Ha, "schuming" will never catch on; too bad, too, since that would imply having almost 25% more fun as fanging (counting total championships). Fanging is an Aussie term, I've been watching F1 since 1992 and never heard of it. I love it, tho! There's little interest in F1 in the USA, sadly, outside of small enclaves of dedicated fans. It shows in how we can't keep a US GP on the F1 calendar for more than a few years at a time.

I'm a huge fan of Herr Schumacher, and I miss race weekends that ended in the German and Italian anthems.

 

I'd change dealers if they did reset the counter. The annual service is just an oil change. The countdown includes a variety of things like changing the brake fluid and putting in new interior filter. Resetting without doing those things would be very bad.

I like it. Probably is an Australian saying. I think in England they go with something more Nigel Mansell, and in the USA it would probably be Mario Andretti. I suspect that few American remember Fangio. I once had an Alfa Romeo, so I remember.

 

Oh, I get it now - in the US you have an annual service and the countdown services? Unless there's a particular US reason for the annual service (pollution legislation or something? ) it sounds to me like that is an extra cost addition that's been introduced somewhere along the line. In Australia, it's just the countdown services, that's all - which was MINI's whole idea, I thought. There are separate countdowns for your basic oil change and the more comprehensive services. And the countdowns take elapsed months as well as distance travelled into account - eg oil change in "8000km or NOV 2009")

Well, we almost had the Austrian anthem a few races back - except they played the wrong one! (Red Bull is an Austrian registered team, but with HQ in the UK, so they mistakenly played the British anthem.) Could be worse - Alan Jones, commentating a while back, said when he won his first GP the organizers couldn't find the Australian anthem and played him Happy Birthday instead.

 

Except any other dealer will tell you the same thing. Yes, they can reset the counter, but they won't. My dealer told me that it is MINI policy that they will not reset the counter if you come in for an "early" service (hit mileage before one year is up). My dealer paid for two oil changes within 5k miles (which was fine by me) because of it. Pretty strange policy, particularly considering it tends to cost the dealer more.

 

I didn't know that I would end up reading 1804 posts on a forum for a car I haven't even purchased yet.

 

In the U.S. (at least), you can get your oil changed once a year, if it doesn't come up by mileage. And yes, it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't do everything all at once. I'm just a few miles away from my dealer, but I'd hate to be as far as some owners are. From MINI's standpoint, you'd think they'd want to do one change rather than two. Besides oil and tech pay, every time they shuttle one of our babies to the back it's costing them money. Wonder if the bean counters have actually put pencil to paper on this one.

Ken G--I agree--remember when Michael always teared up at the same point? I've even forgotten the words--starts out "Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles..." If you watch WWII documentaries, they often play it. I've always been a little surprised that they didn't rewrite the anthem after the **** years, though.

Regarding Fanging, I'll bet they couldn't work that one off Sebastien Buemi, eh?

 

The music is the same, but the WORDs to their anthem were edited (de-****-fied) after the war.

Keith

 

Further to that: the music way predates the ***** - it was written by Hayden in the 1700s - I'm pretty sure I've heard it in a string quartet and it's used for a once-well-known Christian hymn too. I don't know when it started being the German anthem though.
The wildest rendition I've heard was Deep Purple using it to start "Speed King" at a german concert - worked fabulously! (Now something like that would be better at a Grand Prix! )

 

Yes - that threw me off as well. I said "help" into the system and the automated voice told me to say "save name" instead of "store name." Stupid manual.

 

My friend was over yesterday. He was a BMW mechanic for many years. So I am showing him the car and he asks if the windows go down via the keyfob. I was totally confused as I didn't know what he was talking about. Sure enough, if you hold down unlock on the keyfob, the windows will go down. Hold down longer and the sunroof tilts up. Amazing feature.

 

I'd like that keyfob to run the windows up also. Sometimes it's neat to put them down on a hot day - but what the heck do you do if the car is setting outside and it starts raining??? Really need to put that option on the keyfob!!! If you can make 'em go down why in the world can't you run them up?

 

With the Comfort Access option, if you hold the button on the door handle down -- to lock the doors -- and keep holding it, all windows will go up. I would guess that this would work with the fob as well, but haven't tried it. I never take the fob out of my pocket.

I'm not sure how long this feature works after turning off the engine.

 

You cant make them go up with the keyfob because there are no close-sensors in, meaning, you could squish someone in your window and the car wouldnt know.

You CAN put the windows up by putting the key in the door, turning it to lock, and holding. This will arm the alarm, and after 2 seconds, close the windows and sunroof (but you gotta hold it).

Does anyone (who services their car at home) know if you can reset the service indicators with an OBDII (sp?) reader? Or is it a computer interface that only mini has?

Thx.

 

You might both be right, because '07s didn't have auto up. That started in '08. I don't know if there were changes in '09.

I would have liked that feature in my car. Maybe I should have waited? Nah--I was MINIing long before you were!

 

You can up the windows using the key. Hold it in the lock position. And you can't squish a body part in the window going up. It automatically detracts upon increased motor draw. Feel free to try. It works. I was skeptical at first.

 

I'll just trust you.

 

FYI I noticed Out Motoring now have a device for Series 1 that lets you reset the service counters amongst other things. Probably more exxy than is worth it except for people seriously into diagnostics stuff.
http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...de_reader.html

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
__________________________________________________ ___

Note that the above code reader/reset tool is for the pre R56 (year 2006 and prior).

The ScanGauge II will work in 1996 and newer car with OBD/OBD II Port.

Less cost with the free shipping and provides a lot of information and utility.

see: http://www.scangauge.com/features/

Under Support tab at above site, download the pdf User Manual for the ScanGauge II with X-Gauge.

 

I don't think you need one for Gen 2 resets. I read how to do it somewhere on NAM--you might do a search. I posed the question for the "countdown" and this is what I was told.

 

a feature of the rear fog light. I was driving through rain and the headlights had come on (had them set to "auto-on). It was really raining hard and lots of spray being kicked up by vehicles in front, and I noticed how obscured their taillights were. So I thought what the heck, I'll flp the rear fog on so that no one rear-ends me.

Later the sky cleared and it was very bright and sunny. About 10 minutes later I noticed the glow of the accent lights up near the toggle switches on the roof. Then I glanced at the speedo and noticed the light for the rear fog was still on. So I flipped the toggle and it went off, as did the accent lights, and presumably my headlights! So evidently once the rear fog is on, it (and probably the front fogs?) will stay on even if the ambient light is high enough to trigger the auto-on headlights to shut off.

Or at least that's my hypothesis!

 

That's only funny if you didn't grow up and/or live within 15 miles of TMI...which I do. Luckily I still have a relatively symmetrical face, all my teeth, and most of my hair!

 

I've messed with this extensively (cause I'm just lame like that) and have found that holding down the unlock button on the fob will lower the windows and tilt the roof, but holding down the lock button on the fob will not. The only way to close the roof/windows is by holding in the Comfort Access door button. Oddly, holding down the comfort access button to UNLOCK will not open the windows/roof. Go fig.

 

 

I'm serious, considering every morning in high school I remember looking out the window of my home room and seeing the 2 (well 4 really) cooling towers. Looked like you could almost spit and hit them.

OK so back on topic, how about "things I still don't know about my Mini" which specifically include:

1) why it randomly decides to go to a different radio station (literally change stations) or play mode (CD/Aux/etc) when I get in the car. Can't ever tell where it's gonna be.
2) Behind the rear passengers seats (when you fold them down) there is a little metal fold out arm that appears to "extend" the seat. What in the world is that all about?
3) Why only the CD Changer has a DVD readable MP3 player in it and not the in-dash CD player
4) why on the Navi system I can talk to it and tell it what address to find but there is no way to talk to it and tell it a business/location/address book entry without using the joystick
5) Why they put a "phone" button my steering wheel that doesn't do anything and apparently can't be hooked up to anything after-market
6) Why I can open the roof and windows by holding down the unlock button on the remote but can't by holding down the comfort access button while unlocking. Conversely why can't I shut the windows/door by holding down the FOB lock button but I *CAN* by holding down the door lock comfort access button?

I'm sure there's more but thats all I can think of off the top of my head. There are a lot more things I've figured out that it does but I've seen a lot of them in this forum. Since it took about a month to casually read through the whole thread I don't remember which ones weren't covered!

 

Are you using one key consistently? That's something the MINI remembers on a per key basis. If you randomly picked up one key or the other, you'd get a random selection of audio, whatever it was last time you used that key.
They sound like the bits which lock the back seats in a more upright position, which gives you a bigger boot space. Not a lot bigger, but squarer, which means you cann get bigger things in there. Flip up the arms, raise the seat back and it'll lock into place.