Thanks ! I don't mind getting a little technical, so I may eventually go this route.
I was just hoping there was an electro-mechanical way of "temp." disabling the headlights, like being parked , in neutral, with the E-Brake on.
Guess not.
Appreciate you weighing in on this. It's been driving me batty, whereas my wife could care less, LOL!

 

Neither can I!

Mine MINIs are Euro-spec so might be different.

The R56LCI (2011) has a 4-position headlight switch - running lights/off/parking lights/headlights. Normally I leave it in the running lights position, which means the headlights are on whenever the ignition is on. For carparks like you ask about, the "off" position turns off the headlights but not, unfortunately, the parking lights. I can't find a way to turn them off with the engine running. Would like to for similar reasons to you - picking up people from a deserted railway station on a winter's night hoping noone will notice I'm in the car!!

My older R56 just has a 3-position headlight switch off/parkers/headlights where the headlight switch works like the running lights position on the newer model anyway.

So, no, I guess I can't really help much...
Maybe someone else can...

 

I just learned my new Mini knows when it is too hot outside. It cracked both my windows open about two inches today when it hit about 100*. Well, that is what I thought away...

I had just reinstalled my Seat Armour covers after washing them, closed the door and locked it; so I thought. Came out about a hour later after working in the garage with the keys in my pocket and noticed both windows were cracked open and the car was unlocked. I thought to myself, wow this Mini really has some usual features. It's about 100* outside and it cracked open my windows. I wondered if the interior temp got too high and it was trying to cool itself down inside.

Logged on here to see what was up. Found this thread that says if you hold down the unlock button it will open the windows too. I'm guessing something in my pocket unlocked the car and held it the button on for a second or two opening the windows a couple inches too.

Damn! My Mini isn't THAT smart after all...

 

Our BMW 535Xi Sportwagon is extremely intelligent in that regard. Hubby's constantly triggering all windows and full sunroof opening, sometimes even the tailgate! I've tried to get him to put his keys in a purse, like I do, but so far he insists on putting them in his tight jeans pocket.

Fortunately, he has the derriere for it.

 

I didn't know that if I was taking off in 1rst gear and rolling my windows up at the same time, the windows would automatically come right back down. At first I thought it was a fluke, but I was able to recreate this scenario several times over the course of 2 days.
THere is a fine line when this will and will not work. Seems the windows have to be just at the right level (*roughly 1/2 way up I guess).
I never tested 1 window at a time...always both, and always going forward in 1rst gear.
Standard transmission, no sunroof, no comfort or auto anything.

Weird !

 

I didn't know that if I was taking off in 1rst gear and rolling both my windows up at the same time, the windows would automatically come right back down. At first I thought it was a fluke, but I was able to recreate this scenario several times over the course of 2 days.

THere is a fine line when this will and will not work. Seems the windows have to be just at the right level (*roughly 1/2 way up I guess?).

I never tested 1 window at a time...always both, and always going forward in 1rst gear.

Standard transmission, no sunroof, no comfort or auto anything.

Weird !

 

I also didn't know some/ (?) of my dash lights and icons would dim in darker light and get brighter in full sun.

(though I think I remember reading something about this....today was the first day I actually noticed it.)

_ Or I should say my 11 yo son actually noticed that the cruise control icon was barley visible, but the fog light icons were full brightness. (7am, foggy/overcast)

I see the sensor is in the lower rhs of my tach.

 

Mine does this too. I'm sure it's a fault - I can't think of any earthly (or other) reason that could have occurred to the BMW programmers to intentionally build in such a feature.

The boom gate at my work is closely followed by a speed hump. It's when I go over the speed hump when the windows is about half-way up that it turns around and goes straight back down again. Annoying when it's raining. I assumed the speed hump tricked some window sensor into thinking something (eg a child's head, a small dog, whatever) was in the way of the window and it reopened it for safety. But unless yours also requires a speed hump or similar bump to activate it, that theory's out the window...

And, yes, it does it with just the driver's window. I hadn't tried 2 windows.

 

The mini key fob has a RFID chip in it.
You can leave the fob in your pocket. Press the little black button on the door to unlock it.
And with the key in your pocket just press the start button to start the car.
Or in my case, I leave the key fob in my backpack to open and start the car.
I believe that as long as the key is within 3 feet of the vehicle it works.

 

What's really neat is that your car will sense when the computer display is unreadable because there's too much light shining from a back window, sunroof, etc. It will shift to a black-on-gray display, instead of the standard orange lighted numbers. Since I use this as my speedometer instead of the big round gauge in the center of the car, it's really handy.

 

That's only if you have the "comfort access" option. I do not; my key must be in the receptacle for the car to start.

I'll have to try the on/off dance mentioned earlier, to see if that actually works on my car.

 

I tried this yesterday...yup, it works! And I do not have the comfort access option, either. Nice find, gsovde!

 

If you have convenience pkg, the car will start/stop as long as a fob is within reception ran(3 and doesn't have to be in the ignition

 

Enjoying the newly discovered "all windows down" feature by holding the unlock button down as mentioned here. Thanks for the heads up. The dog likes it too! It's been real hot here the last month and the dog makes funny noises like he can't breath in the stale air when getting into the closed up hot car. This feature has stopped him from gagging on the hot air with all the windows down before he hops in.

 

The on-off dance thing works in my car, too. Interesting, I wonder why it was set up that way?

I am also enjoying the windows-down remote function.

 

awesome thread!!! i get my daily "Mini fix" from here !!!

When ur on an incline with foot on the brake, when u get off the brake, the car does not roll back, the brake stays on for a fraction of a second giving you time to get the car into gear. I used to own a bimmer, when u release the brake and the fraction of a second before u let go off the clutch, the car starts to roll back. Not on my Mini.

That's the BEST feature on the Mini!!!!!

 

I'm a little surprised that wasn't part of your test drive. That hill-holding feature was a big deal when the R56 first come out. I know we were told all about it--and we didn't have any hills in the Houston area to test it out on!

 

I got mine used, so did have the thorough walk thru' with a MA.

first time i noticed this i was amazed !!

 

Ah, that explains it. If you didn't get an owner's manual, be sure to get one (or download it). Read it at least twice, because there's a lot of good stuff in those pages.

 

Lol, it's trickle down tech from BMW. Your bummer was prob older than 2006-7 depending on the model. But the hold feature is standard on all manual bmws and minis now. Even the SMG cars have this feature.

 

yeh, it was a 95.

 

Woohoo! Finished reading nearly 2400 posts, took about a week. Thanks to everyone for so many informative and entertaining posts!

I've had a 2013 MCS for a couple weeks and absolutely love it. Only two things were surprising even after reading the manual:
1) Timed auto-lock only works if the fob remains near the car (which kind of defeats the purpose).
2) From the tilt position, the sunroof is not one-touch auto-open like the windows. (Apparently earlier models were auto-open from closed but this bypassed the tilt position; the current "manual" mode may be an improvement from that but IMHO is not quite right).
(and I couldn't get the pins out to remove the circular blocks that prevent the rear headrests from lowering completely - had to use a hacksaw...)

 

If you hold the toggle switch for about half a second, it will auto-open from the tilt position.

It's not on my 2007 R56 Cooper, but is on the 2010 R56 LCI S. Both Euro-spec.
Took me a while to work out it was doing it! I would prefer it stayed on until I choose to bring the clutch out; the hill-hold disengaged after a couple of seconds. Now that I'm used to it on the MCS, I have to remember when I hop in the Justa that it doesn't do it!

 

Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the way my 2013 car works - it's entirely manual past the tilt point. Why they would have changed it is anyone's guess...

 

I thought it was an option on early model R56? Pretty certain that my 07 doesn't have it either. I don't know if it became standard later on but I seem to recall reading that it had been an optional package.