Today, with the help of a neighbour and and a pair of PMR radios I decided to see how far away from the car I could take the key fob..............................

Started the engine and then walked 100m away to the end of the street - FAIL - engine still running.
Returned home and got into my Defender and drove to the other end of the village..... FAIL - neighbour reports engine still running even with keyfob out of "line of sight" of the car, so what next? Dare I try getting the neighbour to take the keyfob to the other end of the village and then I try to put the car into drive and attempt to drive away? Does anybody know how far from the car the key fob can get and what happens when the two stop communicating as this is somewhat worrying from a security point of view especially as the car is kept on my drive less than 30m from where I can safely keep the key fobs. 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

Tim,

You could have left the keys here at Park Royal when you picked it up and it would still be running (fuel permitting)!!

It doesn't shut off at a certain range. All it will do is fail to start when the car is switched off. At launch we were warned to make sure that keys were handed to customers at collection so that they didn't find themselves arriving at home in their new car with no way of locking it!

Hope this clears it up, and sorry you had a wasted walk around your village!

James

No walk James, it's been too wet here for that - I went looking for big deep puddles to drive through in the 90 to clean off all the silt from a week ago! I'll be very careful then not to leave the engine running and walk away from the car in future or to leave the keyfob at home and then drive off to town...............  2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes