Welcome to the world of computer control of everything. The "state of the art" features look nice in the ads, but are not always 100% reliable. When it works, it's fine, but a car is a "hostile environment" with extremes of temperature and humidity, so the potential for problems is high. It may work fine on a pampered "luxury model" but the MINIs will tend to be driven hard and abused, so it doesn't bode well for long-term reliablilty. I don't know about the later models, but the first MINIs only had a key lock on the driver's side because the locks are electric. There have been reports of people being locked in their cars when the doors refused to open. It's humorous, but it could be dangerous.
It would have been far better had they used a more conventional system of standard wiring and mechanical locks and windows. I saw a survey of "problem areas" on new cars. Know what #1 was? Faulty electric windows. Say what you will, but my car's old crank windows and standard locks are still working after 31 years. Maybe BMW will rethink this and offer a more "basic" version of the MINI that would undoubtedly be a lot more reliable. |