[Cricket]

Ok.. please don't laugh. My Mini is 2 weeks old. I ordered it on Feb 2 and got everything I could possibly want on it (except, it was delivered unfished. My dealer forgot to install a few things. Now they owe me BIG, but that's another story...) I didn't order a manual because I cannot drive one (though I have ALWAYS wanted to learn). I thought that getting the MCSa would be the best of both worlds.. I could learn the Steptronic driving, and rely on the standard auto when needed. However, I'm scared to try anything but auto. I don't know anything about shifting, and no one to ask. I accidentally hit a paddle the other day going to work and the car was stuck in 1st and there was a car coming up behind me pretty quickly.... so I waited til it reset and then felt pretty stupid. Can anyone offer me some advice? I know you can't teach someone to drive over the internet.. but any sort of insight would be helpful to me. I want to drive my MCSa the way it should be driven.. I feel like I'm missing out. I thought about taking it to an empty mall parking lot to learn (one is under re-construction right now and the west side is completely free of people and cars), but I think it might be pointless because of space limitations within the parts of the lot. HELP!!

[Kenmini]

Well ...I suppose you do have some knowledge of how a transmission gearbox works in a car right ? if you do some GOOGLE on how a transmission works .. you'll find alot of basic idea about the different types of Transmission avaliable in the market today ...I'm not gonna Get into too much details on them so you should do a bit of research on that. The steptronic gearbox in our MCSA is very smart and quick compare many other gearbox offer in other brands of vehicle ... it shift even faster than a 3 series from my experience... it actually learns you' driving style and it will self adjust its shifting pattern ( ie.... if you drive hard for a week.. it will eventually learn to shift at a higher rpm to adopt to your driving style I presume ) ... D mode for normal Driving so gearbox is not as spirited or should I say QUICK ... pop over to SD mode the whole learning thing starts ... gears are hold to a higher RPM for mad revving ... this mode is for more spirited driving without manumatic shifting on your part.. my experience is that the gearbox shifts very quick when it adjusts to your speed in this mode.. so sometime I find the gearbox shifting down to 2nd or 1st faster than I wanted it too .. not that its a problem .. but sometime I get a little choke from it .then click the paddle or push the stick and you're in Steptronic mode ... you shift your own gear and it will hold the friggin gear till you shift it .. but don't worry that it will rev over the roof cause as soon as you hit the 6500 rpm mark .. you'll bounce off the rev limiter and the gearbox will shift up by itself to avoid over revving ( that is something I really like .. ) ...

read through this section on the MCSA .. you'll find some review and experience provided by me and other MCSA owners .. Try everything you can with the gearbox either in a open road with less cars or a parking lot.. I won't suggest a parking lot cause like you say : " the space is limited " ... but try to keep the rev under the 4500 rpm mark ... you'll soon find out its going to be very hard to do so cause our MCSA's full potenial comes out right after you past the 4500 rpm mark .. thats where all the fun it ... LET THE FUN BEGIN !!!!!

[sbontrager]

Learn by observing the car. It'll show you how it wants to be driven... well enough for a beginner.

As you accellerate smoothly, in D, from a full stop watch the tach (RPM gague). When you feel the car shift see what RPM it was at before and after the shift. If you speed up to cruising speed watch it through all the gears. Eventually you'll get the "feel" for when it "should" shift. Odds are you'll already have the feeling if you've put any miles on the MINI at all.

At the next stop, put it in SD and downshift (push the paddle) the readout below the spedo should say 1. As you pull away, mimic what it did in D. When it shifted into 2nd, do the same, just pull the paddle towards you. Repeat for each gear. Don't let the tach get too high (you are still in the break in miles). Just click through the gears at a natural pace.

As you come to a stop let the car downshift for you. Just put on the brakes like normal. It'll take care of downshifting.

The fun comes when you figure out how to downshift/upshift for special situations. For example, you are crusing down the road at say 65mph in 6th and a slowpoke is in front of you. Back off just a bit, downshift (push the paddle) into 5th (or 4th if you really want power! watch the tach, don't rev too hard!) put your foot in it a bit and feel the power. You'll pass with ease. When you are safely around the slowpoke shift back into 6th (pull the paddle) and keep on your way.

You have more power in the higher RPM's. But, your fuel economy goes down. Higher gears lower your RPMs, saving fuel, but reducing power (except at high speeds!).

As you get used to it, you can manually downshift when stopping if you don't like the way it automatically does it. Downshifting early is called engine braking. Breakpads are cheaper than a transmission, but light-to-moderate engine breaking won't hurt anything. But, as you are slowing down without your breaks being pressed, your lights won't come on and the guy behind you may give you a WHACK! if you do it too much. I recommend just letting it do the downshifting for you.

Engine breaking is a very good thing when going down a mountain. Put the car in a lower gear (depends on the grade and speed limit) and let the engine slow you down. Brake pads work poorly when hot and will eventually give out. By letting the engine keep you at a reasonable speed you save your brakes for when you actually need them.

There is a third option for you: SD. Put the car in SD but don't touch the paddles or manually shift. It'll behave just like D but shift at higher RPMs. This give you more power and a bit more zip--SD is closer to how I drive in manual mode. Since your engine revs higher your milage goes down, but more people are in your mirrors and your grin is bigger.

I hope that helps!

[edits]

The car won't let you hurt it. If your RPMs get too high it'll shift for you (unless you keep telling it to downshift... don't do that!). If your RPMs get too low it'll automatically down shift. A manual would stall, the MCSa downshifts long before a stall would take place. If it doesn't like what you tell it to (downshift from 6th to 3rd while going 80) it'll ignore you.

[tnoy66]

Cricket, welcome to MINI2,
You'l find this a very friendly place with lots of people willing to help out at different times

If you post your location, a fellow MINI2er might be willing to help you out and show you how to get more from your new MCSa

[AprilWhine]

Quote: Originally Posted by tnoy66

Cricket, welcome to MINI2,
You'l find this a very friendly place with lots of people willing to help out at different times

If you post your location, a fellow MINI2er might be willing to help you out and show you how to get more from your new MCSa

He's right, we're a friendly bunch here.

I just picked up my MCSCa on Wednesday, it's a great car.

[Tom B]

Don't let it get you down Cricket. I've been driving for 35+ years and still haven't totally figured out my S Automatic yet. It's very difficult to teach this type of thing over the Internet. Perhaps you could have someone at the dealership spend some unhurried time with you in the car?

Don't worry, you'll get comfortable and have an "Aha ! " moment and then you'll fully enjoy your MINI.


Tom

[Kenmini]

Yup ... well said ... thats the same reaction my Mother had when she finally figure out how the steptronic paddle works ...

[Cricket]

Thanks for all of the replies!! I will experiment a little his weekend and see if I can't get the hang of paddle shifting at the right times. I have paid attention to when the car shifts gears in regular automatic mode, so hopefully I won't make too much of a fool of myself. I appreciate the welcome notes and the informed responses. Thanks!!!

[Jim Ray]

Don't feel alone Cricket.

I am not afraid to play with the paddles, but have had no reason to yet. Also want to get a few more miles on it before doing spirited driving.

Very impressed with the auto so far. Almost as smooth as a CVT.

[MINI-Morgan]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cricket

Ok.. please don't laugh. My Mini is 2 weeks old. I ordered it on Feb 2 and got everything I could possibly want on it (except, it was delivered unfished. My dealer forgot to install a few things. Now they owe me BIG, but that's another story...) I didn't order a manual because I cannot drive one (though I have ALWAYS wanted to learn). I thought that getting the MCSa would be the best of both worlds.. I could learn the Steptronic driving, and rely on the standard auto when needed. However, I'm scared to try anything but auto. I don't know anything about shifting, and no one to ask. I accidentally hit a paddle the other day going to work and the car was stuck in 1st and there was a car coming up behind me pretty quickly.... so I waited til it reset and then felt pretty stupid. Can anyone offer me some advice? I know you can't teach someone to drive over the internet.. but any sort of insight would be helpful to me. I want to drive my MCSa the way it should be driven.. I feel like I'm missing out. I thought about taking it to an empty mall parking lot to learn (one is under re-construction right now and the west side is completely free of people and cars), but I think it might be pointless because of space limitations within the parts of the lot. HELP!!

im trying hard not to laugh... sorry.

Have a play is what I say! flick it over into manual and play touring car quick shift!! lol!

I couldnt stop laughing when I had an automatic as a courtesy car.... I kept wanting to hit the break when I thought I needed the clutch..well hard to get useto without causing a pill up.

[MINI-Morgan]

On a serious note... does the cooper S blip the throttle when you downshift so you dont suddenly slow down?? Should be quite fun to drive.... like your own F1 car..

[Tom B]

Quote: Originally Posted by BOYR4CER

On a serious note... does the cooper S blip the throttle when you downshift so you dont suddenly slow down?? Should be quite fun to drive.... like your own F1 car..

Yes. The automatic S does blip on the downshift.

It is fun.

People have told me that since I got mine, i'm beginning to look a bit like David Coultard. Now all I need to do is work on the accent.


Tom

[Mooyer]

When I was taught to drive, the vast majorirty of people in Europe drive manuals, I was taught that when learning you should drive like a priest say, very slowly and economically. In a manual this means changing up at low revs. Just go with this for starters. Get yourself in a carpark at night and try my suggestion. What you want to do to learn is change up every 10mph or so (this would be between 2-2500rpm) so at 30 mph youd be in 4th. OK its easy.

The trick in changing down is that you wanna be in 2nd on slower corners. So say if you were going under 20mph you ideally want to be in 2nd.

Just go with it, your not going to break it. Like I said try an empty carpark or industrial estate at night. Just learn the car, you'll be fine.

At least you haven't got a clutch to think about

[nonsequitur]

This Thread seems like the perfect "opening" to launch a Driving Technique discussion for the MINI Cooper S Auto.

One of you who actually have the the car should lay out what the gearbox functions are, describe how they work, and carefully discuss how to use them!

The MINI Owner's Manual may again need some interpretation. I understand that the gearbox description starts on Page 56 of the printed Manual, but the version available on MINI.com Owner's Lounge is an outdated 2004 scanned document with NO reference to the Automatic at all (BMW Group did update the CVT section however, with a few notes developed here on MINI2.com!).

[nonsequitur]

Quote: Originally Posted by nonsequitur

One of you who actually have the the car should lay out what the gearbox functions are, describe how they work, and carefully discuss how to use them!

A place to start this exercise is for someone to transcribe the contents from the MINI Cooper S Auto Owner's Manual (starting at Page 56 according to ASK-MINI) into this Thread, or maybe start a new thread titled appropriately. It can form the "starting place" for comments, corrections, additions, and thus Understanding of the Aisin AW TF-61SN 6-speed Automatic that's installed in your cars. The Moderator can also change the thread's title later if this one morphs into something useful.

I've never been able to read what BMW Group wrote as a description of how to drive the MCS Auto, because we don't have one yet.

[Sitcur]

Cricket, I've driven stick for the 25 or more years & love it, but out of defference to my wife & son - who only drive automatic - I ordered my MCS as an 'a'. It's fun to drive in both automatic and stick mode.

Enjoy,

Roger