Please note the country of the person that posts messages ... key availability varies from country to country
In USA for the first year, like Canada today apparently, only one key had remote capability - the other was a "manual" one (note - if still has the RFID chip needed to enable the engine so some people might argue that it is a "remote", but not in the sense that most people think of).
For the second year, MINI USA switched (presumably due to complaints about keys from owners) and supplied two remote keys - but the price went up by the exact same amount of money that a second key would cost
Now with the '05s having two remote keys is perhaps frustrating - general opinion (which I can't verify because I don't have an '05) is that the new keys have no battery and are charged while in the ignition.
This means you need to keep switching between your two remote keys, so that both are always charged up!
