I was about to tow the MINI to the dealer to let them figure out whatever is wrong. The towing guy suggested to try jump start again. I didn't expect it to be any help because I jumper started it with my co-worker's car last night and it didn't work. To my surprise, with the towing guy's jump starter, the MINI started up!! But he said the battery is so dead, that if I shut off the car, it wouldn't start again. And, the dealer has to reset the computer. So, I drove to the dealer, and they quoted me $3xx for checking the charging system and replacing the battery. That's way too much for a battery replacement. Luckily there is a Kragen (auto parts store) next door. So I asked the Kragen guy to come out and test my battery. His tester showed the battery is dead, and probably has a dead cell. MINI OEM battery is $125 with 12 months warranty; Aftermarket battery is $100 with 1 year free replacement and 84 months pro-rated money back warranty. So I bought a battery from the Kragen store, installed it, and the MINI started right up.
Hopefully the dead battery was the cause and not a syndrome of something else. But I am very surprise that modern cars these day will behave so strangely when the battery is dead. My guess is, the low voltage is right at the threshold for all the computer circuit to switch between on and off. So all the logics are messed up and the computer is confused as hell.
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