Hi there! I have a 2008 Mini Cooper S that does NOT have any of the car kit, bluetooth, usb ports, etc stuff installed. What I do have is:

• an AUX port
• a multi-function steering wheel (is there another name for this??) with Cruise Controls on the Right (which work), and the Media/Phone Controls on the Left (which do nothing).

I already connect my phone to my speakers via a USB C adapter that connects to my AUX port (to send audio from the phone to the car stereo), and the adapter has a branch for plugging into my cigarette lighter charger when needed.

I know there are various bluetooth kits out there, but since I am already using wires for audio anyway I would prefer to find a wired option so I'm not using bluetooth unnecessarily. Are there any wired (or bluetooth if there is nothing wired available) kits that will enable me to utilize the Media Controls on my steering wheel to control my phone?

Ideally I would love something fairly versatile that I can program/modify, or that at least can interface with something like Tasker on Android. I am not too concerned with answering the phone, but would like to be able to do some custom stuff for media controls for various apps.

Any suggestions, recommendations, or even keywords to Google would be very welcome!

Thanks in advance for your time!

 

There are options, but without the usb port, none of those options will work for you. I’m not sure if you can add the factory usb port and make it work without programming. You might be able to swap out your radio for one of those android computers from China…

 

Bummer! Though just to clarify, I don't need the steering wheel buttons to interact with the radio -- I'm purely interested in them being able to send commands to my phone via USB.

Even though it sounds like you're not aware of any options that are exactly what I'm looking for, I'd still welcome any brand names, etc. for this kind of thing -- I'm not even sure what to Google for yet in order to try to hone in on possibilities.