I purchased a used 2008 Mini Cooper S and it came with one keyfob. The car has comfort access which works with current fob.

Called local Mini dealership and they told me that it was $340 for the key and keyfob. Plus an hour ($150-200) to program it for comfort access.

I have read that you can only have 2 comfort access key fobs programmed to a car, but no limit on the Non CA fobs. Can I purchase a Non CA key fob and not have to go through the programming? The car has the slot for the keyfob so will it charge Non CA keyfobs since it has the rechargeable battery? This is my son's car so he doesn't really care about the CA part and I don't really want to pay $200 for it.

 

Just to answer my own question here to hopefully help others. I ordered the CA key fob from Mini. I took it home and tried to unlock mini. Did not work. I unlocked with the key, got into car and put the key in the dash slot. I started the car and then shut it off. Tried the unlock/lock again and it worked. I guess that the car needed to have the key in the slot on a start cycle to accept the key.

Summary,
Your CA key will work to unlock/lock and start your car without programming from Mini. Your comfort access will not work unless you get it programmed, but it will cost you $150-200.