I thought the sunroof had a shade pull on it...

 

love the 6th gear!!

 

Sunroofs come with rollup shades that are sort of like very heavy window screen and only block about half the light.

I am in South Florida and it provides plenty of shade for me, but others complain that it does not block all the light.


I much prefer to see some sky, but if it bothered me,

I could carefully mask around them and then spray with a vinyl coating of whatever color I wanted,
could use anthracite coal miner dark, but light blue would be cooler.

 

Thx for explaining!

 

I don't have my MINI yet.. what 'plastic door pulls'? Can you link what you replaced them with?

Thanks

 

What I dislike about my 2007 Mini Cooper S:

1. FWD
2. Pizza-dish speedo - worthless and gimmicky
3. Lack of temp and oil gauge
4. Frameless door glass
5. Slow power windows
6. HVAC sucks - totally powerless
7. Cheap interior fit and finish
8. Sport button will not default to on
9. Exhaust sticks out too far, easy to scuff pants or burn yourself
10. Doors lack detents, will not stay open
11. Plastic door handles in the interior
12. Paint coming off HVAC controls after only 17 months
13. RFTs
14. Lack of dealers - there isn't one in San Diego and that's super annoying for a city this size
15. CEL comes on once a month for a few days
16. No rain gutters on sides of car - if you crack open windows after a rainy day, interior gets sopped.
17. Short ratio on 6th gear that has engine turning high RPMs at highway speeds
18. Silly hoops surrounding toggles

It's a fun car to drive but it's got a fair number of design issues. Many of these problems could be fixed pretty easily by Mini with some decent R&D.

 

First keep in mind that I absolutely love driving Scrappy along with the great handling

But I really do dislike:

1. The way they enlarged the speedometer and then added some radio functions to it to make it impossible to upgrade the radio like the 1st generation.

2. The TPMS won't tell you which tire is actually low like available on some other cars and it just lights up and you have to guess and check each tire.

3. RFT's

4. Poor reliability so far.

 

I like the car a lot. But...

Vague shift linkage.
12V outlet turns off when ignition is off.
I can't use the right cupholder -- I bash my fingers shifting into 5th.
Bad iPod interface - need to add selector acceleration.
Nominal incompatablity of 16s and 17s with tire chains.
Flimsy gutters -- I want to use Yakima racks, not factory.
No oil pressure and temp gauges.
Seatbelt chime time/logic -- must wear a seatbelt in a ferry line.
Interior storage space is quite limited (not sure how to fix this).

 

Only had it a short time, but

- 6th gear could be taller for highway (ticks along around 3200 rpm at 80mph)
- Cups in the cup holders block the window switches
- Brake dust
- Can't replace the stereo

 

1. Window switches that don't have a detent for full auto and just a little.
2. Cup holders that block the window switches with anything 12 oz or larger.
3. Gen 1-ish climate control *****, or something other than vertical wheels.
4. The lack of a big R in the tach to indicate to my wife that she is in fact in Reverse
5. Taller 6th gear ratio.
6. A USB interface that is not so picky about what songs it will play. Why do you hate Skynyrd so much MINI!!!
7. Frameless windows - begs for air and water leaks
8. Some reasonably priced OEM wheels. Why are MINI wheels priced about 3x similar aftermarket options.
9. No run-flat tires
10. Installation of stage 1 kit and color-coordinated (HC) interior items from the factory. If you have to install them initially, why can't you just put them on once at the factory.

I love my car very much, but my Clubman is definitely the epitome of form over function and cuteness for the sake of cuteness. If there is a happy middle ground, this isn't it. However, I drive it every chance I get!!!

 

Yes... I got mine a week early, and it is a Form Over Function vehicle.

I hate the layout of the controls... they are terrible, and don't try to argue that they are not. In any other vehicle, this control scheme would be damned to hell.

The navigation (the actual navigation part of the system) is HORRIBLE. If I decide to take a scenic route, it will not recalculate my route until about fifteen reminders of "Take a legal U-Turn." I haven't read the manual quite yet, and I hope there is a feature for this, but it would be nice if it did this automatically.

Also, the way the road names all read horizontal, regardless if the road goes North or East, is irritating. It makes it almost impossible to tell which road is which in a crowded city. Yeck.

Besides that, this car is amazing! I love it, and the aluminum interior is very solid. I was afraid of tinny sounding metal, but it is, in fact, very solid.

GO MINI!

 

The controls are lambasted in just about every review I've read. Part of it is just that they're non-traditional, so you find yourself reaching for the wrong thing. You get adjusted to them with time.

Mostly.

 

Before I bought the car the speedo was the deal breaker but now that I own one it does not bother me.

1. Weak HVAC
2. Weak stereo
3. Key Fob has a mind of its own
4. I have a few annoying rattles and under 1000 miles?


That being said I got 37mpg (calculated) on my first tank and am reading 41mpg on my second tank (MCSm). I am driving it moderately not super easy. I love the go kart handling I havent found a corner that I cant take fast.

 

I dislike that I burn my fingers on the toggle switch just to open the sunroof on a hot day

 

Yes, I too am fine w/ the controls, although I still have to get out the manual if I want to change any of the settings....in this case I admit it is more of an operator problem.

I have been struggling to figure out when the boot is locked or unlocked. Half the time I get out of the car thinking I unlocked everything and the boot is still locked. I think I'm getting this one figured out, though.

That said I totally love the car...every bit. Even the quirks are a blast!! I have been very pleased with the build, design, and mechanicals of the 2nd gen Cooper!!

 

i dis like how they re did the switch for the door lock you, can unlock the car by pushing down or up it sucks when you go to pick up a friend and you have to lock it to unlock it and i know if i just used the auto door lock i wouldnt have that problem but people tend to try and rip the door pulls off be cause they are to stupid to let go and pull again

 

Yes, I agree.

You get used to the controls. Mostly. I didn't really crab about the control layout in my response even though they took some getting used to.

Actually, the center-mounted window, lock, etc. are very BMW-esque so they seemed pretty natural to me. The turn signal is disconcerting until you get used to it. Now I like it. I think the stereo controls cry out for a MFSW. The cupholders are just stuck where they don't fit. I'm fine with the stereo until it fails, but then I'll worry about the cost to replace.

I like this thread.

 

R53 - 05

center console opens half the time i put my arm on it. dealer replaced it and does the same thing.

when you swing the door open, it won't hold the catch at full open; always swings back to catch your leg about halfway out.

sunroof is extremely noisy when opened so i don't use it much. haven't seen much on the deflectors i had on older cars. anybody know where to get them and do they work?

MCSa tranny shifts too slow; needs improved programming for harder shifts.

still love the car, however.

 

I can't make peace with the window toggle, it and I just fight all the time. I want the window down like 1.5" but it insists to either auto all the way down or it will go to 3". I want one and half!

Cupholders, ick. They hold all my cups too tight and can't reach switches with cups in the way.

Now that I've listened to the radio for 1200mi worth, I don't like it. Its okay, I mean better than just road noise, but I can't get the bass set right, or the front/rear distribution, and then if by chance I get it right (enough) for a few songs, then its too bassy or something for the next. Just not making me happy.

I'm not auto-technically inclined, but its very jumpy from a dead stop. I can't ever make her drive smooth from a stop. Its a little embarrassing.

Seatbelt chime is too loud, too long. I'm an adult I can make my own decision about riding around the block without my belt, I don't need a car nagging me.

And finally, my biggest complaint is that I don't have enough time in the day to drive! I love driving this little car.

Lori

 

I LOVE Scooper but I wish a couple of things were different:

1) You could open the boot from the inside somehow
2) You could open the boot from the outside with the seats down (I can't do this for some reason, it wont work!)
3) The Sport button would just stay on dang it!
4) The cup holder is too small like lots of you said....i got the largest size drink at Starbucks (i forget what its called..grande or venti or something like that) and it squeezed the cup pretty tight, I was afraid it would break the cup and make a mess.

5) How by pressing and holding down unlock on the key fob your sunroof opens, but you cant press and hold down lock to close the sunroof! What's the point of doing one if you can't do the other?

 

1) I too can already say I despise the auto-up/down windows after only a month of ownership... order is backwards. A flick to go auto down and press & hold to go manual makes it impossible to crack the window a fraction of an inch from full closed. ...backwards! My 10yr old C43 operates as push the button 1/2 way for manual up/down ; press all the way through a slight indent and it's auto-up/down; that's the right way.

2) No keypad on the navi-unit to allow me to dial quickly in the car; need to futz w/the joystick to dial.

3) No series of major function buttons to quickly jump to functions directly as the older MB COMAND systems have...
have to do a finger tap dance between pressing the function button a few times, then finger dance steps pressing a toggle up or down or to the right or left and sometimes I have to spin it. That whole sometimes I toggle other times I spin... annoying. My wife will never get it. I am an unabashed techno-geek, yet I don't think I'll enjoy "dealing with it" in the years to come.

4) My '09 Factory JCW often called the "Stage 2 tune" didn't come w/the "JCW Stage 1 Intake"...[!] That's right; it's only got the stock R56S airbox! Don't get me started; you can read a thread I started in the '09 JCW forum if you'd like. (tho please forgive/ignore the rant I wish I didn't post in retrospect.)

5) I can't open my hatch from the inside of the car? What the...?

Very happy I bought it; I have 4 vehicles and every time I take another car out it's only after an internal debate as to why I'm not driving my Lil'Buddy!

 

1) I use the button on the fob to open boot from inside the car. If you also want your engine running while you are doing it,
you can push the Brake (or Clutch) Pedal and restart engine after ejecting key fob.
2) My boot opens w/seats up/down with fob or button above license plate.
(Outside button is 'locked' until Car {not just doors} is unlocked by fob or toggle.)
3) There is a fairly simple looking mod over on electrical board to do this for you.
4) Carefully slip out the inner retainer ring and rubber ring w/tabs (I moved them to the rear cup holder to keep ashtray/coin holder snug)
and this will give a nice holder for large mugs or drinks.
5) I also wish that the fob 'lock' would 'close' as well, but slide the metal key out of the fob and it will do just that from key slot in door.

 

Things I hate about my mini:
-Mini sales representative. (He screwed up the cars interior)
-Why doesn't MINI EUROPE have the sport button as an option on MCS (missed the check box)

 

Yeah, like Zooki said dashboard needs to lose "legacy" look and actually become as good as what you get in even a bottom of the line Kia.

 

Geez... why did you buy it then? 18 complaints would keep me from spending $25K