I'm new here, so I figured that I might as well start a food fight right away. Every time a manual is mentioned on the other Mimi forums I visit, it's the Bentley Manual. In fact, now and then, self-anointed "experts" tell or imply to a relative newbie something like, "OMG, you must be an amateur if you don't have the Bentley Manual." Or similar yada yada yada.

Well, unlike 99.9% of you, I'm an experienced publisher (books, magazines, newsletters, and online), and I think it's abominably stupid to pay $150 for a paper manual. I've been there, ripped businesses off which that sort of pricing myself two and a half decades ago, when the Internet was still young.

I used to sell high-priced publications in business publishing niches. With the Internet, that pricing, along with the other major shortcomings of paper (search, updates, et cetera) went out the window years ago. Longer ago in my case. I went digital with a $300-a-year professional publication back in 1997 -- and cut the price. But Bentley still wants a hundred-fifty bucks for a forkin' book.

Not to mention that paper will get all greased up in the shop, when for $26.95 to $29.95 a year, I can get the Alldata or Mitchell1 DIY. And a mouse and keyboard are a lot easier to degrease (or throw out for a combined $20 replacement cost) than paper.

So, three questions:

1. Why should anyone invest in the Bentley Manual rather than an online repair manual service?
2. Which is better for an R56 Mini Cooper, Mitchell, Alldata, or one of the other online manuals?
3. Other than for electrical diagrams, why does anyone even need a manual with all the information available through Google searches? Six years of repairs and maintenance now, and I haven't used a manual yet.

I'm betting that this post is going to be declined or deleted, given that sponsor Pelican Parts sells the Bentley Manual (for a discounted $123.75), and new members are supposed to be deferential and all and pretend we're dumb. Too old and experienced in DIY car repair for that, sorry.

 

Speaking towards #3, I can say finding info on my R56 is a royal pain in the toukas when searching. For example, I'm trying to find a decent workaround to get my car to play Spotify through the Bluetooth (as it only does phone calls--who knew Bluetooth had different channels that allow one thing but not another?); finding devices, advice, or even pros and cons of different things and methods has taken hours.
When I wanted to find out how to change the color of the interior (of which I was only playing a hunch, I had no idea it actually DID change colors), that took over half an hour before I found a video about it on YouTube.
I feel like Mini is like an Apple device--a few flyers included for quick start, but overall NOTHING about what symbols mean, what switches do (again, see color options), how to even set the radio proper--I had no idea the second **** was the scroll wheel (or even scrolled in the first place--again, YouTube proved resourceful).
I don't need my electronics or car to be a mystery--its my first car I've owned that didn't come with a nice thick manual in the glove box.

 

Just found an R56 Service Manual (scanned book) in this link. Thank me later

https://drive.google.com/u/0/uc?id=1...xport=download

 

I'm not one to pay for subscriptions to a service that I may only need a few times and that I have to sit at my desk to access. Sorry, NOT buying a laptop to take to the garage JUST to have it ruined. Yes, the Bentley manual is expensive. It currently sits up on my shelf, gathering dust, until I need it. I don't have to pay a subscription for "just in case." But when I do need it, it's there. If some of the manuals that you'd pick up at your local parts store had one for my series of Mini, I'd buy one of them as well.

Of course the data may get outdated for improvements in process or corrections in errors, but I'm sure you can go to their websites and check for errata pages and updates.

Remember, some of us grew up in the age of our mechanic dads having a row of Chilton's reference books for all the major brands. >wink<

~Trevor