When i was buying my mini (delivery end of this month hopefully) I didn't really give the stereo alot of thought because honestly for me its a given that i replace the headunit. Well now looking at it that looks like a colossal pain the ***.

I've looked but everyone has opinions, if you had to pick whats the best way to add ipod to your mini.

The factory kit has its limits, (# of artists, and slow apparently) which are unappealing and getting a factory install is expensive.

I guess my requirements are able to install it myself (I am experienced, admittedly only us and american cars not german), charging, and being able to read track titles. Navigating by the stereo is very nice, but the click wheel isn't entirely out of the question (quicker and more intuitive anyways). Any suggestions?

 

I went with the ipod kit (convenience package, multifunction steering wheel, bluetooth USB) to get USB and the ability to use the buttons on the steering wheel. I can change volume and tracks without having to take my hands off the wheel or my eyes off the road. Track titles and whatnot show up on the speedo.

I've developed enough kinesthetic memory that I can switch from FM to iPod or from iPod to FM without having to look at things, but doing something like selecting by artists, or playlist, or album is still a task I'll do while stopped.

I also did extension cables so the iPod is sitting in the secret compartment. About the only time I touch it is when I take it in the house for updates.

Using the clickwheel directly -- if you had a Kuda mount to the left of the speedo, I guess that could work, but it takes a lot of attention.

i like using the buttons on the steering wheel, and having the iPod tucked out of sight.

 

I heard there is some limit to the number of artists you can have with the factory ipod setup, like 250? I already have around 220 so i can see that maybe lasting me another 1-2 years. Also ive heard about some speed issues with navigating the menus. Have you run into any of that?

Thanks

Jeff

 

I have a 30 gig video iPod that's pretty full. Not a lot of playlists (30 or so) with a lot of artists and albums.

Going through the playlists is easy. Going by artist or album is definitely slower, but if there's something I want to be able to find quickly (such as the recent Coldplay or Randy Newman albums) I make playlists for those, and they pop up quickly.

I've also spent some time normalizing artist names -- as an example, collapsing "Walter Carlos" and "Wendy Carlos" to "W Carlos". Exercises like that help prune the search space.

And if I hit the wall, I'd dump a bunch of stuff I'm not likely to listen to in the car.

 

I currently have of 400 artists on my iPod and have had no problem with my 08 clumban seeing them. Some of these reports of limits are from some years ago and those seem to have disappeared for 07 and 08.

Yes scrolling thru the artists can be slow but it is also slow on the iPod itself when you get that many. The problem i have is that it always comes up to A and if you want to get to Z you can not go backwards you have to scroll thru B,C,D, etc to get to Z. Bad design in the Mini software for that part.

But as others have said in this thread an others the best way to handle this is to make up playlists for the artists or song selections you like. I usualy have mine just set on random and let it go.

 

Ok thanks for all the updates.

Has anyone done a DIY install on the ipod adapter kit, i heard it requires some sort of reflash from the dealer i heard which seems (asinine since the aftermarket ones don't seem too) but what are you going to do?

Also as a side note your sig made me think of this, when i bought the car i brought along not quite step-mom (hard to explain) since she absolutely hates the mini and i thought that her complaints would help me see the faults since i was pretty sold when i walked in the door. The test drive she seemed ok with it better then expected but not the be all end all. But when we got inside there was a hot chocolate JCW clubman and she just said that looked gorgeous. A little out of my budget . Shes a stubborn ol' girl but the hot chocolate clubman did it for her