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Random question which i wanted to ask on one of the mini forums but having spent the best part of 2 hours trying to register i have given up. Wife has just bought a 2004 Mini Cooper S and it seems the key fob only has the option to unlock the car or just the boot, is that right/normal? This means you have to manually lock the car with the key, plus the passenger door has no lock so you always have to ise the drivers side which is a pain. Any ideas or is there some kind of button combination i need to do to lock it? Seems daft having central unlocking but not locking.
Isn't the mini logo above* those 2 buttons the lock everything button?
* above/below/somewhere on the fob
Have you got a pic of the key? I just sold my 03 Cooper S and I'm sure it had one button to lock and another to unlock...
You mean you have a poor mans BMW made in The UK?
its not a Mini or a Cooper
My car had similar from new and I asked the garage to reprogramme it so that 1 blip opened everything and 1 blip locked everything.
Isn’t that just a setting that you can change?
Edit:
You mean you have a poor mans BMW made in The UK?
its not a Mini or a Cooper
He’s a cock ^^^
Car snob with irrelevant pit-down in 15 minutes, can't beat stw.
Pete, all the design and development of the new Mini was done by Rover, all BMW did was take the credit!
There's pictures of early test shells with Rover stamped on the glass.
I cant get image to show but it has unlock button at top and boot open button at the bottom and they are seperated by a mini logo in the middle.
Logo in the middle is the lock. F'sure
As above - as standard pressing the Mini logo unlocks all doors and the round button above the logo locks them BUT I do seem to remember some way for a dealership to 'reprogram' the key to lock/unlock in a slightly different way.
However it is also possible that the passenger side door lock is just being a bit sticky - ours occasionally does that (53 plate we've owned from new). Try cycling the open/close via the switch or opening and shutting the door a few times via inside handle. You can also tell if locks are playing up by listening for 'clunk' from door when you set off (doors automatically lock at 5-10mph).
Great little car - I agree it's not a 'proper' mini though - our Cooper S starts first time, is quicker than a 'classic' mini, the supercharger whine is lovely and it handles better... You can keep old mini's (unless it is Project Binky :))
Yep its the logo in the middle, it seems ours is A bit borked though as its seems to get stuck which possibly explains why we thought it was a 2 button remote with just a logo as when we tried it yesterday it didnt move or lock the car. Stw to the rescue again, thanks everyone. We will use the spare key which seems to be ok and probably should have looked at that first!
AD has covered most of it, it may also be a flat battery in the keyfob with just enough juice to open the door, it charges via the ignition so try driving around with the faulty one for a while and also rotate which key you use every few months.
Don’t the outside door handles have little black buttons on them which will lock/unlock the doors if you have the key fob with you?
I must be a cock too. I also think they're a cynical marketing exercise. Mind you I grew up with dad working at a British Leyland dealership with proper minis on the drive.
I must be a cock too. I also think they’re a cynical marketing exercise. Mind you I grew up with dad working at a British Leyland dealership with proper minis on the drive.
It's a 14 year old car, get over it
I must be a cock too. I also think they’re a cynical marketing exercise. Mind you I grew up with dad working at a British Leyland dealership with proper minis on the drive.
You do indeed seem to be a cock too. British Leyland cars were dreadful (I had quite a few) and the original mini was like driving a pogo stick (I had one of those too). It may have been good in 1963 but cars have improved a lot since then.
Most commercial marketing is by definition cynical.
Anyways it's a good car, the cabriolet almost unique in some respects, I don't care if some internet stranger feels it's an insult to Issigonis.
with proper minis on the drive.
I too had Minis - a mk 2 Mini 1000 (the first model with winding windows) and a Mini Clubman 1275GT. But I can accept that the new Mini is just an echo of the original not some kind of modern duplication and I quite like them (I'd get a Cooper S tomorrow if I could justify it but as I only do about 2k a year I can't.
I had minis 'Back in the day' and I can also testify that in most respects, they were dreadful. My partner's got one of the latest Coopers with the 1.5 3 cylinder engine and it's an absolute belter. Better in every way than the original apart from space utilisation (and simplicity of course - the modern ones are as full of complex electronics as most other new cars).
I've had 7 classics of all types 850 to 1340's fantastic little cars,,,,,in their day. Would I have another one..no.
Currently have a 05 Cooper S a bit modded from standard and it's just as much fun, well actually it's a lot better.
Hardly a poor man's BMW when it cost £25k new which is more than a series 1 costs today
British Leyland cars were dreadful (I had quite a few) and the original mini was like driving a pogo stick (I had one of those too). It may have been good in 1963 but cars have improved a lot since then.
I'm looking forward to a British Leyland revival post Brexit. They could do a lot worse than kick things off with a modern take on the Austin Allegro. A magnificent vehicle that sadly I was too young to ever drive.
Sorry for the digression. Fwiw, I think the modern Mini knocks spots off the Beetle equivalent that looks like an Audi TT that's had an unfortunate encounter with a giant airline.
A magnificent vehicle that sadly I was too young to ever drive.
Rumoured to be more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards!
Another aside, the original design drawings for the Princess looked really good.
One of my mate's dad bought an Allegro back in the day, even as a small child I recognised it as a think of pure evil. Then again my parents had a bad Renault habit, first a Dauphine, then a 16, then an 18 - there was also talk of a Fuego, which was oddly alluring in a way that's hard to understand...

Guy I work with has 2 Fuegos, even he can’t explain why
a Fuego, which was oddly alluring in a way that’s hard to understand…
It’s red and has the word Turbo written on it in huge letters.
In the 80’s that was all it took to be alluring.
I got suckered into a Renault 5 Gordini turbo by exactly this ploy. It was totally worth it.
I had a Fuego 2LGTX it was a great car at the time - bangernomics in the early 90s , cost £350 for 2 years motoring and I sold it on to somebody else who got another couple of years out of it.
I was comfortable and fast enough - critically it swallowed the gf`s double bass without drama for gigs . Metric sized tyres were a kind of bonus Michelin TRX were about all you could get so never on rubbish rubber.
Oh and it was red.
Quite liked the Fuego (never been in one tho)
Not sure what it's modern day equivalent, of that of Audi Coupe etc is? Focus ST? TT?
Bloke I worked with on my first job had Fuego as his dream car.
He couldn't ever say the name despite extensive coaching so never actually walked into a dealer and asked for one in case they laughed.
(Closest he got was Few-Go)
Useless fact the Renault Fuego was the first mass produced car to have remote central locking.
Pub quiz trivia over.