The 2022 Mini Cooper Lineup: Visual Order Guide

I hope you all don’t mind updates on this model as I work through the features. Active Cruise Control update: We went for another ride at dusk tonight, and as soon as we turned into the sun, the active cruise control went out. So I am sure Mini would not consider this a “problem”, as it is mentioned in the user manual. But I can verify that a long press of either of the “follow distance” buttons on the steering wheel actives regular cruise control, and it works fine. So a valid work around for the limitations of the camera-based system.

Next subject: Here I give you the nominees for Most Well-Hidden Controls on the Mini SE:

Runner Up:
The three Homelink buttons under the left side of the rear view mirror.



Grand Champion:
The completely invisible Heated Steering Wheel button! I totally forgot I even had it. Finally remembered today that I had not tested it yet and tracked the button down on the left side of the steering wheel, under the steering wheel adjustment arm.

 

WHAT?? NO. Must go look!

 

To be fair, I was five pages shy of that part in the manual. But, still, I did not know about it!

 

The homelink programming instructions in the manual are incorrect. I had to resort to a youtube video to find the correct steps. The manual mentions a green light, but the light is yellow! And it is unclear (reading the manual) about whether you are supposed to "press and release" or "press and hold" the button at certain points. But youtube fixed me up. Works well now.

 

My LED never turned green at any point. The 2022 manual is wrong on several counts (page 200):
(1) In step 2 it says to press and hold the two buttons until it flashes green rapidly to erase previous programming. It flashed orange rapidly for me, so I thought I was doing something wrong.
(2) In step 3 it says to "press" the homelink button you are going to program and it will flash orange slowly. It actually requires a "press and hold" to get it to flash slowly for programming. (the step for pressing the transmitter button correctly says "press and hold")
(3) In step 6 (while you are pressing and holding both the homelink and transmitter buttons) it says the LED lights up green when programming is completed, and if it flashes "fast" programming is not complete. The actual result is the LED flashes orange fast when programming is successful, and there is no green indicator at all.

I watched the youtube video titled "Mini USA | Garage Door Opener", post date Aug 2, 2018, and those steps matched up to what I experienced. It's weird that this has changed!

 

Not a bad stoplight shot of the new widget screens - allows you to see three active apps at once. And you can still touch an app or click the wheel to bring one of them up full screen. Just ignore the 2.5 efficiency - I had only driven 1 mile! Finished that trip at 4.2 mi/kwh.

I think it's a good software design. What do you think?

The touch button panel below the screen I have not yet played with much. But the entire panel around the power button appears to be one giant button which clicks when pressed in, with touch sensitive spots highlighted with the logos. If that makes any sense. I'll provide more detail later. My day-to-day use of the car does not really involve that panel much at all, since I use CarPlay and control music with the steering wheel buttons and the control wheel by the shifter. EDIT: And I use voice commands for navigation almost exclusively.

I find myself using the control wheel more than touching the screen, and it also keeps fingerprints away. (I think @Lainey also said she uses the control wheel more than the touch screen in her 2021)

 

I couldn't remember "iDrive" when I was typing that post! I have never had it before, but I love it! Very user friendly.

 

It's a thing of beauty.