i looked at a mini yesterday - stunned to find this thing has two serious parking/emergency/hand brake issues:
- the brake cable wasn't connected to one of the rear caliper lever arms - apparently it's been like this since new since the brakes have never been touched and there was no evidence of prior metal contact on the arm.
- even if it had been connected and working, you can't use the thing anyway - there's a center console mounted over the brake handle that prevents you pulling on the lever!!!
re #2, this completely blows my mind. yes, the console tilts up, but it doesn't lock in the "up" position, you can't tilt it down if the lever is applied, and keeping it up defeats the point of having it in the first place. so, i don't know what bmw are thinking with this kind of "design", but it sure doesn't have driver safety/driveability in mind.
and where are nhtsa safety qualification inspections on this? i think it's only explainable by negligence or bribery. given that center consoles are supposed to be popular and considered strong selling points on modern cars and this is such an obvious "oversight", you have to conclude that someone was "encouraged" to ignore the obvious and allow cosmetic sales gimmickry to outweigh such a fundamental safety feature. amazing and disgusting on both sides.