I just wanted to post that after a few months of intermittent problems with the audio display, I brought my S down to the dealership in Peabody to look at it for the second time since I bought it in October, and they finally replaced the radio.

The service adviser told me that the 2011s apparently have had some issues with the audio displays as were received from the factory that produced them, and that MINI has been replacing them with new units due to this glitch. He said that he personally has seen 3 2011s that have had the radios replaced. I thought this might be helpful for others who have had the same annoying but not life-threatening issue!

I've included pictures to show what I was experiencing. The pictures were invaluable for me to get the radio replaced when I finally notified them the second time that the problem was still happening extremely intermittently, and the car only has 5000 miles on it! (sorry about #2 which is blurry!)

 

Thank you. Mine has just started having problems too. Good to know for when I talk to the dealer.