[Berty]

Hi

Found this link to spy shots of the interior of the new LCI 2 mini. Looks like its getting an electronic parking brake & new steering wheel

2021 Mini Hatch facelift spied inside, debut expected January 24 | CarAdvice

The interior of the facelifted 2021 Mini Hatch has been caught with little disguise, ahead of its rumoured unveiling later this month. Images posted to German fan forum Mini-F56-Forum.de show the upd ...

www.caradvice.com.au

 

[pilotwoo]

Shame about the electronic parking brake - if true. I hope the steering wheel buttons are not touch sensitive with haptic feedback, they are awful. Physical buttons are much better.

 

[Berty]

Shame about the electronic parking brake - if true. I hope the steering wheel buttons are not touch sensitive with haptic feedback, they are awful. Physical buttons are much better.

No more handbrake turns😂😂😂

 

[JB17]

The controls on the new A Class are haptic and a hazard to use! They are just plain awkward.

 

[MINIkiter]

Losing the LED light ring around the media screen too it looks like. I think I heard that previously too. Shame if so. Although a 'gimmick' to a degree, it was unique and characterful.

 

[Snufkin]

So apart from a heated steering wheel, which is a good thing, everything else is worse. A great shame as I think the current, well 2020 model, interior is about right on the balance of quirky, characterful and useful. I test drove an electric Mini and one thing I thought looked tacky was the new oblong semi digital display; it looked like a cheap add on.

When my sister first saw the inside of my Cooper she was really impressed and she is not usually complementary about cars and judges them by their utility. She had just bought a new Seat Ibiza which is a nice functional car but the interior is so bland as to be sleep inducing.

 

[jeremybingham]

We have the Cooper SE- initially expected to think the same about the digital dash but it is superb-speed exactly where you want it sat;nav directions across the base without losing other stuff, speedo ring turns red in sport mode-crisp and clear. Happy.

 

[Snufkin]

I am glad its functionality is greater than its appearance. Forty minutes in an Electric Mini didn’t give me enough time to explore what the new display is capable of.

 

[MarkYorks]

I’m currently awaiting a new price list for the Countryman. Dealer says that the Countryman Cooper Classic has gone up by £300. He confirmed the hatch now has the digital display.

 

[anonemouse70]

I hope the steering wheel buttons are not touch sensitive with haptic feedback

Bad news it says...
"capacitive-touch buttons for the steering wheel and infotainment system controls (replacing physical, push-button switches)"

 

[pilotwoo]

Its just needless tinkering, and by doing so they make their product worse. Like the touchscreen in my LCI - why? - the idrive controller is better. It is more accurate when on the move and I don't end up with fingerprints on the screen.

I love technology, but we are getting to the stage where a car's technology is more important than the driving. It is accelerating built in obsolescence. Will people buy a five year old car that has a version of Apple CarPlay that doesn't work with the iPhone 18? Not to mention, people concentrating on messaging and playlists rather than driving.

I think my next car may be an R53. A cracking drive and a radio.

Hmmmph.

 

[navwizard]

It might still have the led rimy on the infotainment system. I noticed when it's off it isn't as easy to see on the new glossy flush surround.

empo on this site has it I think.

dan

 

[MINIkiter]

I think my next car may be an R53. A cracking drive and a radio.

Hmmmph.

Tape deck! I want an auto reverse radio cassette player with a Dire Straits album in it. Swinging under the passenger shelf for your girl to bang her knees on! Ah the memories!



(NOT my car - random stolen image off ebay for illustration only... although my first car was a similar Mini... probably more similar than I'd like to remember!)

 

[anonemouse70]

the idrive controller is better. It is more accurate when on the move and I don't end up with fingerprints on the screen

I agree, no need to have to stretch over to the screen when the control is right next to where your hand would be for gear changes anyway.

Just because some interface designers have decided, for cost or other reasons, to remove as many physical controls as possible doesn't mean you should. Just wait until the next generation of car interior designers come along and replace the steering wheel with an XBox or Playstation controller, 'cause isn't that what everyone grew up with?

 

[ventmore]

I've only used a couple of touchscreen stereos and found the experience very frustrating. Trying to hit the correct icon whilst driving is akin to refuelling a jet mid-air.

 

[Snufkin]

The first domestic item I had with touch controls was a turntable made by Strathearn back in the late 70’s. If my hands were anything but clammy the controls didn’t work for me and I would regularly have to lick my finger to get the thing to work. Apart from that it was a good turntable, well interesting anyway. That experience has stayed with me and I have always been less than enthusiastic about things that don’t have proper buttons.

 

[anonemouse70]

The irony of capacitive touch devices is they can be temperature sensitive, the colder your fingers the less responsive they are. Your natural inclination when a button does not respond is to push harder, but this makes things worse, as less blood gets to your finger, the harder you push the colder finger and less responsive the button becomes.

The other thing is each individual conducts different amounts of electricity at their finger tips and so the response everyone gets is different.

 

[ventmore]

Touch controls definitely have their place, but that place is on things that are unlikely to be touched accidentally and that don't need to be operated by feel.

 

[LazyLancer]

I hope the steering wheel buttons are not touch sensitive with haptic feedback, they are awful. Physical buttons are much better.

I have a W205 C-class sedan with two miniscule touch panels (so to say) that can be pushed and swiped to control the dashboard and media screen ... and it's already not very comfortable to use, even though swiping is pretty intuitive and you have to physically push the button.

If MINI is going to map several "touch here to do X" functions to each touch panel like VW did on the new Golf, that will be a disaster.

 

[MiniM]

I've seen the car today, in a closed room at a special event in Bornem (the Belgian Headquarters/test center of BMW & Mini).

The picture of the grey dutch car we've seen here (rooftop grey), is the real deal (Cooper S and E). The other new color is a flashy yellow. I think it's the same yellow as the one on the mirrors of the Cooper SE. There was a very nice blue

The vents on both side of the center console are now integrated in the trims. The center console and the GPS are bigger than before and the light hallow around it is of a new style, very nice ! I've seen some alloy cross scratched trims and a light strip under the door trims. I couldn't sit in the car because of covid, so details will stay of till the presentation januari the 27th.

I liked it that much, I went to the dealer for a quote as soon as I left the building. The way of ordering the car has changed: a lot of packs and less stand alone options (see Mini electric, but larger choice of packs). This is, in my opinion, a bad decision.
The handbrake is electric and a heated steering wheel is available.