

Glad you seem to have figured out your issue, certainly something that would get your attention pretty fast. Maybe you should consider a narrower shoe/soul on what you where when you drive your Mini??

I never had an issue as severe as what you described, but I had some foot placement issues with mine when I first got it too. The layout is much closer than my former Subie Legacy and my weekend cruiser (Mustang) and I would occasionally clip the edge of the brake pedal when moving from the brake to the gas.

 

Guess I'm just lucky. I wear size 13's and never had a problem with my R56 or the F56. Both MT though, so that could make a difference I reckon.

 

I'm glad you figured it out!

In regards to brake assist, I believe all Minis come standard with this feature. It doesn't actually brake the car. It primes the brakes if it senses you moving your foot off the throttle quickly. Essentially it's bringing the calipers closer to the rotar so it has more responsive braking. I love this feature.

 

Well, there's another reason to not buy an automatic! lol! Seriously, the pedals are probably smaller on a clutch car, and the left foot stays out of the way much of the time, so there's less likely to be interference if you have big feet.

If you've ever noticed, racing drivers always wear "narrow" shoes for good reason. Go buy a pair of Piloti's.