R56 here also. It cools off nicely and it does it fairly quickly. Agreed with the 95% number, also. I hardly touch it.
Not to be too difficult, but this information isn't exactly correctly, afaik. I've had a number of vehicles with automatic climate control before and perhaps I can shed some light. Well, unless the Mini's system is different than all the rest. Hitting the manual fan control switches when the system is in automatic mode doesn't disengage the automatic functions completely. It will turn over fan speed control to the driver but the automatic functions will continue to regulate the temperature of the air and which vents it comes out of. At least, thats the way it's worked in the past. I use this all the time in my 2012 Accord EX-L v6 when I've got people in the back seat. Instead of lowering the temparature, I just up the fan speed a couple of notches and the backseat is just as comfortable as the front. Now, in a Mini Cooper, that's almost completely irrelevant since the backseat is too small for even my cat. Lol, anyway, just my two cents. Does the Mini work the same way?
In the MINI, at least in my 06, when you use the manual fan speed it shuts off the auto temp control. Yeah, Odd, I know. But then again, this is MINI.
:cornut: I honestly don't know why that I don't use the Auto A/C, Climate control or what ever it's called. Old habits are hard to break. When parking, I always turn off the A/C, put temp setting at it's lowest, fan at medium and then shut the engine down. Now that I think about it, I remember in the early 60's(that's 1960's not 1860's:lol when learning to drive, I was told never to shut down the engine with the A/C on as that would leave the system under high pressure which would damage the system. True or not I guess that that thought is still in the back of my mind. Also from the military flying days, the pilots would shut down all systems before shutting down the engines. One of these days my son will drag me kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Jason
My father-in-law still insists on turning the A/C off before cranking the engine, even though most new vehicles disable the A/C compressor while cranking and until WOT conditions. Habits are hard to change.
On my Lexus the auto A/C is amazing. Set it, forget about it, all year round - no issues, invisible comfort. On my '05 Mini, it never seems to be happy-- either too loud or I have to override to get it where I want it since day one. If it was not part of the package I bought, I would not have purchased as a stand-alone option.
Its ok in the 1st gens. I mean it looks cool with the numbers but I would not have ordered my car with it. My car just came with it. I NEVER have used the Auto setting ever. Its eaither full on HEAT Winter on Snow days or Full A/C when it supper hot on a looooooong road trip.. Most times I just turn the A/C off because it is a power robbing pig in the Summer. Just put down the windows open the sunroof and enjoy the wind blowing through my receeding hair. :lol::lol::lol::lol:
I have the auto AC in my R53. I usually don't have the AC on unless it's really hot (90+) and/or raining because it saps power like crazy. It is useful for cooler weather though since it keeps the car perfectly toasty without me thinking about it. I probably wouldn't have added auto AC if I had built the car, but since I got it used I lucked up on a bunch of features I wanted but could have gone without.
I have it cause I bought the car off the lot, not that big of a deal. I like it but not a necessity IMHO