When I look through the manual for the Bluetooth phone prep, there appears to be a snap-in piece that cradles compatable phones (last page of the supplement). I asked the dealer for the piece and he said they've never seen such a piece. Has anyone gotten this piece when taking posession of their R56? They say the charger only works with a few select phones but I'd like to have whatever was supposed to come with the car as a matter of principle...In case I ever go to sell the car (NOT like I'm planning on doing that anytime soon thought based on my first couple of days with it)

 

I was talking to the dealership about this yesterday, he says that they make the snap in piece for just about all phone, but it has to be ordered separate because of all the different models AND it costs about a hundred dollars!!! So, it's not something that comes in the package.

Have you tried the phone with bluetooth yet?

 

My dealer and MiniUSA have claimed ignorance regarding this piece. I have also been asking about it. I'll hope for some news soon... I understand it allows you to use the antenna on the car as the cell phone's antenna, improving signal strength a great deal. I'd really enjoy that capablity alone.

Besides, bluetooth alone is no reason to take up the armrest storage... that can be fit any number of places with less functionality. If the armrest is going to be used for a "cradle" then it should be functional from the get-go... if I'm going to just use bluetooth, I should be able to throw the phone in my bag in the boot and be done with it. The only reason I'd want to use a cradle is to a: charge it or b: use the external antenna, and until that piece is available neither will be an option. Not what I'm paying the money for! Get on the ball, Mini! Get that info and the parts out to the customers!

 

I have the bluetooth pack....and it didnt come with a plug in (in the arm rest)...I can't say that I'll be missing it unless we go on a really long trip and we need charging.... My wife and I really like it the package... I left my phone in my tennis bag in the boot and it worked perfectly. My wife loves that she never has to dig her phone out of her purse..car and phone seem to sync before we leave the neighborhood.....pretty cool

 

OCU.. you have the Bluetooth in an R56? What is inside the armrest? Is it all cradle, or is there storage space?

 

Hmm...interesting...Has anyone also had trouble getting the contacts to pull from the phone? All I can do is get it to store a couple of numbers with voice recognition (after a couple of tries)...

 

There is storage space there. You can buy a phone-specific holder/charger to go there. But niether in mu Mini or BMW I have done that. The phone works perfectly in your pocket via the bluetooth an in my opinion no need for a deice the fills the modest space inside the armrest.

 

As Manamini said...just small storage space in there....My Motorola Razr transfered my contacts over to the car.....my wifes Samsung did not..so we manually did it for hers. Its not too bad just play around with it a bit

 

Please note that the contacts ususally transfer fine but if you want to place a call by name (i.e., call home, or Call Frank) you have to use the voice system to say it and save it because the voice tag is stored on the car and not on your phone. Do not get disappointed if the voice says your phone book is empty while you can actually see your contacts transfered to the car. What it means is that your voice-tag phone book on the car is empty and you have to set it up one name at a time.

 

OSU - Was there a trick to manually entering the numbers? I've got a Sanyo Katana and nothing seems to transfer. All I can do is enter in numbers for voice dial.