Very important to me in any car I own is the design of the interior – after all I look at and interact with the interior even more than the exterior – so I wanted to get a close-up look at the newest concept MINI pictures released recently; particularly interesting to me is the concept ideas for the “central stack”:
I like the idea of combining the heated seat switch with the other controls – no LEDs shown to indicate heat level though. I suppose they could integrate the level into a central display, or they could develop some “super smart” heated seat that knows how much heat is wanted!
We see window switches for both sides again (maybe they will allow auto-up in the USA now!) – closer together which would make it easier to close both at the same time. Between them I assume are door lock/unlock switches for the driver side, passenger side and trunk/boot. I wonder where the will put the DSC switch?
The integrated stereo controls look quite nicely designed too – but many folks will be upset if there is no way to change the factory unit.
Of course with MINI saying this is three years from introduction – and being a concept car anyway – much of this design could be pure imagination (especially for example the scent adjustment, combination temperature/altimeter gauge and heart rate monitor. But my guess is the central controls are close to the design in the “next gen” MINI coming out at the end of this year.
M&I / GBMINI 