MINI’s Updated Interior Revealed

Sections: 2011 LCI | R55 (Clubman) | R56 (Hatch) | R57 (Conv.) Jun 25th, 2010 38 Comments

Here it is folks, the revision everyone has been waiting to see. This is our first glimpse at the updated interior that will launch as part of the 2011 refresh. MINI hasn’t completely rethought the interface but they have tweaked it while also using high-grade matte black materials as touch points. The big change (and the one we don’t see here) is the totally redesigned navigation system. The new nav will be hard drive based, feature MINI Connect and will be much (much) faster.

We’ll have much much more early next week with the official details drop.

Image courtesy of our friends at Bigblogg

Written By: Gabe

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1264737071 Nathaniel Salzman

It’s amazing how a small touch like color takes it from looking so Fisher Price to looking pretty high end. I’d be curious to see the details of the UI changes on the actual controls.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000375640584 Melis Heerens

Color me impressed.
Hoover

I believe that is a checkered dash with a darker tone. I like the way this looks, although on first view, I thought the the black in the speedo was a little incongruous. I’m guessing that, with Nav, this looks even better. Overall, another nice change to look forward to. While one might be tempted to take advantage of the deals being offered right now…I just can’t see getting a Cooper S until this refresh is available.
bee1000

I’d really appreciate it if Mini would give up on the center speedo in the next major redesign.
Phil

woahhh…so it’s black “this and that” vs silver… it’s like second best to me. Like it or not, the original dash design was intended to be silver and standing out so changing it to black is just an afterthought, a marketing difference for the sake of change…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1286761775 Fredric Haberer

@Nathaniel — agreed. It looks classier.
vmmvmmm

Center speedo is heritage, I like the center speedo
DUDE

Yes center speedo MUST stay! And is that mph AND kpr I see in that speedo?????

FINALLY!!!!!!! MUCH BETTER THANK YOU MINI!!!!
bee1000

Heritage, schmeritage. If I ever take my MINI back in time to the mid-1960s and have to race in the Monte Carlo Rally I’m sure my time-traveling navigator will appreciate the center-mount speedo. In the meantime, center-mounted speedos are just as awful in MINIs as they are in Scions, Echos, Ions and anything else.

In fact, they’re even worse in MINIs! On other contemporary cars they put the stupid center speedo on top of the dash, so at least those cars still have the chance to have vents placed where they can be useful, unlike in my MINI where I have two vents for freezing/roasting my hands and 2 vents that don’t blow air anywhere near me.
Hoover

Listen, the center speedo is just too damn big–I think most would agree with that. But I like it in the middle, especially since there is a digital speed display option in the tach. The center speedo is not going anywhere, or reducing in size anytime soon. The changes shown here are evidence that MINI will respond to reasonable customer input to the extent that they can for a refresh. I imagine that anything more extensive would be too costly.
http://www.facebook.com/Bloodvaynedotcom Scott Miller

/Me likes alot! A little change can go a long way. Can’t wait to trade my clubbie in a few years down the road just for these minor updates that Mini has been doing…
Alan Smithee

Surprised by all of the praise. Am I missing something? They tried to disguise the completely misplaced volume knob by making the CD slot more prominent (just as people have abandoned CDs).

Sure, it is mostly black now instead of gray/black, but the same crappy ergonomics and overstyled switches remain. Nothing classy about it, IMO.
Jared

I hate to say it, but it appears to be the same ergonomic disaster that’s been tarted up a bit. Yes it’s prettier and not as cheap looking, but how does more knobs improve anything?

I’m holding out hope for the navi system, which currently in and of itself is a piece of work. Dumbing down the smartphone by putting it into a armrest cradle, and limiting what you can do on the built-in navi makes no sense to me.

I want a navi that will display my apps. The easiest way to do that is to integrate the cradle where the display is now. Give me a navi-like center mounted option for either android or iphone that can be pivoted between portrait or landscape. Run the speedo around the edge like the current navi. We already have good phones with decent nav and apps. It doesn’t make sense to drop $1.5-2k on a built-in unit anymore that limits what you can do on the phone. I know the forthcoming built-in nav has more integration, but if I can’t run anything but a few select mini-specific apps, I don’t think it’s living up to what it could be.

I want an completely integrated solution, not something like the Garmin cradle option nor putting the smartphone into a dumb spot. Is that too much to hope for?

I’m not normally this cranky. ;) But I was and am hoping for more of an improvement.
Versus

For a refresh I’m impressed. I’m a relative newcomer to the MINI game and do think that the R53 speedo was a bit more in the right direction. However, with this refresh I think the center stack has taken a big step forward, especially since they couldn’t completely redesign it at this point in the life cycle.
Bradley

WTF is the matter with you guys? lol, the whole point of a MINI is the center speedo and other quirky items like that. IF you don’t like that, you probably don’t like several of the other key elements that makes a MINI a MINI, so why even drive one? If your comparing it to a cheap Scion, maybe thats a more fitting choice for you.

It seems all anyone does it whine and complain about how their choice of car is far from perfect. Seriously its getting old!
Eddie

Not very fair to show a non-auto A/C to an auto A/C vent controls… I like both (as a current R55 owner ;-) )
Aurel

MINI, MINI … you are my first love, but you have been boring me to tears lately.

Moving the volume knob and integrating it into the cd player (who uses cd’s anymore) + changing the color to black? Really?!?!
hemisedan

Looks alot better this way. I can’t see it all that well, but it looks like the did something to the radio control too. Even if they didn’t, the dark looks so much better. As for those that are constantly complaining about the center speedometer, get real. It’s going to stay, even in the next generation of Mini. It’s a Mini thing, and while I would agree that there is a good probability that it grow smaller, it’s going to stay in the middle. If you don’t like the center speedometer, maybe you ought to consider a Corolla, or Mazda 2, or VW GTI or Polo GTI. Oh, by the way, get on the GTI form and see just how much they complain about it, too. No car is perfect. As for Mini, the center Speedo got it’s start with the 60′s Monte Carlo rides. And, as for centner Speedometers, my hotrod 32, well guess where that speedometer was stock? Right, in the center, although much, much smaller. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what Mini does, there will be those that will never be happy.
Gary (the other one)

Much better…I could live with it now.
Jerry

I have first gen nav….and I have never considered it slow.
David Williams

I don’t see anything to get excited about. It looks like all they really did was change the silver plastic to black plastic. Unfortunately they still have the same horrible climate and radio controls.

Unlike some I like the center speedo but I do wish they would go back to the size we had in the R50/53. I can’t say I look at the speedometer much anymore as I can tell my speed fairly accurately from the RPMs.

As for the nav, I could buy a good Garmin every year which would always give me the latest maps, GPS technology and traffic for about the cost of the MINI built in option. If MINI will send out free NAV updates every year and makes the connect feature work with other smartphones than the iphone, I would consider getting the NAV on my 3rd MINI.
ml

@Aurel

Myself, and I’m sure a lot of other people, still use CDs. I don’t think I will ever completely convert to digital. It’s just such a back-up nightmare. I like having a hard-copy THEN ripping MP3s from that, not the other way around.

The redesign is very welcome and might convince me to trade in my 2006 in 2012…
Cory

Really, jerry? My nav is completely unresponsive for the first minute that I’m in my car.
Minipuma

It looks like there’s going to be Green Lounge Leather seats available for the R56. (Should be interesting…)

I’m not completely in love with the new center stack. No doubt, the black knobbage looks sharper, taken out of context, but the speedo is a bit confused looking, and I’d also be a little concerned about finding my fingers around the A/C controls out of the corner of my eye with all that black down there. (Based on previous experience with VW’s similar all-black center consoles). Anyway the one shown above is a little gloomy-looking. Hopefully they aren’t doing away with the silver dash options. Looking forward to some better photos, too.
goat

Much better like we always said – black resin in essentially same molds fixes the “Fisher Price material quality and appearance”, at least for balance of this generation cars. The volume knob has now been physically integrated with the CD player so its location is more correctly linked to its function – also a good User Interface change. The interior is now no longer a showstopper for many who like the new cars but go running from the showroom when they see the interior.

Incidentally, several vendors (and MF sponsors) sell speedo overlays – a black one as on the MINI E would look ace and finish the refresh interior.

As for centre speedo – it is a vital design element and serves a useful purpose in assembly since all markets get the same dash with steering rack / glove box and fron seats being the only L / R swap needed to cover all countries. I agree that not all “heritage” design elements need to stay – and I too look forward to MINI taking the 3rd gen car in a more “futurist” direction – but the centre speedo and toggles are core design elements that make a MINI a MINI!
Jas

Looks great, but heard brushed alloy is gone from 2011.
http://www.bimmerfile.com Michael

Jared- While in theory your idea of using a phone as the Navi makes sense it really doesn’t for several reasons. The processing power is limited and the OS may not be adequate to run items for the vehicle (which is what iDrive is all about). Also, it opens a can or worms for liability- for example each model phone/cradle would need to be crash tested since it is within the passenger compartment, then certain apps would need to be blocked such as youtube b/c if drivers decide to watch a video while driving the manufacturer of the vehicle is liable because they did not prevent the individual from doing such a thing. There are too many apps to keep doing this for (not cost effective) so it would always be an uphill battle.- I can see it now: Teen crashes father’s BMW/MINI while play “Farm”, the BMW factory Nav/Phone system allows you to play games and drive!

Vehicle manufacturers can not do many things the aftermarket can, such as mounting things to the windshield, allowing items to be loose in the passenger cabin etc. do I think we will eventually see this: Yes but there will be a need for phones and cars to have a unique mode, such as “Car” mode that turns everything off BUT Nav/Phone functions and Apps, you click it in the mount and it automatically does this. We are not even close to that yet as phone in the EU now have finally decided to use standard plugs (US is not even there yet!).

Personally the screen on a phone is too small to be safe to use as a true navigation anyways. On higher end vehicles the optional HUD would also not be possible with a phone. While the integrated units are more expensive- they are far superior than other units from a usability standpoint. A lot of research has shown that touch screens require the user’s eyes to spend more time OFF the road ahead. There is a reason that most German brands do not use this method of selection and others are now following suit.

My wife has a Garmin hard mounted in place of an air vent in her car, she prefers my iDrive and next go around we will pony up the dough for it as our attempt at saving a few bucks was not worth it in the end.

-M
Minipuma

Jas – Big Blogg makes it sound like Brushed Alloy will be replaced with something called Striped Alloy.
nickminir56

German-ish black interior.
Jas

So it will be like the countryman:

http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/gallery/countryman_nyc/thumbs/thumbs_IMG_5902.jpg

http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/gallery/countryman_nyc/thumbs/thumbs_IMG_5903.jpg

http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/gallery/countryman_nyc/thumbs/thumbs_IMG_5913.jpg

http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/gallery/countryman_nyc/thumbs/thumbs_IMG_5914.jpg
Jas

Sorry about the pics: here are bigger ones:

http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/gallery/countryman_nyc/IMG_5902.jpg

http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/gallery/countryman_nyc/IMG_5903.jpg

http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/gallery/countryman_nyc/IMG_5913.jpg

http://www.motoringfile.com/wp-content/gallery/countryman_nyc/IMG_5914.jpg
Rgc0233

I don’t mind the center speedo location, but the size it has grown to is ridiculous!
http://www.lilcoopr.com lilcoopr

But, Rgc0233, the larger the speedo the SMALLER the MINI looks!!!! ;):P

On a more serious note, the interior refresh looks great and is a welcome addition to the MINI. Now how about a retrofit kit for those who have the 07-10 version of the centre stack? :)
Hor

Oh…..great….fun little car turns into gloom and doom black goth.

Joy.
Hemisedan

I’ve kind of wondered about having the dark gray upgraded plastic made available for all the 2nd Generation models. There appears to be some changes in the bottom of the speedometer, or it looks different from last years, around the radio. That would, or might cause problems.
rkw

While in theory your idea of using a phone as the Navi makes sense it really doesnâ€™t for several reasons.The processing power is limited

While there may be reasons for not choosing a phone, lack of processing power is not one of them. A phone such as an Evo or iPhone 4 has more processing power than any OEM Nav. Car manufacturers favor old, slow, simple and reliable electronics over higher performance, and they can do that because the computational requirements in an automobile are not very demanding at all when compared to other consumer electronics.
Nick

Now that’s what I’m talkin about…what a big improvement!
http://www.bimmerfile.com Michael

RKW- Hate to tell you but the new in car systems will blow away a phone- they have much more processing power- rip a CD to MP3, control all in car systems and rip, The new systems are M4 ARM chips with the same cycles as the A4 in the iPhone 4- oh and they can control multiple system inputs and converse with other system processors via fiber optics with a speed faster than anything a phone can do (Flex Ray). The ECU in the M3 has more power than the iPhone 4. I would agree with systems from a year or two ago but not now, and when BMW launches the new chip it is working on, there will be no competition along with it being smart voltage.

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