I thought I'd be nice and let my husband drive Bianca this weekend. After running a few errands, he started to grouse that he wasn't getting his errands done so I told him to drop myself and the kids off at Target and head out to the store he wanted to go to then come back to pick us up (can you see where this is going?)

Yes I have Comfort Access. No my dear husband didn't bring his key. Yes I left the car with mine in my purse while he drove off. About 15 minutes later my cellphone rang. FORTUNATELY he remembered that he didn't have his key the second before he pushed the "on/off" button.

A word to the wise: Don't let your spouse -- or anyone else who you may trust to drive your car -- drop you off if he/she doesn't have a key with him/her!

Might be common sense, but I didn't even think about it till my husband called me!

 

napria, I am not surprised at all, but very glad everything worked out!

 

I thought the car pretty quickly triggered an alarm that the key is no longer in the car? That's what happens on my wife's BMW

 

Mine puts a big key warning on the tach display and on the Nav screen.

 

Mine with out NAV puts a big key in the display on the tach as soon as the key is outside the vehicle.

 

as a general rule NEVER let anyone else drive your car!!!!!!!

better safe than sorry

 

Good thing I was too cheap to go with Comfort Access. I never thought of that possibility.

 

I know that this site attracts a good number of complaints and issues, but it seems that Comfort Access has had more than it's share. For those that have it and love it, I'm glad you do, but I just don't get how putting a key in an ignition is such a big deal. For me, it's a completely unnecessary option.

 

You should try searching for the key in my wifes "purse" - then you'd realize how good it is to just open the door and press "start"

 

It is indeed an unnecessary option. However, I have come to love comfort access. It's not just about not having to put the fob in the slot to start the car, it also lets me open the doors with occupied hands without having to dig in my pocket for the keys. It has become so second nature that if I want to remotely open the windows and sunroof my lazy butt resents having to dig for the fob.

 

Miniclubman, I admit I'm lazy and a little bit shiftless but I love my comfort access. The cutesie reason is that I like my Clubbie recognizing me. I also have many keys on my MINI cable keychain and I don't want them to rub the key fob's dash area.

 

I originally ignored the comfort access option but wanted the handsfree bluetooth. Eventually I decided to get the convenience package (comfort access included). Now I am so spoiled that I get annoyed when driving our other cars and have to fumble for keys. Its like owning a microwave oven isn't really necessary until you own one and get used to it.

 

I'm confused? and maybe I'm just not totally awake?

Is there something that details the function of the CA key? My MA told me that it was a feature that allows the locked car, to open when the holder of the key touches the handle. She explained that it was the same "key" that is used to start the car. and that you can NOT lock your keys in the car. So?

are you all saying that if I have the CA key, that the car will start or stop if I have it in my purse, and I don't have to actually place it in the "ignition" slot?



and to the OP, the problem with you having the key, while your husband was driving is that he couldn't turn the car off? because the key wasn't in the slot?

 

..

 

1 Yes 2 If he shut the car off (does not have to be in the slot) hewould not beable to restart or lock the car.

 

gotcha! thank you.

 

Your hubby should have seen the flashing yellow key with the slash thru it on the console behind the steering wheel.
Bianca told him the key fob wasn't around. He didn't notice because he was too busy missing you.
I've seen the flashing key myself.

 

So far as I am able to tell by experiment, done after the following story, locking the comfort access fob inside a Clubman S can occur only if the passenger door is the only door open, then locking the doors by pressing the button on the fob and placing the fob inside the vehicle, followed of course by shutting the locked door. Who'd be dumb enough to do that? Well, it can be done by accident by a very smart person.

My daughter was visiting from out of state with her 9 month old daughter who is still in a car seat. She's been here before and driven the Clubman, but only knows the basics about the car, not that knowing any more would have helped. One night, she had driven to visit a girlfriend in town. The car seat is rear facing in the back seat and, upon leaving with her soft sided purse slung over her shoulder (and under her arm) and the keys in the purse, she unlocked the doors by pressing the button on the door handle on the passenger side, opened the passenger and club doors and was struggling to get her fussing infant arranged in the car seat. Her purse around her shoulder was constantly interfering so she tossed it onto the floor in front of the passenger seat.

With her daughter finally arranged in the car seat, she shut the club door and the passenger door. The car instantaneously beeped that it was locked, and so it was. Not only that, the car is fitted with a factory alarm and with her daughter squirming in the car seat, she set off the interior motion detector almost immediately and all hell broke loose. Shortly after that, we received a panicked phone call to rush a key over - fortunately less than 10 minutes away.

The fob cannot be locked inside the vehicle under any scenario I can create except at the open front passenger door, if it is the only door open, by either (1) pressing the lock button on the fob if you are outside the car -- which clicks the locks down with no beep or blinking lights other than the silent red l.e.d. on the top of the tachometer, or (2) if the fob is inside the car with only the passenger door open when the button is pressed, it locks the doors and beeps-blinks the lights also. If you've done either of those things and then put or leave the fob inside the car and close the passenger door, you are locked out. (If you try the same things at the driver's door or at the barn doors, the car will not lock.)

The only thing we can imagine is that the lock button on the fob in her crowded purse was accidentally pressed while she was struggling with her daughter while she was outside the car trying to get her daughter in and she didn't hear or notice it had clicked the locks down before she shut the door.

I'm happy to report there do not seem to be any outward signs that her daughter is emotionally scarred for life and she didn't seem to be freaked out by the car the next time she was put in it. It probably helped that, after the alarm stopped, her mother sang every nursery rhyme known to humanity, with gestures (think itsy bitsy spider), to her through the window until the second fob arrived. It was fortunate it was at night and we were close. I can imagine a scenario in 100+ heat in the daytime here in Phoenix (which equates to at least 140 degrees in a closed car), with no one close to bring another fob. (The instruction in this part of the country, of course, would be to break out a window immediately unless it was next door to a locksmith's shop.)

Now, if German engineers can keep every other door on the vehicle from accidentally locking and, in the case of the barn doors, make them additionally pop open with the car beeping and lights blinking simultaneously four times when the front doors are otherwise locked and the fob is in the car, they ought to be able to include the passenger door in that engineering feat. Wouldn't ya think? Go figure.

 

A scary thought just hit me. What if I'm eating in a restaurant and my car is less than three feet away? I have eaten at a local Subway and the seat was that close to where I parked. The only thing separating me from the car was the glass wall. Will someone be able to push the unlock button, hop in, and start up the car?

 

I am pretty sure the fob has to be inside the car to start it. You may want to try leaving outside and seeing if you can start the engine.

 

My kids have tried to open the doors before I'm right up to the car (with my fob) and they can't. I think you have to be close to the door for it to open. Also, you don't exactly open the door the way you would if the car were unlocked. Unless you know what to do, you can't open it. Actually sometimes when my fob is right there and I push the other "secret" button on the door handle to unlock my car, it doesn't open right away.

 

I work as a valet parker here at UF and also back home in Naples and this happens ALL the time: an older couple will get out of a car (lexus, mercedes, bmw, cadilac, corvette, infinity, and now even some nissans and mazdas) and accidentally keep the keys in their pockets. If we arent quick enough to catch this mistake before we park the car, they all freak out when we ask them later for their keys. Its a good concept but an entirely new way of thinking for people that are just now learning how to use their garage door clicker....

 

I wonder if they still have VCRs with flashing clocks in their houses too!

 

Yeah! ...to go along with their jumbo-size, glow in the dark remote that they dont use anymore because they wont change the batteries since they dont know how to reprogram it.

 

Hey! I still have one. But it has a DVD player built in and I'm trying to back up all my VHS tapes to disk before they shrivel up and break.