Driving – Mini 2011 Countryman User Manual

Page 44

Driving

To prevent the vehicle from creeping
after you select a driving position,

depress the brake until you are ready to
start.

A lock prevents accidental shifting into selector
lever positions R and P.

Overriding the selector lever lock

Press the button on the front of the selector
lever, arrow.

P Park

Select this only when the vehicle is stationary.
The transmission locks to prevent the drive
wheels from turning.

R Reverse

Select this only when the vehicle is stationary.

N Neutral

Select this when you are in a car wash, for exam-
ple. The vehicle can roll.

D Drive, automatic position

Position for normal vehicle operation. All for-
ward gears are selected automatically.
Under normal operating conditions, the fuel
consumption is lowest when driving in
position D.

Kickdown

Kickdown enables you to achieve maximum
performance.
Depress the accelerator pedal beyond the full-
throttle resistance point.

Sport program and manual mode M/S

Move the selector lever from position D to the
left into the M/S shifting slot:
The Sport program is activated and DS is dis-
played. This position is recommended for a per-
formance-oriented driving style.
To deactivate the Sport program or manual
mode M/S, move the selector lever to the right
into position D.

Shifting with the selector lever

Push the selector lever forward or pull it back to
activate manual operation. Steptronic shifts the
gear.

Pull the selector lever in the + direction.
Transmission shifts up.

Push the selector lever in the – direction.
Transmission shifts down.

The selected gear is displayed in the tachome-
ter, e.g. M1.
To use the automatic mode again, move the
selector lever to the right into position D.
Upshifts and downshifts are executed only when
they will result in a plausible combination of
engine and vehicle speed; thus, for example, a
downshift that would cause the engine to over-
rev will not be executed by the system. The
selected gear is displayed briefly, followed by
the current gear.

Shifting on the steering wheel*

With the selector lever in position D, automatic
drive, you can shift gears using the shift paddles
on the steering wheel. The transmission auto-
matically switches to manual mode.