My wife called and had got off work only to find her new Cooper S locked in park.Had her try all the normal cures to release but to no avail.Drove over to find nothing I could do to get it out of park.Rocking back and forth,tapping the brake repeatedly ,turning it off and on and wiggling the shifter.Stuck in park on flat level ground 3ft from the curb.Called Mini roadside the lady on the phone was rude and abrupt.She stated we should call the dealer $150 miles away and offered their phone number.We called and they had closed 10 mins earlier.Call Mini Roadside back and the rude lady answered ,she gave us two choices
1.Wait with the car (she stated 3-4 Hours due to rain and weather).
2.Leave my wife's new pride and joy in the parking lot overnight(not a good area to leave a car overnight)
When asked if there was anything else to be done her response was "I cant control the weather,will that be all sir!).
My wife thumbed through the owners manual and found procedure for emergency park release(Strange that the rude lady at Mini Roadside Service was unaware of this?).Remove auto trans shift boot and push yellow emergency button and wahla! The transmission banged into park when gear selection for reverse was made the banged into drive as I pulled up to my wife to let her drive it home I shifted it into park to allow her to get in and STUCK IN DRIVE AGAIN!Ok now I remove the shifter boot again and push the yellow emergency button,pull the parking brake to hold the car while my wife gets in to drive home.Upon arrival into the garage and the pungent smell of burning fluid permeates the air,but no visible signs of leaking fluid and my wife state that on the drive home the car shifted erraticly and would only automatically shift to 4th no 5th or 6th gear Hmmm so we retire to bed.
Next morning I start the car and the transmission is working perfectly!Test drive shifts fine,goes in and out of park but I notice the indicator for start stop no longer lights with the slash thru it when start stop in disengaged,strange.
Call Mini Roadside and a very pleasant lady answers and I tell her the story and she states that she would dispatch a truck to pikup the Mini and transport to the purchasing dealer Baron Mini in Shawnee Mission KS 150 miles away.
Baron Mini phones and are very professional and courteous explaning that it being the Fri it would be Mon before someone could evaluate the problem and that they had the same thing happen to a person the same day in KS.
Monday the call came in stating that the dealership had contacted Mini service support and they issued a immediate response that new software to address this issue was to be available in October!Nothing else could be done until then and that the technician had looked over the car and could not find a problem at this time!
They are very nice and state they will take a closer look after I explain my mechanical background with troubleshooting Lamborghini's,Ferrari's,Porsche's and various other automobiles for nearly 40 years and that my wife having been married to me for nearly 30 years was fairly automobile savvy herself.
Tuesday I get the call still no problem found and October may yield a software update from Mini.They will arrange to bring the car home until then.

So the story will continue........................................Gr eat!!!!!
So If it rains and your stuck in park with your paddleshift Cooper S

PUSH THE YELLOW EMERGENCY BUTTON AND WAIT FOR OCTOBER TO COME

 

Wow. The more I read about Adventures In AutoMiniLand the happier I am that ours is coming with a manual.

I think all these issues (e.g. start/stop, unexpected stalling, no-shutdown, unplanned starting, etc.) merit an hour in a large empty parking lot playing around with "unusual conditions" to learn how to deal with the quirks.

 

In all the threads I've read since 2007 that's the first Stuck In Park one I've seen. And the first to mention the yellow emergency button too (obviously). Software glitch, really? Also the Pops Out of First Gear thread was a first too.

 

There is a service bulletin for this (located in another thread). Your MINI dealer should be aware of it, however the software update is not yet available but there is a temporary fix if it happens again.

 

This is happened to me too! I thought I was going mad. Couldn't get it to budge. I was running late for work so left the car and drove my other one. During the day I rang MINI service and they said they will go through some fixes over the phone with me when I get home. In the afternoon however, it moved effortlessly out of park. It hasn't done it since.

 

Here's the other thread
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-on-a-tow.html

And the instructions