Took delivery yesterday and found a few things worth commenting on already...

Manual Transmission: Auto Rev-Matching on Downshifts!
When you depress clutch, drop stick to lower gear, engine will automatically rev match before you release clutch pedal. Very cool!

There is a built-in Music Collection feature
Haven't loaded anything yet, but you can upload music from USB to internal storage.

Wireless phone charging
Inside center armrest there is a cradle/bracket that is Qi wireless charge compatible. Placed my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge in the bracket and it starts charging automatically (standard wireless charging rate, not "Fast Wireless Charging").

Secret Compartment
In the spirit of the earlier MINI hardtops, there is a "secret" mini-drawer under the drivers seat.

More to come as I drive the car more.

 

There is a USB port in the center console and there is a USB port in the well under the center armrest.

Plugged an iPod (yes iPod, we use as storage for vast music library) in to the USB port under center armrest as that seemed like best area to store it. While it recognized the iPod, playback was spotty with lots of drops and restarts. Thought it was a bad cable but other cables had same behavior.

Moved the iPod to the USB port on center console (storing the iPod in the little tray there) and it worked perfectly. Odd.

 

We have the Loaded package which includes the larger touchscreen infotainment system. It is easy enough to navigate a music library (on the Music Collection or an iPod) and one can easily drill down to an individual artist or album.

But if you do select a specific album to play, how do you return to the whole library (unfiltered by album or artist) so that you can engage shuffle and have random songs play from the entire library?

Simply engaging shuffle will only shuffle the currently selected album. I'm confused and manual is only electronic in vehicle now and is silent on the matter.

I can select a different album, of course, but what I want to do is play random selections from the entire library.

Thanks in advance.

 

On mine, you would go to Search and reset the search then pick a song to start playing from the library.

 

How do you reset the search? It seems like you have to go to a title/track outside of current filter, pick a song, then press play in order to exit from the currently filtered selection (album or artist).

 

Yeah, that basically.

 

Not very elegant. Oh well.

 

Just hold down the talkie button and ask Siri to "shuffle all songs", and it will do what you want it to do. Do it all the time. :-)

 

What does Siri have to do with this? Unless you mean the MINI's voice command? Neither Apple or Android phone involved here, all music is on iPod or Music Collection.

 

I use mine with my iPhone, and I tell Siri to shuffle my songs, with my phone docked to the USB port (or via Bluetooth Audio). I rarely use MINI's voice command for anything. It's not very good. If you HOLD the button down, it activates Siri.

 

Contrary to what I have posted previously, iPod is not working reliably in the F60. However, I have replaced the iPod with a 128GB USB drive (Samsung - smaller than a quarter) which is installed in the USB port tucked away under the center armrest. With 128GB (and compression to 192K) I can fit nearly my entire music library on an nearly invisible device. Works great! Even playlists are working though I have not confirmed if there is a limit on the number of tracks in a playlist.

Next project is finding an appropriate cell phone mount for the dash which is textured and does not offer many flat surfaces.

 

Bump. I just picked up my F60 on Thursday so I haven't had much time to play with it yet. I wanted to see if others found cool features that may not be obvious. I showed the compartment under the driver's seat to my motoring advisor and he hadn't know about it.

 

So after checking out numerous cell phone holders, decided that this one works best .

All the dash mounted ones I tried were too tall. This cupholder one works great for my purposes which is mostly just used when I prefer to use Waze instead of integrated nav.

 

Don't know if this is a feature or not but if the cell phone (normal size) falls between the driver (or passenger) seat and the center console, don't bother digging for it. Seat rails are high enough it will slide under and rest under the center/rear portion of the seat. Best to just stop, get out and access from the rear. Don't ask me how I know this, but...three times appears to be a pattern, and when retrieving on the passenger side, it was in the rear footwell, but I think it did originated between seat and door rather than console.

 

Is the Music Collection a touch screen specific option? I don't see how to upload music.

 

I'm not sure as I have touch but among the artist, title, albums..Etc menu, there is an import music option. It imports from a connected USB drive. Storage is 12GB and it seems to import everything in no particular order so I assume it'd just run out of space if you have more than 12GB of music and videos on the USB drive. Note that videos only display when the car is in park, although the audio portion of the video will continue during driving. Also, I haven't found a way to skip forward or fast forward videos, always have to start at the beginning. If you turn the car off, it will continue from same spot though when turning the car back on.

 

we need an "F60" sub.

 

I forgot to mention, you need to select your USB drive first for the import music menu to appear.

I bought this . The price often drops to around $34 and it works great. The SanDisk brand is known to overheat so I went with Samsung. I haven't found the need to import the music because I just leave it plugged in.

 

I did same using this exact Samsung 128GB USB drive. With modest compression, it can store over 12K tracks and fits almost invisibly in the USB port under the center armrest. Playlists work just fine as do all the search features - just takes a few minutes to index upon first use.

 

I'm trying the comfort ventilation option for the first time today since it's hot and sunny out today. I set it to activate at at time I usually get out of work. I'm curious how much it helps.

 

Yes, XL only option. 20GB capacity if you do have it though.

 

A few other cool F60 features that you may or may not know about. Note that some may be package\option specific. If you have any other 3rd Gen MINI (ie, F56 or F54), you'll likely be more aware of these. Some of these borrowed from F56 thread.

I haven't been able to verify if this happens all the time or was coincidence but when I parked on an inclined hill, the e-brake engaged automatically. When I took it out of park, the ebrake turned off automatically.

Lightly touching the radio preset buttons without pushing them will display the name of the saved item on the screen. Very useful if you don't remember what station/contact..etc is saved under which preset without flipping through all of them.

You can scroll through music stations/presets/titles/albums..etc using the up/down buttons on the steering wheel and they will display on the Heads Up Display.

You can program the 6 Preset buttons for more than just radio stations, you can program a menu, map, NAV location, phone contact...etc I have my Button 1 programmed to USB for easy access to my USB music files. I store my favorite radio/sirius stations under the presets menu, assign Presets to one of the favorite buttons (#6 for me) and then use the arrows on my wheel to navigate through them. (They display in my Heads Up Display for easy scrolling)

If you flip the switch to the driver side side-mirror adjustment, when you put it in reverse the passenger mirror adjusts to point to the ground. Don't like it? Put the switch to the passenger side. (I think folding mirrors option is required)

You can voice command (press voice button on steering wheel to activate) to any menu instead of navigating with the control wheel. (ie, Say "Display Media", "Display Map").

The voice command is very useful for NAV (ie, Say "Take me home" or "Navigate to ....say address.." and Media (Play Genre "xyz", Play Title "xyz", Play Artists "xyz", Play Next Song (good when you are in shuffle mode and want to skip to a different random song)...and many more options. If you say "Help Navigation" or "Help Media" or "Help with voice activation", it'll show/say a list of available commands.

Sirius Radio - You can rewind and pause.

Hold down the key fob unlock button (you may have to unlock the car first), the windows will roll down all the way or only part way if you let go of the button at your desired height. If you continue to hold it down, the sunroof will open.

If the windows are open, press and hold the door handle lock button and the windows will close.

You can open the sunroof and windows either little by little or with one flip of the switch to have it open automatically. After you double-tap the sunroof switch and it's fully open, hold the switch again and it will shift another few more inches. It's a wind buffering setting, at highway speeds the opening that it goes to on the first open setting is the engineered quietest location to make the least amount of noise in the cabin.

 

I found the hold down the unlock button. Looking for something in the center console which I don't use as a phone charger. Apparently while leaning over as I looked in the console, pressed the unlock button while key was in the pants pocket. All of a sudden the windows came down and the sunroof opened and I am having a "what the..." moment as I knew I didn't touch anything. Looked all around for a special switch that did that as I manually closed the windows. Initially didn't realize the sunroof opened as the shade was pulled and kept wondering why the engine sounded so loud as I started it in the garage. Thought it was having some electrical quirks as the kick would only partially open the rear hatch so service told me about the key fob, and the Mini decided to behave itself and couldn't recreate the partial opening hatch at the dealer and they didn't see any error codes.

Another switch I found, and had to do the unmanly thing of looking in the manual related to the mirrors. The passenger mirror kept dipping down so you can see the curb and rear wheel placement as you park. However, I back with mirrors and use a line to keep straight which disappears when the mirror dips. That little slider typically used to select either the left or right mirror to adjust does double duty. In one position, it dips the passenger mirror when placed in reverse and the other position holds the mirror at the current setting when placed in reverse.