I had to transport a few items in my car this weekend that required me to put the seats down, and they were still down this morning when I went to work. I happened to look back there from the drivers seat this afternoon and discovered something I did not yet know about my Mini.

The latches that hold the rear seat in the up position are extendable. You can flip them up making the seat sit straighter and significantly increasing the trunk space (which is not hard to do). This is great for me since I never carry passengers in the back, but I would imagine it would not be very comfy to sit back there like that.

Anyway, for those that are not aware of this, pics are attached.
All you have to do is pull on the bottom part and it extends.

And if I am the last person to figure this out, oh well.

 

Yes, it is a cool feature. I just wish there was an easy way to remove/replace the back seat.

 

Well, you are currently the last, but trust me...someone else will discover this and bump you from the place of honor. Truth be told, I forget it's even there...I may need it someday!!

 

The owner's manual goes over the seat-back adjustment in detail.

 

Considering the (in)frequency with which I have back seat passengers, maybe I should make this my default configuration.

Of course when I do have more than two people in the car I'll forget about it, and there'll be a lot of misconceptions about the relative comfort of the MINI's back seat.

So it goes.

 

I'll admit, I didn't know about this...pretty kool! Although, if it's uncomfortable to sit with the seats so upright, I guess I'd be inclined to just leave the seats down when I don't take any extra passengers. Thanks for the tip!

 

Thanks, I can use that info.

 

not the last.

 

Owners Manual???? You mean you are supposed to read that?????

Well, glad I could help a few people out at least. It is definitely going to be my default setting. In almost a year, I have had back seat passengers twice, so I am not worried about it. It will definitely be nice for grocery shopping and other things.

 

Those are seats back there?

 

yeah man, rtfm... j/k i read the manual and i still didn't know about it... i just scanned it again and STILL couldn't find it

 

Thanks for showing me this, I can really use the space! However....
Now I have to find an extension for the top cover since peering eyes could look into the hatch now and see the extra cases of beer I can carry now! Hmmm something for our vendors to develop?

PS. I went through the manual when I bought the car and didn't catch this, but now I don't have to go back in! Thanks.

 

When I test drove a Clubman in February, the MA that went with me had no idea about these either.

It's a handy feature if you have 3 or 4 people and need just a little bit more room in the trunk. I tried sitting in the back with one and it wasn't much worse than an extended cab truck's back seat angle.

 

There's a lot about MINIs they don't tell you...stuff you just have to find out on your own. This isn't maybe one of them, but what the heck.

 

So...currently I'm the last to know

 

my MA told me about that feature but i never use it.... i rarely drive people in the back, or carry that much stuff. I would rather just put the seats down all the way but i guess in a pinch, its nice to have the ability to still have people and stuff in the MINI.

 

thanks...I was slightly aware of the feature too but forgot about it. I rarely have people back there anyway so maybe I will adjust for more boot room. I'm currently driving around without back seats anyway...lol. (took them out to install a sub but of course have not finished the install). I'm taking the car to the dealer today for warranty work and if they say anything about the missing backseat I'm going to act as if I don't know what they are talking about (it's April's fools and I'd like to see what sort of reaction I get...lol).

 

Check out the "Things you didn't know about your R56 MINI" thread:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=93485

I have learned SO much on there. The seat thing is covered.

 

I had adjusted almost everything in my life (everything relevant, that is ) to accomodate my '03 MINI Cooper, so I find the existing R56 boot plenty big for all the stuff I do or can fathom doing. I mean, my mind does not even consider carrying more unless the seats are down, in which case I'm carrying a lot more. So that "little bit of extra" provided by the dual-position seat latch hasn't yet had the opportunity to present itself as a real-life solution. I suspect it will though.

Really, it seems like such a small thing...one of those little details that MINI went out of their way to put in the car that they easily could have left out. I find a lot of this with the 2nd gen car. In the end, it's a very Mini-thing to carve out a little bit of extra function in an overall small package, and I think that's really, really great!!!!

 

I guess I should actually fold my back seats down to check this out. I've never folded them down. For that matter, I've never put anything in the back of the car, including the trunk

 

That feature is my default configuration. When I went to test drive first time MA told me that the reason for that feature is for beer boxes...