Tried searching this a bit but it seems like most door handle issues are with the interior, or with the effort it takes.

I have a brand-new-to-me 2004 Cooper S. I picked it up yesterday, drove it around for about 50 miles, got in an out of it a bunch and everything went well.

Went to get in it this morning (it did drop below freezing for what it's worth) and couldn't. The power locks work to lock, but not unlock, so I went up to it with the key, unlocked it, and pressed the handle. It got stuck pressed in, and the door wouldn't pull open. The passenger side was locked, so I crawled through the hatch and tried the interior door handle, and even gave the door a good kick from the inside, and it didn't open. Finally just left it because I was late for work.

Of course I won't be back until this afternoon to try anything, but would appreciate suggestions.

I'm coming from the world of Jeeps where you can fix anything with a torx wrench and some hose clamps. The first words out of everyone's mouth when they saw the Mini was "Have fun fixing that!!" and while I know they're more expensive, I wasn't expecting something to break on the first day! Help?

 

Did you try re-locking and unlocking, both with the key in the door and with the unlock toggle switch below the dash? My wife's 2004 sometimes needs to be relocked and unlocked with the toggle switch in order to exit.

 

I did try it with the key in the door, just to see if I could get it to "pop out" when the door was re-locked. No go with that.

Once I shimmied through the hatch I also tried pulling the lock "tab" thing up and then locking it, and trying the interior door handle, but no go with that either.

Stupid me didn't even think to try the toggle switch, will try that when I get home.