The automotive kingdom has a history of confounding gauges. Pontiac had a g-meter that would only display a reading after you’ve stopped, Mercury had a lying oil pressure gauge, and low-spec old Toyotas have dials with no needles or units. However, Mini took things to a new extreme with the Openometer, a combination analog and digital gauge found exclusively on R57 Mini cabriolets.
In the latter half of the aughts, manufacturers went all-in on gimmick features. Ford played around with accent lighting, Dodge gave some of its cars a DUI compartment, and Mini cooked up a way to encourage owners of the R57 Mini cabriolet to keep the top open as much as possible. Officially called either the Openometer or the Always Open meter, this giant optional gauge displayed how much time the cabriolet top was down, up to a maximum of six hours and 59 minutes. In addition to the cycling analog gauge, time gets added to a running timer on the tachometer’s digital display that displays top-down time for the life of the car and an expanded top-down trip meter, both of which can be seen in the video below.
The giant part of the Always Open meter uses a single minute hand a six little LEDs to keep track of the hours. Drop the top, and a signal sent to the module controlling the gauge would start the timer. Once the minute hand swung through its first rotation, the first LED would light up, and so on. It was a strange thing to have bolted to your steering column, but such was the vibe back then. Hell, Volkswagen had a flower holder in its New Beetle.
On the one hand, I’ve always thought that the space reserved for the Openometer could’ve been used for more useful gauges, given how stingy Mini was at the time. For instance, an oil temperature gauge, or really any temperature gauge would’ve been quite nice. Alternatively, Cooper S owners might’ve wanted a giant boost gauge where the Openometer sits to monitor how far they’re dipping into the sweet treat of forced induction. Hey, the soup can-sized boost gauge in the Fiat 500 Abarth was glorious, why not have one in a Mini?
On the other hand, I can’t fault the Openometer’s sense of fun. A cabriolet is made for top-down motoring, so if you own one, you should be going top-down whenever feasible. People who drive cabriolets with the tops up on nice days deserve to be shamed for their aversion to fun. I’m not saying stone them to death, but an afternoon in the internet forum stockades ought to do some good. The Openometer is a way for enthusiastic cabriolet owners to lord over others about how much fun they’re having.
While the Openometer was largely a flash in the pan, I wish more automakers would introduce ways to brag. Why doesn’t Jeep have a separate odometer for distance traveled with the diffs locked? Why doesn’t Honda have a running clock of time spent in VTEC? Whether you buy a cabriolet or an off-roader or a sport compact car, you should make it a priority to use it as it’s intended. I’m sure some argument about safety and regulations might attempt to get in the way, but that hasn’t stopped BMW from fitting the new M3 and M4 with an M Drift Analyzer. In short, give me all the metrics, no matter how bullshit. From wheel articulation to time spent with the top down, metrics can help gamify driving. They’re cases of using technology to make driving more fun, something I reckon we can all appreciate.
(Photo credits: Mini, eBay)
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Counterpoint: In a convertible the top-down time is all that matters. You bought a compromised vehicle that excels at exactly one thing, you should know how much of that one thing you’ve gotten out of it.
Our 19 S still has the digital version of Openometer…
“A cabriolet is made for top-down motoring, so if you own one, you should be going top-down whenever feasible. People who drive cabriolets with the tops up on nice days deserve to be shamed for their aversion to fun. “
I hate driving with the roof down. The noise, the sun, the rain, the stench of diesel, the wind, the constant worry that my music is too loud. It’s not for me, I find it overwhelming.
I do like driving though, and as I live on a tiny island with tiny bendy roads I like small cars that handle well, like the MX5, mk3 MR2 and Lotus Elise. So I drove those with hard tops on. And as a result got a lot of abuse, online and in actual real life. I’d have bought coupes if cars that drove that well were available with a real roof (they are in the case of the Lotus, but when I bought my Elise the Exige was hopelessly more expensive).
It’s just one option of my car that I’m not using as I don’t like it. I’ve never screamed “do some drifting you shuddering shitwank” at someone not sideways in a AE86, or “it’s for gloves you idiot” at the nearly everyone who doesn’t keep gloves in their glovebox (and chooses to drive with the lid closed, like a moron, when lid open is so much more fun for the gloves).
I ride motorcycles, so I get really upset when a convertibleist has a go at me for being “shut up in a box” just because they like the roof flap folded back. I like being outside, just not when I’m driving. When I go on holiday I stay in a hotel with a roof, not in a campsite next to a tent I didn’t even put up because I think it’s better that way and anyone who doesn’t is a joyless drone. Your niche enjoyment isn’t universal.
I’ve tried living the convertible life, and other than a slow drive on a warm summer night I didn’t enjoy any of it. It’s not for everyone, please don’t shame those who enjoy their own things their own way.
What magical little island do you live on? Isle of Man? I’m a funny person in that I MUCH prefer open top driving. Of the 4 cars in the TomMetcalf fleet, only one is a fixed roof and that is a company car. I live in Canada so I have to cram all of my top down driving into the summer months.
I’m in the UK, where convertibles are more popular than anywhere else in the world, but still a tiny proportion of cars people actually buy.
I’ve seen MX5 owners have a go at each other because one of them was driving roof down, but wearing a hat, so it didn’t count. There is noting so trivial that we won’t fight about it.
I don’t need a gauge that tells me how long I’ve spent in VTEC, but I would like a light that lights up when VTEC has kicked in. It needs to be in the form of an idiot light that reads “YO”
I miss my MINI very much. Mine wasn’t a convertible, but my mother’s was, and the roof gauge is silly but fun.
I like fun cars that that don’t take themselves too seriously. Maybe one day I’ll get another MINI.
This is a far cuter feature than Fishie, the hypermiling gauge fish who remains my eternal nemesis.
Screw you, Fishie. Hang out of your bowl forever.
The newer Mini convertible (F57) still tracks top down time, but not with a dedicated analog gauge. There’s an “openometer” screen in a vehicle info submenu.
They’re pretty easy to live with, the owners manual clearly states which lever is the velocitator and which is the decelleratrix