So let me set up my question before i ask it. 4 month old Chili Red R56 Cooper, Auto. I drive in Manual mode my wife drives in Automatic... is this acceptiable? is the drive train designed for me to drive the automatic transmition in manual mode all the time or should i drive it in automatic mode? Will this cause problems in the future, or will we be motoring in 10 years?

 

Well, kind a hard question to answer; who knows what will happen 5 years from now with normal driving.

I can share that the tranmition seems robust and I too use the manual controls quite a bit. I am not a mechanical engineer but my gut feeling stells me that the auto box will be durable enough to suit all driving styles.

 

as long as you dont abuse the manual controls im sure it will last just as long as if you only drove it one way...

 

I am a mechanical engineer and yes your transmission will be fine. No changes in the way the internals work you are just telling them 'when' to work....

Motor on

 

I like how you made that post

 

Same situation here with me and my wife. I would use "manual" mode less since I'm usually in stop and go traffic, but I need the sport button for the throttle response and I don't always need the higher shift points that "auto" mode dictates. It's also not good for gas mileage. Now if my wife could drive stick, this would not be an issue.

 

It should be fine, the tranny is made to work both ways. The funny part is that the way you drive in manual mode will directly affect how the transmission behaves for your wife The adaptive nature of it 'learns' while you are driving, drive aggressively and rev it and it will change gears later in auto mode too. It is amazing how driving can change the way the transmission responds, when ours was reset somehow at one point the difference was really clear, took a bit of driving to get it back up to snuff

(The tranny on the new car we test drove was not as keen as ours became either, one of the reasons I say a loaner or test drive does not reveal the autos best performance.)

PS: That is if the transmission and behavior is the same as the R53. I think it would be the same behavior though since every steptronic BMW tranny I've ever driven has been adaptive in that way.

 

"Adaptive nature". Sound like science fiction to me. Cars are getting too smart and complicated. Kinda like the autocorrect function of Microsoft word. Annoying when you don't need it. Does it "learn" differently when in sport mode? Otherwise, I need a "wife" button. My wife keeps our MPG almost respectable.

 

The six speed autotrans seems to be the only gearbox Mini has had no problems with. It should hold up fine.