Shifter, love it? hate it? don't care?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ericwc
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Automatic transmissions are typically in this order from all of the way forward to back.
Park
Reverse
Neutral
Drive
Low

The Mini is more like this:
Reverse
Neutral / Park
Drive

It is a little odd to start out in Neutral with the parking brake on but it also makes sense. Given that it is a shifter on the floor like an ICE car, it makes sense to have R pushing forward and D pulling back.

The button on the side is extremely intuitive and doesn't require any extra effort.

My only complaint with the shifter is the waste of space. We don't need that much space in an electric car dedicated to changing drive modes. The i3 location is much better but the controls for D or R are backwards.
 
BTW, I think there are some people that actually like the "natural" trackpad on Macs and don't uncheck that option. I find the trackpad working backwards on a Mac far more frustrating than using the Mini shifter. :)
 
Puppethead said:
Oh I take issue with that, Apple is "natural direction" and everyone else in the world is wrong! :):)
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LOL! I knew I would get a response from that!

After many years of Quake, Doom, etc and using the keyboard, up means up and down means down. :)
 
JonR said:
BTW, I think there are some people that actually like the "natural" trackpad on Macs and don't uncheck that option. I find the trackpad working backwards on a Mac far more frustrating than using the Mini shifter. :)
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Lol I was thinking that about this issue! The first thing I do to any Mac trackpad or Magic Mouse is uncheck the box to make it logical.
 
Remember to push off with your hand when you are climbing up a ladder, or push off the handrail while ascending the stairs.
 
tesrivmini said:
Sequential shifters in race cars are pull down for upshifting and push up for downshifting
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Seeing as I’ve never driven a race car with a crashbox SMG — but plenty of road cars with slapsticks, SMGs, DCTs, DSGs, etc. of which the majority shift up to upshift and down to downshift — this is still illogical to me. But again, nothing to which I won’t adapt quickly.
 
CruiseEV22 said:
Speaking of shifter, we just received this error message in our 2 week old Mini SE. Using the unlock button to shift into gear is not working. However, the mini has bypassed this process and I can shift into gear without the unlock button now. Anyone else experience this issue and have a fix? Trying to avoid a visit to the dealer.View attachment 17845
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I have the same message that started after 3 months of ownership. The dealership has ordered a gear selector switch 61319473659 and a gear selector box 61319473660. Mine actually won't shift into gear if I push the button (with a message that says I need to push the Unlock button) but will shift into gear if I don't. Since it knows I'm pushing the button, it seems like a software issue rather than a hardware issue. I wonder if it is something controllable with BimmerCode?
 
Every vehicle has its different little things. I have always bought Honda vehicles so they were the same. This is my first MINI and it was really different but I think it would be worse if the shifter was a button version in a place where anything can fall and move the gears that would be even more annoying. The shifter is not a big issue.
 
Ericwc said:
For the record the two hints about being able to go from reverse to drive with out pushing the button and turning the car off puts it in park as eased my hate and frustration. :)
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There are also some circumstances – though I haven’t figured them out yet – where you don’t have to release the parking brake, and just put it in drive and go, but it hasn’t always worked so I don’t know what causes it.
 
SameGuy said:
There are also some circumstances – though I haven’t figured them out yet – where you don’t have to release the parking brake, and just put it in drive and go, but it hasn’t always worked so I don’t know what causes it.
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I’ve observed this as well. It seems to happen on flat ground where the emergency brake is not really holding anything anyway.


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SameGuy said:
There are also some circumstances – though I haven’t figured them out yet – where you don’t have to release the parking brake, and just put it in drive and go, but it hasn’t always worked so I don’t know what causes it.
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If my SE sets the parking brake when I park on a slope, it always turns it off automatically when I select Drive or Reverse. I trust Park and never set the parking brake manually. Could it be that if you manually set the parking brake the SE doesn't release it automatically?
 
Really not sure. Of the dozen or so times I’ve purposely tried this, it worked maybe eight times, and squatted like an old-fashioned car four times while bonging a reminder on the cluster.
 
Even though I do think BMW MINI could’ve put a bit of effort into coming up with a new shifter module that escapes the ICE car paradigm, I guess it doesn’t bother me all that much because of the industrial vehicles I encounter on the daily, the majority of which have shifters just like this belt loader:
34EA30AD-792B-4BCE-B14A-30C6D429FDEB.webp
6556FE4E-B653-411A-931B-81C162D67F21.webp
 
Lol it’s a throttle, but the detents on the side of the slot don’t allow it to be used when the loader isn’t in Neutral. It’s to speed up the conveyor (or sometimes, like a manual throttle in a semi, to warm up the engine).

ETA: and yes, it’s backwards. We’re still investigating an incident that involved a similar loader “jumping” at an aircraft, causing serious damage.

DFF596EE-53E7-4FDF-A0EF-3E3B2C2DBB6E.webp
 
SameGuy said:
Lol it’s a throttle, but the detents on the side of the slot don’t allow it to be used when the loader isn’t in Neutral. It’s to speed up the conveyor (or sometimes, like a manual throttle in a semi, to warm up the engine).

ETA: and yes, it’s backwards. We’re still investigating an incident that involved a similar loader “jumping” at an aircraft, causing serious damage.

View attachment 17991
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Or when the catering truck slams into the fuselage… or door. Some of that GSE stuff is pretty old school as well
 
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