Phillip, the Service Advisor at Towson MINI in Baltimore, let me play around with an R56 featuring the Convenience pack which includes the Bluetooth phone kit.

Again, invoking my left brain, I was able with Phillip's coaching (he's a little scary how he picked up what buttons to press and when) pair my Nokia 6103 and sucessfully call my brother. What was really cool, is once paired, the entire contents of my phone's phonebook dumped to the MINI. My brother said the call quality was even better than using the phone handset.

I wish I'd had a Treo and a Windows Smartphone to test - I'd be curious if the phones had the same level of connectivity and pass through as the Nokia.

 

You don't have to plug in anything, right? I noticed online the bluetooth prep kit shows a phone installed in the center armrest. I want to ensure I can just leave it in my pocket and make calls via the hands free.

Does it also do voice dial?

 

It can do voice dial (haven't tried it) and there's a voice dial button on the MFSW. I think the phone has to support it of course. I think. Maybe it has to do with phone numbers stored in the MINI. Haven't tried that yet to see how it's implemented.

Nothing needs to be connected. I can have the phone in my pants or on the seat, or in the tray. I don't know what that button is in the console, but I"m using the console for other wee stuff.

It depends on the phone features of course, but I set my phone to allow the MINI to make connections automatically. So as long as my phone is on, and I haven't turned off bluetooth to conserve the phone's battery, they pair up when the ignition turns on and the MINI becomes the default audio device for the phone.

Seamless.

Althougn it scared the living CRAP out of me today when I got a call though.

 

The bluetooth works wonderfully in my wife's new '07 MCS. She uses a Motorola RAZR. Hit the call button on the steering wheel and it will prompt you as to what voice commands you can use.

I've used "dial number"...it asks for number, it confirms, you say "dial"..it's as easy as that. A very neat feature.