I admit thatI love the mileage of my regular Cooper, but the S looks better.

 

They're backing off because of the spray on their windshields. DON'T put a dye in the water--you don't know how it will affect stripes and paint, etc., on you OR the other guy.

 

Your wipers should turn off when you idle--BMW's been doing that for years--my '94 had this feature. Don't know when it started.

 

I'm sure he meant that as a joke.

 

II would hope so, but there ARE people who would do that!

 

You are so right.

 

Hate to admit it, but I thought this was the automatic rain sensing wiper feature and was pretty disappointed with it since I thought "that's all it can do?!" But then I discovered that you have to push the little end button of the wiper control arm to turn on the auto wipers ... feeling a little stupid, but at least now I love my auto wipers! Only complaint is that it seems you have to turn it back on after the car is turned off.

 

got to love this techno stuff

 

I didn't know the Bi-Xenons could be such an upgrade over previous generations of Xenon lamps.
We drove up the pass last night in near freezing rain with the roads as wet & dark as it could possibly get & the markers and asphalt were so well lit I'd swear we were driving on one of the Seatac runways. I've driven a lot of xenon equipped cars and the cut-off is very sharp and it's easy to 'over-drive' your lights, not so with the Mini's Bi-xenons on High !
combined with the front & rear fogs on you can see everything ahead and no-one behind is going to miss you either. Short of a full rally light-bar, I've never driven anything with such great lighting.

Also I never knew those rear foglights were such a great safety feature, flipped them on while my dad was following us up the I-5 in a mid-day rainstorm, he could spot us from a long ways back and other drivers tended to back off a bit as well.

I definitely recommend checking the Xenons & rear foglight options on your buildsheet if you live anywhere that gets wet & dark.

 

don't know if this has been posted before but here goes:
If you press and hold the UNLOCK button on your key fob (what does "fob" mean anyways?) while you are walking up to your car it will unlock all the doors and roll down the windows for you

 

It'll also put both of the sunroof panels in the "vent" position.

On the R53s the same thing would slide the sunroof all the way back, which was a lot more convenient.

 

_______________________________

......i know you get better mileage in the warmer climates , but that is very, very surprising.......are you using the car's computer or the tried and true method?......

 

Honestly i feel the computer method is the most accurate for actual miles driven per gallon...the computer stops computing when you are at a stop (which i think is better REAL mpg) while the by hand method includes those times sitting at traffic lights

 

How do you know that? It doesn't make sense that the computer wouldn't calculate mpg with the car idling.

 

It definitely does keep calculating while the car is idling. I've seen the average mpg drop down while I was waiting in line for gas at Costco.

 

The average MPG is still counting away, but the instantaenous readout blanks when you're below some set speed. I would guess that's what checkercoop was talking about.

I would guess that for most people, the more meaningful stat is the average MPG (i.e. miles driven on a tank / gallons to fill).

 

Actually most of the time it stops even that average at idle...ive had 2 times in my ownership that its had a glitch and started calculating idle as well, but went away after a few minutes

If you read on the MINI site it even says there and in the manual that the computer will stop calculating at stops (idle)

Its not supposed to calculate idle time, if it does its a glitch...again, mine had done it twice, but it went away a few minutes after and hasnt happened again...the first time was at 1000 miles and the other at 2500

 

Does this only happen if you have comfort access?

 

Nope. It works on non-CA equipped R56s, too! It's a miracle

 

mine always calculates at idle and doesn't stop. I can watch the average drop steadily while waiting to pick someone up.

Why shouldn't it? You are burning gas.

 

Maybe its in the new software? idk but mine only calculates moving (which is what the manual says it should be doing)

Personally thats the way i like it because I can actually see how my DRIVING style is affecting my mpg rather than it changing because i was at a traffic light a minute longer than normal

 

Sorry if this has already been posted ... I've only made it through the previous 10 pages or so...

I discovered this morning in the lovely rain we had that when you have the rear wiper set to intermitent and you put the car in reverse, the rear wiper switches to constant. That was very handy as I tried to back into my parking spot!

 

SAME HERE..... I had my Front wipers on normal speed, raining/snow out. I also had my rear wiper on the intermittent speed, only speed there is, and noticed when you back up rear wiper will go on a constant speed only when backing up, to help you see which is pretty cool.

Now only if the intermittent speed on the front wipers was changeable. Too far of a delay in between wipes, if its just not raining enough for normal speed, but enough you need quicker wipes in the intermittent mode, you cant change the intermittent speed like my old saturn you had 3 choices which was helpful.

 

The constant-on in reverse mode is great. What isn't great is that you can't change the speed of intermittent. The rear glass tends to get covered with mist brought up from the road by the tires, long after it has stopped raining/snowing. But, the wiper cycles when there isn't quite enough moisture on the window, turning the mist into an opaque smear.

I love the front rain sensing wipers, though.

 

I've had Ambrosia for less than two weeks but I have already discovered the 'design flaw' which allows a steady stream of rainwater to basically pour into your car seat and floor when you open the door during moderate to heavy rain. My service adviser said others have complained about this and that it's worse when it snows!

I was shocked and appalled when I discovered there is no temp gauge. Not something I was really looking for when test driving of course. Thought maybe it was hidden somewhere unexpected... it's just odd not have one.

The wipers do indeed suck. Service 'adjusted' them last time I was there.

The soft paint was unexpected! My mazda3 had soft/weak paint and it was a pain...guess I will need to splurge for the clear bra.

i'd forgotten what it is like to obsess and worry over a new car!