Tips, Tricks and Secrets?

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1nickatnite1

Member
Hey I'm a new owner and I tried searching to see if this topic was already posted but didn't see anything.

What are some surprising things you learned about your car that you can share with a new owner? It can be either some surprising buried setting, a creative way to use an existing feature or anything that comes to mind. TIA!
 
1nickatnite1 said:
Hey I'm a new owner and I tried searching to see if this topic was already posted but didn't see anything.

What are some surprising things you learned about your car that you can share with a new owner? It can be either some surprising buried setting, a creative way to use an existing feature or anything that comes to mind. TIA!
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Welcome to the forum!

Two things that my MA never mentioned which I find very useful:

Short press on the steering wheel mounted voice activation summons up MINI, long press for Siri,;)

Little switch behind the left side of the dash activates the clock (useful in the dark when in the ferry line-up ).
 
Recent thoughts in year 3 of ownership.

High regen is nice for certain situations like general daily driving, running errands, stop and go, while low regen is great in canyons or for areas with more open road.

It’s nice to spend time driving in Green / Mid / Sport modes. Basic as it is, the throttle differences change the feel of the power delivery in a way that my foot alone doesn’t seem to. Sometimes I want a traditional ICE power build, sometimes I like the instant shove. My passengers appreciate green + low regen, particularly because I am so used to driving the car hard when I’m the solo occupant.

Tires change the driving feel of the car considerably.

The onboard nav system is excellent. I have been using this over Google Maps recently. Voice commands are ultra quick and I love the ability to zoom in and out with the rotary dial. Also it displays the name of the current road.

USB for music starts right away. I tend to have middling luck with CarPlay even with new phones and updated software. It’s satisfying to just hop in and have music play instantly. CarPlay is always a button press away.

Not so recent thought: Bimmercode is amazing for tweaking (and unlocking) certain settings. Plenty of great threads on this.
 
Rogwp said:
Short press on the steering wheel mounted voice activation summons up MINI, long press for Siri,;)
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True, but if you are running a live instance of CarPlay, you don’t even need to push the button summon Siri. Just say, “Hey, Siri” as usual. :cool:
 
Two little stupidities: if you are going from forward to reverse or reverse to forward, you do not need to push the side button; and if you buckle up before getting underway, just put it in gear, and like most current cars with electric parking brakes, it will automatically release the parking brake when you hit the go pedal.
 
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At the end of the left steering wheel stalk there are 2 little buttons. I think hitting the top buttons enables/disables auto hi-beams. The lower button toggles through multiple visual settings on the drivers display (battery %, miles/kWh, etc).
 
amtrucker22 said:
The lower button toggles through multiple visual settings on the drivers display (battery %, miles/kWh, etc).
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If you can actually see it through the spokes of the steering wheel, you’ll notice it says “BC” on it. BC stands for “Bordcomputer,” which is German for “onboard computer” — an archaic term now that every car built is basically a rolling computer.
 
Does anyone know of any straps, or has anyone made straps that hook into the seat back anchor points to help lifting the seat backs after unloading cargo?
 
SameGuy said:
Two little stupidities: if you are going from forward to reverse or reverse to forward, you do not need to push the side button; and if you buckle up before getting underway, just put it in gear, and like most current cars with electric parking brakes, it will automatically release the parking brake when you hit the go pedal.
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love the second one. this is my first car with an electric parking brake so love knowing about this.
 
Placing the car in park turns off the EV noise if you are sitting in a drive thru line and get tired of hearing it.

The trunk floor can be raised and lowered. The Mini can haul a surprisingly large amount of stuff. My rule of thumb generally is if it fits in a Costco cart, it usually will fit in the Mini.

Turning the car off automatically puts it in park.
 
Quiet Mini said:
Placing the car in park turns off the EV noise if you are sitting in a drive thru line and get tired of hearing it.
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I used BimmerCode to add a pedestrian sounds toggle to the My MINI displays, and then activated hot button #6 on it, so I can toggle the sounds on and off easily when I pull up to the border post window — I do not do drive-thru in my new car! — or when I back into my garage late at night.
 
SameGuy said:
Does anyone know of any straps, or has anyone made straps that hook into the seat back anchor points to help lifting the seat backs after unloading cargo?
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I use these nylon loop straps on my Land Rover defender and they work great.
 

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SameGuy said:
I used BimmerCode to add a pedestrian sounds toggle to the My MINI displays, and then activated hot button #6 on it, so I can toggle the sounds on and off easily when I pull up to the border post window — I do not do drive-thru in my new car! — or when I back into my garage late at night.
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I did that too for when I was in a parade. Of course I just had a software update done and it's gone, so will re-add later (it's cold at the moment)
 
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