Last week we gave you a sneak peek at MINI’s new driver assistance technology that will be found in the F56. Today we want to focus on one piece of technology that was displayed in photos but not talked about in that official release.
MINI has moved the speedometer from its previous, controversial position at the center of the dash and placed behind the steering wheel as expected. However, in its place, MINI designers have kept that center location as key focal point of the interior by replaced the speedo with something much easier to live with. While the “Light Ring” is nothing more than a handful of LEDs, MINI hopes it can successfully become one of those character details for which the MINI is so well known? A fine goal, but can a screen and a strip of lighting successfully replace that iconic MINI speedometer?
A few weeks ago MINI invited us to preview the F56 in person inside and out. We talked with the MINI design team and spent some quality time with the new car. What we came away with was an opinion that while the new MINI is an evolution on the outside, it’s a revolution on the inside. There are many parts that make up that interior revolution, but the Light Ring surprised us most of all — not just with its aesthetics, but with its usefulness.
The ideas is simple: reinterpret the center speedo as something that is now a center of information that is relevant to more than just one function. The idea is to use that prime location to give the driver more feedback than just current speed. In that vein, MINI has tied the Light Ring and its reactions to everything from starting the car to the drivetrain being switched to sport mode. The light also gives the driver real-time visual feedback in conjunction with parking distance control, collision and pedestrian warning systems. In essence, when the car needs your attention, the Light Ring will be one of the ways it gives you feedback.
The big question some of you may have is, can it be turned off? For the purists out there we’re happy to report that it can. In fact, you can switch off individual Light Ring reactions or the entire function altogether.
Look for more information on the Light Ring and other new MINI technologies in the lead up to the car’s November 18 debut. In the mean time, check out the MotoringFile F56 section for the world’s most complete look at the next generation MINI.
<p>I have three options after returning from 2 years in London</p>
<ol>
<li>Buy back my 09 MCS from my dad for 14k</li>
<li>Buy a 13/14 Clubman S</li>
<li>Wait for the F56 Clubman S</li>
</ol>
<p>Option 1 is the most “safe”. I know the car and it is cheap. Option 2 would give us a bit more room and my wife and I like the clubman style and its solid historical roots. Option 3 satisfyis the techno gadget guy inside, but not sure if i want to buy a 1st year new gen car. I had an 07 MCS, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as polished as the 09 or the current 13/14 cars.</p>
<p>Very conflicted.</p>
<p>Option 3. Financing is so cheap it’s practically free money. You’ll be the envy at all of the MINI rallies in the next year, and you’ll enjoy some new functions that can’t be added easily, if at all, to an older one. Don’t worry about polish. That’s what warranties are for. I wish I’d bought my Coupe the first month they were available. Although coupe’s have been available since late 2011, people gawk at my 2013 all the time. new cars are the shiznit IMO.</p>
<p>What if i also said we want to buy a house in 6 months. We have about 8K as a car fund right now and would “finance” the rest if i bought it from my dad or got a real loan for the 13/14 or F56.</p>
<p>Is the clubman part of the initial launch of the F56?</p>
<p>Well, a lot of that will be dependent on your income. I bought my 2013 JCW Coupe December 31 with 0.9% financing and the Motor-tober discount. Here we are 10 months later and my wife and I are buying a home. Buying the car does not seemed to have impacted our home purchase, or my credit, negatively at all. If I made half what I do, it would have been dicey. What I’m getting at is that just having a semi-recent car loan on your credit as you go into buying a home isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just don’t buy the car after you’ve gotten a pre-apprval letter and made an offer on a home. That would be a problem because you opened new debt that wasn’t considered for your home loan. It’s pretty much about your income-to-debt ratio.</p>
<p>I think the WhiteRoofRadio guys said that the R55 Clubman will live on as-is for about another year; it’s expected to move to the new platform in 2015.</p>
<p>That’s our expectation. All non-hardtop hatch variants will continue until their either updated or dropped.</p>
<p>So given that we need a car now, if i want a Clubman i should pick up a 2013 if i can find one or order a 2014.</p>
<p>Talk to your dealer for sure, but my understanding is that the Clubman, like the convertible and the twins, will be available as-is for 2014 (with minor updates and available colors, etc.).</p>
<p>There will not be an F body Clubman. Don’t wait. I have been given this information off the record.</p>
<p>Seeing all these interior pictures of the new F56. Got me wondering, will MINI put the axe on its in-dash CD player?</p>
<p>Yes. We talked about that awhile back. The only way to put a cd in this car is the optional cd changer.</p>
<p>Which raises a question for me. Why would you order the HK sound system without a CD player? – so presumably the two options are tied together? I love listening to music on my phone, but all smartphones and iPod type devices use compressed file formats, which means you don’t get CD quality sound. I’m not going to spend £500 / $800 (serious hi fi money) on a sound system that can’t play from CDs. It’s like putting racing slick tyres on a slow family hatch.</p>
<p>Which raises a question for me. Why would you order the HK sound system without a CD player? – so presumably the two options are tied together? I love listening to music on my phone, but all smartphones and iPod type devices use compressed file formats, which means you don’t get CD quality sound. I’m not going to spend £500 / $800 (serious hi fi money) on a sound system that can’t play from CDs. It’s like putting racing slick tyres on a slow family hatch.</p>
<p>Even CDs are compressed digital format, just not as high a compression as early MP3s. That said, the digital music you get these days is typically at CD or better quality.</p>
<p>Perhaps my racing slicks analogy is a step far, but I thought that CDs (excepting SACDs) were the highest quality (44khz, 16-bit) outside of a studio. I know you can select lossless settings, which is at about CD quality, but I would have thought must people wouldn’t know how. Anyway a bit off topic!</p>
<p>Well a big evolution is that we’re not ripping CDs anymore to make music portable. It’s being recorded that way and distributed as high-rate mp3s or AACs from the get go.</p>
<p>Nathaniel’s right on. If you’ve compressed your library at a low bit rate, drag out those CDs, recompress them at a very high bit rate. AAC will give you more bang for the buck but MP3 is more ubiquitous. A 320kbps MP3 is pretty damn good. If you’re a purist, get the CD changer option.</p>
<p>Many mobile devices can play WAV files too so if you want you could use that, but your device will need lots of storage space.</p>
<p>Soon iPod type devices will play FLAC…</p>
<p>For those who use FLAC. Most people have no idea what that is, and I don’t see any pending marketing campaigns that are going to change that.</p>
<p>No CD player as standard, no deal. No Mini for me in the future then.</p>
<p>Really? You would give up all that the MINI has to offer because of a missing built-in CD player? I think most can’t wait to see them go away. That makes you a rare consumer. Even more rare because few people consider a CD player a deal-breaker for the entire car purchase, and would buy a brand because it had a CD player.</p>
<p>Yup. I own a lot of CD’s. I don’t own a smart phone (don’t need one and phones are for making phone calls not listening to music). CD= no batteries needed, no replacing ipod when charges are use up, no running out of storage capacity on the mp3 player, no losing all digital music when computer/mp3 player/phone craps out.</p>
<p>I use my CD player in the car almost every day. As to your comment: :”give up all that the MINI has to offer” Mini is offering me less and less of what I want. Hey if you want to buy me a new Mini, I welcome it but as long as I have to spend my hard earned money on a Mini that’s no longer affordable and doesn’t have the things that I want, I’ll decided what’s important to me, not you Mr. Kurtster. Again you want to buy a Mini for me, great I won’t complain about no CD player.</p>
<p>Okay. Nothing personal, just pointing out that streaming music on smartphones is on the rise and quickly replacing the CD in cars that are targeted at people under 50.</p>
<p>Have fun with your CDs in whatever you end up with.</p>
<p>Buying a stranger a car seems a bit extreme, frankly.</p>
<p>A CD changer will be offered. Would that be so terrible?</p>
<p>If it’s a cost option – yes. Mini’s are getting to expensive already. If Mini makes the CD changer a no cost option, that would be ok. Just to get a basic Mini non S Mini with a color (outside of the 3 no cost options) and a couple of options it’s already almost $25,000 US. Now one would have to pay for a CD player too!</p>
<p>Think I’ll keep my R50 till the wheels fall off and then go with another brand. Mini’s are getting to Millennium GEN for me with idiotic things like “lite mood rings” around the center console.”</p>
<p>I’m not against Techs stuff, but as a line in a movie once noted, just because we can doesn’t mean we should. Things like being able to update facebook and get tweets, news feed, an similar – no and I ban. Also not everyone has a smartphone (or afford the plan) so we all don’t have sportify or Pandora or the other services.</p>
<p>Put sensible tech in the car, not stuff like mood lighting. My nickel’s worth of comment.</p>
<p>What is interesting about these official photographs is that the LED lighting is one continuous light around the circular infotainment system. In fact they look stuck on over the photographs. Spy shots however show the LED lighting is not continuous but made up of lights spaced at approximately 1cm intervals. I actually prefer the photos above, but I don’t think they are an accurate representation?
Getting excited now as I’ve put down a deposit on an F56. :-)</p>
<p>I feel the same way, these images look photoshopped… but why :(</p>
<p>Interior spy shots were of prototype cars so far. While some of the effects might be simulated to give a better sense of what they look like IRL, this is definitely the thing to reference at this point.</p>
<p>Those are two versions. The one you see above is the final. Thankfully.</p>
<p>That’s fantastic news, thank you. Despite previous concerns cited by many on here, with the right options I think that the interior promises to be an attractive place to be.</p>
<p>Why doesn’t the lighting go all the way around?</p>
<p>I assume it doesn’t go all the way around on the headlights because of the indicators but that looks equally odd.</p>
<p>re: “why doesn’t the lighting go all the way around?” A better question would have been why is such an idiotic thing needed in the first place? Kind of like the tech Mini has where it wants to talk to you (Mini connect or whatever it was called) or an “always open gauge”. Waste of time and costing me additional money.</p>
<p>Are you certain? In these photos, I can see the individual LEDs under a solid bar that looks to have been added to the photo afterwards. There is even a gap on both bottom ends of the bar. A solid bar would be better IMO, so that is good news if this is for real.</p>
<p>Question for those of you who are against the CD player not being standard. Did you react the same when cassette players in cars became obsolete?</p>
<p>Yes</p>
<p>Is there a mobile laser disc option?</p>
<p>That’s missing the point. CDs are clearly superior to cassettes in terms of audio quality. I love the digital music age and it is how I listen to most music. When I get an F56 I’ll probably stick with the standard sound system and it will feed off my phone. I’m sure that I will be very happy with it. However if I decide to get the HK system (if available) then I’d also want the option of a CD. But it’s fine as it sounds as though it will be offered.</p>
<p>I agree! Furthermore, the move from cassettes to CDs was progressive – it was a move from an inferior technology to a superior technology. There is nothing progressive about deleting the CD slot entirely. It is being done to pose as progress, as special, as technologically unique. “Hey look at me. I’m a MINI driver. I’m so cool I don’t even own CD’s. I can Facebook & Twitter ithrough my car. My car will play driving games with me & my MINI will even talk to other MINIs. I’ve heard that car blogs say that it drives good, too. Woops. Gotta’ go. My phone is ringing.”</p>
<p>Hey, will the BMW 1 series still offer an in-dash CD player? May be headed to the MINI dealership’s neighbor to check-out the other side of the fence.</p>
<p>I disagree. I had to pay for a CD player I will never use in my car. Yes, we live in a connected world now and it’s only going to get more connected in the near future. Connectivity goes way beyond MINI. GM, Ford, Scion, Hyundai, heck, nearly every company is progressing that way so it’s not about making the MINI cooler (although it might be fore some), it’s about making it more competitive and relevant in a connected world. Carrying CDs around when your entire music library is available to you in the palm of your hand, sometimes with the same fidelity as CDs (if you’re doing it right), makes little sense anymore. That said, I’m sure cars like the Lincoln Town Car will still come with a CD player for years to come, for those not interested connectivity.</p>
<p>And I would have had to pay for mood lighting (R56) and now a lit ring around center stack I don’t want. I have to agree with Nervous statement about being cool or connected/a techie. Just look around, the GenX and Millennium’s walk around with their face/eyes glued some type of device (smartphone) everywhere 24/7 and will stand in line for 1,000 hrs to get the latest tech device but complain when they have to stand in line for to catch a bus because the transit system is on strike. Check out you tube for a new person who does people behavior badly to see how unaware these folks are of their surrounding because they are addicted to tech devices.</p>
<p>Also why did you pick Lincoln Town Car? Is that a reference to people of age or someone over 50? If so, then it was those people over 50 that made it possible for you to enjoy today’s tech – i.e. Bill Gates, HP, IBM, etc, etc.</p>
<p>It seems every young generation think they are the pioneers – or smarter than those in the past, not so Mr. Kurtster.</p>
<p>Well I’m nearly 50 and I embrace new technology integration. You don’t have to, that’s fine, but you are among a population segment of car buyers that is shrinking. I never passed judgment or said there anything wrong with that, but yes, the Lincoln Town Car is targeted at people with interests and views similar to your own who are typically over 50. No shame in that. I have no idea how old you are but I know the demographic that is angry about new technology integration and would refuse to buy a car if it didn’t have a CD player isn’t 25.</p>
<p>I also know I’m unusually plugged-in for someone my age. Many of my older family members don’t get it, and that’s fine too. Just don’t be surprised when people think you’re over 50 when you start talking trash about new technologies and how younger generations owe older ones a debt of gratitude – they do, but I don’t feel that they need reminding of it in this context.</p>
<p>What’s most perplexing to me is that if, as you’ve said, MINI keeps offering you “less and less” of what you want, why are you here?</p>
<p>No. Why, because you didn’t need to purchase a device that required monthly payments and plug into the car to listen to music. No CD means you have to buy a MP3 player (and with Mini they like to support apple) or a smart phone (with means monthly data plan and costs of $90 + per month).</p>
<p>Change from 8-track to cassette to CD can’t be compared with change to having to have a device plugged in or connected to listen to a person’s favorite music. Your question is a “Apple to oranges” (no pun intended) comparison.</p>
<p>One advantage of solid state digital media over CDs is the lack of jumping when driving hard – error correction will cover the holes but it only makes a good guess. Other advantages are that considerably more music may be kept in the car; I can select it without ‘juggling the toaster’ (swapping CDs in a multi-player); and my originals stay safe at home, not warping in 80′ heat.
Nor does it necessitate an MP3 player or fancy phone. My current option is a £5 low-profile 8GB USB stick that I painted black so it can’t be seen. It just stays in the car except when I decide to update the content – not sure how many albums it would hold, but I’ve not had to be that selective, and I could easily put a selection of ‘themed’ sticks in the glove box if needed. It sounds fine on the HK system (indistinguishable from the same CD); the environment is compromised anyway by the cabin shape and road noise.</p>
<p>Will MINI finally support Android with the Connected system yet with the F56?</p>
<p>My guess is no.</p>
<p>Sure not, it’s been said many times why (i.e. too many devices causing too many incompatibilities)</p>
<p>Not just Android, but Windows Phone, which is steadily growing in market share. I use an iPhone 5 for work and a Samsung running WP8 personally and I prefer the latter, though I don’t want to start a debate on which is the best phone!</p>
<p>More and more I feel like MotiringFile is just the PR wing of MINI USA. It’s cool that they give MF exclusive access to new products, etc., but it would be nice if the accompanying articles weren’t so consistently fawning. I can’t remember the last MF exclusive that took a critical eye to whatever MINI had just revealed. That is, one that actually said, “we don’t get this.” Or, “we don’t like this new direction.”</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong… I understand that being critical could lead to fewer exclusives and previews. But I’d gladly trade that for articles that didn’t make me feel like I knew what the verdict would be before I even reached the end of the article.</p>
<p>Not sure how open and honest I can be about this. I saw it. Played with this tech. And was impressed . We’ll get ino details and specific critics when we can actually talk more freely.</p>
<p>I feel the same way, although I have just come to accept the PR in the articles.</p>
<p>I do find the MotoringFile team to be much more candid with their personal point of view in both the comments section and on White Roof Radio.</p>
<p>On the whole, this is my favourite place to get Mini news and I particularly value and enjoy reading the comments section.</p>
<p>This comes up once in a while and I hesitate to address it, only because it’s the internet and nobody ever believes you when you try to defend your position, but you don’t seem to actually be trolling, so here’s some quick perspective.</p>
<p>We don’t work for MINI. More details <a>here</a>.</p>
<p>Beyond that, I want to directly address this idea that we earn access to inside information because MINI assumes we’ll like it and won’t be critical of it. That just isn’t true. It doesn’t work that way. Part of that lies in the key difference between reporting the news and editorializing on it.</p>
<p>For example, the guys over at Jalopnik will lambast MINIs they haven’t even driven, yet get all the same press releases we do. They get invites to press events and they get their chance to ask questions at press conferences just like we do. Their “criticism” hasn’t cost them access. MINI still gives them cars to review, etc.</p>
<p>Besides that, we share every recall story or class-action lawsuit story that comes across our radar. That’s not good PR for MINI, so if it was our job to tow the party line, we’d <em>conveniently</em> neglect that information. But we don’t, because that’s critical info for the MINI enthusiast community. In fact, there have been items that got addressed at the factory because the issue got reported and escalated here on MotoringFile.</p>
<p>Sure, we get some inside stuff now and then, but that’s because of in-person relationships that we’ve built with the awesome people at MINI, and because in the end, they want us to share that stuff with <em>you</em>. It’s not because our editorial meets some minimum standard of compliance. it’s because you’re the audience they want to reach and MotoringFile is that venue.</p>
<p>I also want to talk about what criticism really is. No one at MotoringFile subscribes to the internet’s definition of criticism: that unless you shit all over something, you’re not being objective. We don’t write that way and we never will because that’s not criticism. That’s just sniping, complaining and link-baiting. It’s cynical, lazy writing and while it might be good for clicks, it doesn’t serve the community one bit.</p>
<p>We’re also very, very careful not to editorialize on anything we haven’t actually seen in person. That’s the internet’s other favorite form of “criticism” — tell you all the reasons something is bad without any actual experience with it. That’s also why we don’t jump on the bandwagon of complaint that comes through every time MINI even hints at something new.</p>
<p>We’re MINI fans, and we’ll never apologize for that, but I want to address this idea that we’re muzzled, because it just isn’t true.</p>
<p>Mr. Salzman, You noted that “idea that we earn access to inside information because MINI assumes we’ll like it and won’t be critical of it. That just isn’t true.”….. welllll …. maybe. I remember in 2004 or 2005 posters were upset with Mr. Bridger being too “nice” with some of his articles. Mr. Bridger responded by writing (paraphrasing) that Mini provides Motoringfile with info/sneek peeks that others don’t get and he doesn’t want to upset/mess up/etc, etc that relationship.</p>
<p>Check your archive files. I’m not implying that MoTF is under some type of control of Mini, but the critique that MoTF won’t be critical of Mini when it should be has been said many times in the last 10 years, and at times rightfully so.</p>
<p>Never said. Try again.</p>
<p>Disagree. Check you 2004/2005 post archives. I’ve been coming to this site since beginning of MoTF and I clearly remember people voicing their opinion on this subject and that some of your postings being to pro BMW/MiniCorp. In fact one of the posters was even blocked from this site as it was felt he was too critical of you. Your website, your choice, but some of us clearly remember.</p>
<p>Feel free to use the site search and link to any comments you find.</p>
<p>You claimed that I specifically said we are positive because we don’t want to rock the boat. That is completely not true. I’ve had many tense conversations with folks from MINI over the years because we don’t shy away from talking about faults with the cars. For instance we were the ones to bring the massive issue of rust under the plastic sills of the R50/52/53 to their attention. We then contined to press them to address it behind the scenes. You’re simply willing something to be that is not.</p>
<p>I think the major issue you seem to have is that we like MINIs. We like some more than others but we genuinely like the brand and the products (with some exceptions) that they produce.</p>
<p>I have no problem or issue on Motoringfile or you liking Mini’s. Isn’t that what MoTF is all about, – Minis. That is why I visit this site (and others too). I was just agreeing with another poster and noting that in the past others have commented that they felt that at times MoTF seems a bit “too” friendly” with opinions that favor BMW/Mini the company.</p>
<p>Yup MoTF did bring out the rust issue and other stuff too. Thanks. There were times when it seemed MoTF was “promoting” one particular Mini (yr, type, etc) over another. It’s fine to say that this model handles great vs the other type or this model has some nice up grades (standard) but where it crosses the line for me is when it becomes, “your best bet is to buy this option and getting without it wouldn’t be good” or along those lines.</p>
<p>Remember, while people who come here love Mini and would like to have certain options or config, the reality is many can’t afford it and are happy to have the basics.</p>
<p>Report, talk about Mini and all that is, just not “promoting” that this is the car, model, tech, etc everyone should or needs to get.</p>
<p>Thanks for the years of reporting on Mini. I do appreciated it. (just pleeeeease not more articles on Manual vs Auto – hahaha).</p>
<p>I’m not going to have an argument with you about something you “remember” Gabe saying a decade ago. All I can do is comment on the way business is done here at MF in the past several years that I’ve been involved.
MINI only ever makes one kind of editorial request of us, and that is timing on sensitive information such as new product launches (often referred to as a press embargo). They give us a bunch of info on something, but ask that we keep it under embargo until a certain date/time, but that’s it. We edit, elaborate on, and organize that information however we see fit and nobody but us has a say in what gets posted.
There have been other news outlets that have shared things under embargo and what generally happens is that MINI doesn’t share interesting things with them anymore. Nor should they if they can’t follow basic journalistic common courtesy. THAT’s how you get on MINI’s bad side editorially. I’d bet this is actually what you’re remembering Gabe talk about in the past — about sharing some piece of info he wasn’t yet at liberty to disclose.
As for what I can personally “recall” from Gabe in the past, I can think back to a swath of very critical comments of his regarding design details on the R56, and objecting to the very philosophy of the Countryman. I can also think back to all the times I’ve been critical of MINI’s marketing campaigns, the poor quality of the experience of driving the automatic transmissions and a hundred other things that I, like Gabe, simply called as I saw. I’m not interested in listing laundry, but I also don’t care if the number of things I like vs. the number if things I don’t like doesn’t meet the internet’s phony quota for “objectivity.”
Lastly, (and I mean it, I’m not going any further down this path), if we were really so afraid of negative things being said about MINI, we’d turn the comments off.</p>
<p>Thank you. I’ve been visiting and viewing this site since it’s beginnings and your comment has been expressed in the past by others. In fact in 2004 there were many that felt the same why.</p>
<p>I agree pmindemann. My last post mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps the comments section of an independent blog is the wrong place to mention reliability or service issues.</p>
<p>We don’t (and never have) remove comments unless they contain offensive words. Repost.</p>
<p>I get all the comments in my inbox and didn’t see it. Also wouldn’t have deleted it for that kind of content as that’s an important part of the community discussion. We don’t censor comments. We only delete personal attacks against specific people and overt trolling.
Your comment was likely a system error. Feel free to leave it again. You can search around on a myriad of posts and find reliability-related comments all over. We’re not afraid of that topic.</p>
<p>I feel a little bit sad that an engineering led company like BMW can move so swiftly into the future with regard to in car entertainment and connectivity but decides to launch a new model with the offer of an aging 6 speed automatic transmission when ZF used the Mini to test it’s new high tech transverse transmission. I expect this will be deleted when the PR department gets into the office on Monday morning.</p>
<p>The Light Ring is nothing more than a silly distraction in an age where driver distraction is a serious problem.</p>
<p>I agree. Let’s see what the industry (magazine) reviews say about the F56, specifically on things like the light ring, no CD, non mini connect/GPS center Stack, move of speedo, the 1/4 moon attachment to the Tach, the start key/button/insert toggle, etc. In the end, it will be the consumer that will dictate if Mini made the right decisions. They did change some thing in the mid-cycle of the R56 radio/speedo area because of consumer feedback.</p>
<p>Good to know. Thanks</p>
<p>This could be a cool concept for “drivers” out there if they would do stuff like display coolant temp, oil pressure, oil temp…etc. Of course, I will not cross my fingers since the MINI is becoming the cool car for soccer moms now.</p>
<p>Shane. I so agree. When my 2011 Cooper S dropped all it’s oil on the road the only warning I had was seeing the rainbows on a wet road whilst executing a three point turn. No warning lights on the dash to say “by the way, your engine has no oil”.</p>