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Mini Cooper

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Connie of Willowick, OH August 29, 2008

Connie of Willowick OH (08/29/08)
My '04 Mini automatic trans has had two blown transmissions under 45,000 miles. First was replaced under warranty, second transmission they are trying to fault an autobody shop without any proof that the autoshop did anything wrong, but are they are using that as an excuse to say it's not under warranty.

I also have the problem with my driver's door not unlocking with the key button, and I have had to bring my car in three times to repair broken seats that were stuck in the reclining position. I also have a stress fracture in my windshield that they would do nothing about while under warranty, because it must have been an impact problem. Guess what? The service manager has never heard of any problems like this before! Once I figure out how to get this transmission replaced, I'm selling this car so fast my own head will spin. What a piece of junky crap.

Emily of Vic, OTHER August 26, 2008

Emily of Vic OTHER (08/26/08)
I purchased a brand new mini cooper convertible in 2004. 2 days after my first service, my mini was towed back to the BMW dealership and a pump was replaced. My clutch was also replaced on my first service which they stated was not covered under my warranty. About a year later, i had to get my alternator replaced which took about a month. Now that my warranty has expired just 6 months ago, i almost crashed when my power steering didnt work. What next? I saved for so long to get the car of my dreams, buying it brand new thinking that it wouldnt have all the problems a second hand car would have. I discovered how wrong i was. I have spent so much money fixing my mini when i have only had it for 3 years. Im so disappointed.. i have to get rid of this piece of shit before the repairs become more than the actually car itself. What a piece of shit. I feel sorry for the next owner and for all the other new mini owners. You dont know what u r getting urself into. Might look cool and nice, but comes with price tag of repairs more than what he car is worth. Just ridiculous

Gene of Boulder Creek, CA August 21, 2008

Gene of Boulder Creek CA (08/21/08)
Exploding sunroof. After 1,300 miles, driving along freeway, closed sunroof just exploded all over me. No rock, no collision, no obsticle. Liekly, over stressed during manufacture.

Out of pocket cost to replace sun roof. Mini would not cover under warrantee. Very signficant safety hazrd as shards of glas had come down all over while driving.

Carol of Salt Lake City, UT August 19, 2008

Carol of Salt Lake City UT (08/19/08)
2007 Mini Cooper S In early 2008, I purchased a used 2007 Mini Cooper S with just a little over 8,000 miles on it -- practically a new car. At an odometer reading of a little over 16,000 miles, after putting 8,000 miles on the car myself, the clutch and flywheel were shot and had to be replaced. I have driven manual transmission cars for over 35 years, and I have never in my life had a clutch fail on a car that has fewer than 75,000 miles on it, and I have never had to replace a flywheel. This car was practically new; it only had 16,000 miles on it when this happened! I was flabbergasted to say the least. I had to have the car towed from the freeway at 2:00 a.m. on a Sunday to a closed dealership. To make matters worse, the dealer, Mini of Murray, in Salt Lake City, Utah, said it was caused by the car being driven too hard. What a bunch of crap! To have this happen to a car so new is upsetting, but the situation went from bad to worse when the dealer said it would not be covered under warranty. I cannot understand this at all. Of what value is the warranty if it doesn't cover this kind of malfunction on a car with only 16,000 miles? It's absolutely worthless, that's what it is. I am outraged. I get blamed by the dealer for causing the problem, and then I have to pay almost 3,000 to get it fixed. If my driving caused the clutch and flywheel to fail at 16,000 miles, then all I have to say is that Mini Coopers are pieces of crap, and no one should ever consider buying one. I will NEVER purchase a Mini again, and I will warn everyone I know of the poor product, worthless warranty, and the fact that the dealership does not back its product. Then, on top of the whole clutch fiasco, the smart key failed and had to be replaced at a cost of 350. Of course, you guessed it, it was my fault -- I must have dropped it! I asked the service rep at the dealership why this would happen because absolutely EVERYONE drops their keys from time to time. I just got the same run around I got on the clutch/flywheel situation -- I must have caused the problem. Again, if simply dropping a key causes it to stop working and have to be replaced at the cost of 350, it must be a worthless piece of crap, just like the car itself and the warranty. I can only say to anyone considering purchasing a Mini . . . Caveat Emptor.

Ed of Wall, SD August 19, 2008

Ed of Wall SD (08/19/08)
I purchased a used 2003 Mini Cooper S from my local dealer (non-mini) with 56,000 miles one it in December of 2007. In addition I purchased a 3,000 extended service contract. Days after I purchased the car I noticed a loud noise coming from the passenger side rear of the car. Turns out that in a matter of days I had warped my rotor. I took it back to the dealership and had to complain quite a bit to get them to replace just a single rotor, although I've been told you're supposed to do it in pairs. The following months I was hit with all sorts of different issues. First the driver's side windows stopped functioning. Shortly after I noticed that the passenger side door stopped locking and unlocking. You had to pull the inside handle to unlock it and push the lock down manually to lock it. The very next day I was backing out of my driveway to go to work, and as I am turning the steering wheel in the street,which by the way I had some fairly fast moving vehicles coming at me, the power steering quits. So I pulled back into the driveway and shut the car off. I waited for a few minutes and attempted to start the car again. It turned over for quite a few seconds and started up then it spit and sputtered and finally died. I had to turn it over upwards of 10 seconds to get it to start after that. Everything seemed to be in working order now, so I started on my way to work again. As I'm pulling into the parking lot, the power steering dies again. I nearly lost control and drove up on a sidewalk. I took the car back into the dealership to have them look it over. Later that afternoon they called and said that they had the Mini tech look over the car. He had determined that the power steering pump was completely electric...I could have told him that and I am no car mechanic. He said that he didn't know enough about the car to fix any of my issues. Then they tried to get me to pay the cost to put it on a truck and send the car to Denver (7 hours away and the closest Mini dealership). Well I just went ahead and took it there myself. It ended up costing 1100 for the power steering pump, 300 for an actuator arm for my power lock, and 300 for an emissions chip that had gone bad. Then they told me that there was nothing wrong with the drivers side window. The window had been stuck in the up position for upwards of a month at this point. He gave me these instructions should the window ever get stuck again. If either window should get stuck, aim right between the lower speaker and the door trim and give it a good hit. These things lock up all the time, no sense replacing it until it burns out. Well obviously they see that quite a bit if they know that the motor seizes up and you just have to hit the door right over the spot where the motor is to get it to work again. After having all these problems, and then later reading that many people have the exact same ones some even more severe, I WANT TO GET RID OF THE MINI. I don't want to hang on to it long enough to have my clutch go out or even worse a transmission. As a result of all my problems, I ended up paying 1700 dollars to have everything replaced out of pocket. My warranty didn't cover any of it. There has to be a way to get them recall some of these things. How many people need to have problems to order to make them recall a bad part??

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