[Minihabit]

Hi there,

Just got the wifes new convertible upgrading from a One to an S. PDI was shocking and amongst the problems was the fact the key does not unlock the boot or lower the roof.

Was told by the dealer that: this option had been deleted on convertibles???

The car was delivered in Nov 06 and we having been trying to sort this since.

Grateful if any forum users can advise whether their key will open the boot and lower the roof on cars bought in the last couple of months.

Ohh other faults included misaligned front bumper and chipped and scratched paintwork - not bad for a £20K car.....

[Cardo]

I got the roof lowering from key option enabled. Can't seem to open the boot from the key, though. Not sure the latter can be done with cabrios.

[Minihabit]

The Boot un-lock did work on her 2004 convertible hence my puzzlement

Interested to see other owners feedback?

Brian

[Scrogg]

There have been a lot of Convertibles delivered since September where the boot unlock does not work.

The feature has not been 'deleted' as far as I know, and it is a quick and simple job for your dealer to activate it again (I have had to have this done on every new Convertible I have handed over since September) so take it back to them to be sorted.

[Nick2]

My car was delivered last month and I was told that this feature is deprogrammed despite the button being on the key.

I think I would like this sorted as I use the feature on my other car regularly and have never despite what the dealer told me locked my keys in the boot.........

Nick

[minicabrio]

The options are definitely still there... they just aren't being programmed by default anymore....

The boot button is news to me though, can't think why they'd stop programming that? Unless people have complained about locking keys in the boot or something daft.

The roof lowering by the key had its default setting changed to off after some safety concerns from across the pond.

As I said in the other thread, hassle your salesman for it to be done not the service dept. Salesmen are desparate to keep customers happy and can pull strings to get things done.

[pprovart]

Hi,

I picked up my spankingly new Cooper S Convertible + JCW on Tuesday (more later in another thread )and the dealer advised me that the boot open key has been deliberately disabled.
The reasoning is that when the car is locked you could still open the boot using the key, however some people were leaving their keys in the boot (eg When putting the shopping in) and accidentally closing the boot. Which of course immediatley locks... leaving the poor happless victim unable to get into the car or boot!

I thought it a very responsible attitude to take..

Pete

[Minihabit]

The feeling I get here is a lack of information and consistency.

I have just spoken to BMW Customer Services about the whole delivery 'experience' this time round and he was at least in-tune with my viewpoint.

The fact that you were advised Pete, why this was disabled is a better service than I have had as my dealer didn't know just that he had heard a 'rumour' that it had been disabled.

As for the rationale for disabling it kinda ranks alongside 'objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer' or 'cruise control requires driver to be seated' etc. a bit of commonsense applied.

It would appear that the consensus is that is avail if you want it. We were not offered any options on the key config or offered reasons as to why options we had on the previous convertible were not available - we were not even offered the 'do you want to change your mind on spec letter before we fix it for build...........

Good job its a lovely car to drive or I would be really pee'd off!!!!!#

So my comments to BMW were lack of consistent information, and poor PDI

Brian

[Dawn]

Bit of a communication breakdown maybe
Surely tho, the part about you not getting a letter regarding changing your spec, did you not think to ring and ask
Also , if you knew about key configuration from your previous Conv, i would have checked and asked exactly what was configured and what wasn't, Its just my views and opinion, im glad your happy with the car anyway

[Minihabit]

Hi Dawn,

I'm buying a 20K car I expect a level of service commensurate with the product.

Last time round we received proper customer service and interaction on the MINI experience - we did call by the way and changes were treated as an inconvenience - We were engaged 3 times by the previous dealer to make sure we were happy and I understand this is part of the MINI sales process. It is not unreasonable to expect that as part of the buying experience. To answer your question we asked for exaclty the same spec as the previous convertible.............

So customer service aside, there is a lack of consistency as evidenced by the comments here - It is not unusual to expect a key to open the boot when it has a wee boot un-lock symbol on it - unless you are informed to the contrary. The hood lowererd as standard on the other car and we were informed that this was standard on the 1st PDI we took part in.

So in my view we made a reasonable assumption that this car key would unlock boot and lower the hood. My point with this thread was to gauge the experience of other owners in recent times.

So in short, it may be still available and I will pursue it with the dealer (and BMW) to get as a definitive answer as possible and pass my findings to the forum.

Like the car yes, happy, not yet:

My wife will be happy with the car when the Bumper is re-sprayed and straightened up, the scratches are removed from the wing and and we know what they key is supposed to do......!

Brian

[liznkev]

I've got a cabrio mini one on order, delivery 1st March, i've been reading through some of the posts etc. and came across this.

I thought that having the roof lowered by the key was an excellent idea, so I emailed the saleperson at the garage, where i've ordered from and they are saying that they have been instructed by mini UK that there is a safety issue with this option and are refusing to do it.

Are there any other garages out there that will allow the roof function to be enabled??

[liznkev]

We got the car 1st March, very impressed with it.

We forgot to try out the boot unlock function at the hand over of the car, but we were assured that it works etc......got home and remebered to try it and it didn't work!!

Any, quick email to the garage and we're getting the boot unlock sorted at the weekend.

We also rang another BMW Mini garage, out of curiosity about the roof lowering function and they said - 'yeah, no problem, come in, we'll sort and program your key to lower the roof and we'll charge back the garage where you got your cabrio from' - £29.95 to program it.

- Now the garage we bought it from would not do it, even after me asking a few times!!!

Whats with all the inconsistency between main dealers??!

[85NIXMIN]

That's pretty bad... that one dealers says one thing and the other says something different again!

[liznkev]

yeah well it gets worse!!

thd dealer 'cant' program the key to open the boot, because it's not 'available' for the cabrio.....yeah right...

I getting a little hacked off with the running around chasing information from the dealer, when we bought the car they didn't mention anything about key configuration at all, its been down to us to track what we can and cant do with the key!!

The other dealer has said that they will program the key to whatever we want, that is available; and invoice the dealer were we got the car from.

I'm just waiting for the call from customer services of BMW Mini UK.......

[minicabrio]

Quote: Originally Posted by liznkev (original)

thd dealer 'cant' program the key to open the boot, because it's not 'available' for the cabrio.....yeah right...

If you would like me to show them my cabrio with the key programmed to open the boot on the 'third' button and prove them wrong - thats fine

The key can be programmed to do it.

[liznkev]

New Update on this.

The dealer from where I bought the car said it could'nt be done....how wrong they were....


Took it to Williams in Manchester ....done!!....remote boot unlock & remote roof down....how cool is that!!

[minicabrio]

Quote: Originally Posted by liznkev (original)

Took it to Williams in Manchester ....done!!....remote boot unlock & remote roof down....how cool is that!!

Good result! Did you end up having to pay anything?

[liznkev]

Quote: Originally Posted by minicabrio (original)

Good result! Did you end up having to pay anything?

NO it was recharged to the dealer we got it from!!!!