Mini Cooper

This was not an inexpensive car (over 30K new, with over $15,000 in labor and parts in the meantime). The transmission was serviced when the car was still under warranty, and well after the BMW corporation was aware of the design flaws that ultimately led to the transmission failure. Rather than service the defective transmission while the warranty was in effect, they sent me home with a car that they knew had a poorly designed/engineered transmission from the factory. Although the transmission was serviced 18 months prior to this failure, and I believed the work carried a 2-year warranty, MINI's position is that the work performed was not mechanical, but electronic in nature, and was not covered under the 2-year warranty. The MINI was fun while it lasted, and as a professional that works with young adults as a career, I always felt comfortable recommending the MINI as a first car.

My position on the MINI (not Bill Jacobs, you've been consummately professional) has shifted, and I will ultimately share my story of dissatisfaction and disappointment with the BMW corporation. Of notable irony is the fact that I originally purchased a MINI because of their resale value. $45,000 later and I have a MINI that is worth $150. The final tow to and from Bill Jacobs MINI will cost more than that. I believe that any of the owners of Bill Jacobs MINI or its representatives would feel exactly as I do in regards to this situation. To MINI and BMW...you missed the most important thing that car buyers want, that is, a quality product. Everything else has been tasty, perfectly-brewed, and pleasant.

We couldn't figure out why. Until we sent car to dealer, they told us it's performance tire and cannot be driven under 40 degrees. Since we bought it at 6k miles, no one bothered to disclose this information to us. And I tried to call dealership, the manager never called me back. We are caught off guard. We purchased a car not suitable for weather here. After that, the car is mostly stalled on the driveway, upon recent snow storm, when we had to go out during and after snow to get gas for generator. So, after 5 months of suffering, we terminated car with $17K loss... Bought a SUV with all season tire.

And it seems like every day there is something else that needs to be done. Will be trading it in, and I tell everyone I know that unless they have a bottomless pocketbook, and don't plan on really using the car very often - i.e. if it's your "fun/weekend" vehicle, not your primary - then don't go there. It isn't worth the stress or the expense. Like a mechanic recently told me when I hit another expensive brick wall with this car: it's a toy, not a car for people who actually need to drive somewhere.

If you are going to buy a Mini, be aware that it has reliability issues, has a very short life, poor resale value and that Mini USA will not stand behind their product. And sell your Mini as soon as the 3-years of included maintenance (or extended maintenance, if purchased) ends so you don't end up stuck with a car that is worthless.

Day of the purchase drove home and parked with a huge grin. Only to find white smoke from the hood. Called the dealer, they said it might be water evaporating after the wash. Since I knew better, I took it to the dealer next day and they diagnosed that it was oil leak. Brand new car with oil leak!! Dealer was intending to repair. Being frustrated, contacted MINI (corporate). They were awesome. Felt me valued. Gave me free extended warranty or return the car back. Seeing how I was treated, I didn’t return it. It was absolutely awesome customer experience. Things like these can only be found in marketing text books. Already started planning for next MINI then – Clubman or JCW or perhaps a BMW? Who doesn’t like a M3?

All well. Until one day check engine light came ON. Panicked, stopped the car. Called the dealer. Luckily there was no power loss. They insisted me to send a photo of the light – to make I am talking about the same. Took to the dealer, they didn’t find any issues. Returned the car back. After a week again the light came ON. Took back again, they said they have to replace environmental sensor (along with radiator). This was a moment where I was very glad that my car had problem on the first day of purchase – extended warranty!! Dealer fixed it. On a routine service, dealer found problem with rotors and replaced all 4 around 25k miles. I was shocked about it. Replacing rotors? And that too at 25k miles? Anyway I am not paying for it, so went with it.

Coming to present. Thursday evening from office - cold north east weather. Again the dreaded check engine light. Feels like it is the same old sensor. Going to the dealer on Saturday. Getting very much tired of this. All of this in 2 years and 32K miles!! Does not give me much confidence of keeping this car for long. Not a single car I owned had this many problems. No way could I keep this car beyond extended warranty. And because of the history of all repairs, I am not going to get much either when I try to sell it. MINI is build like a race car. It is awesome when it works. But we use MINI as a daily driver, we need it to last. It needs to be reliable. Owning MINI is like being in an unhappy marriage. You had some wonderful moments, but you know you can’t let this go for long… You will ruin your life… Talks a lot about BMW family as well… so called German engineering perhaps!!!

- The defogger has a long pause before the blower starts working.

- The low-profile run-flat tires suck. In eight months, I have gotten four flat tires. More information below.

The tires make this car unusable. As previously stated, I got four flat tires in eight months, I stopped driving the Mini in April, that's why it's only eight months even though we have had the Mini for a year. This is from normal driving, going up driveway curbs, and rolling over little potholes. I think paper mache tires would last longer. Each replacement tire from Mini costs $335. That's $1340 gone, not to mention the time to bring the car to Mini and waiting for the tire change, waking up super early to wait for the tow truck, frustration and stress, and safety issues as I have a baby in the car most of the time. It's all a scam to buy the tire insurance. The tires at BJ's Wholesale Club are $150 each and come with a lifetime guarantee. They are not run-flat but who cares, I know how to change a tire. It is ridiculous that Mini's tires are such garbage and not backed by any warranties, and are double the price of tires found elsewhere.

I bought a 1999 Honda Accord (for $1500) in April because I did not want to drive the Mini anymore, I simply did not want any more flat tires. For the price of 4 tires from Mini, I bought an older (19 year old) Honda which has run perfectly and has fewer inconveniences and disappointments than the 2017 Mini. I have driven the Accord for four months and we now call it the "good" car, and the "reliable" car. Every time we go over a pothole in the Accord, we say, "That would have been another flat tire on the Mini." I wrote this review in August 2017, and it is now December 2017. In four months the BJ’s tires have performed well with no flats. The tire tech at BJ’s said the Mini factory tires are garbage. If anyone else had problems with Mini’s tires please write about it. I think it is a big problem.

I was instructed by Samuel to call that dealership myself and obtain a cost: $422. MINI has now declined that option, too. I asked what other recourse I had in this matter since my dealership no longer exists and I am unable to drive an unsafe vehicle such a long distance, and I was told that I had none. MINI's decision is final. I asked if that meant that MINI didn't care about their customers, and I was told that "that's a rather harsh way of putting it, but yes". MINI will throw away a customer over $422!

The Mini Corp. tried to make it right by pressuring the dealership to work with me, but the car was a losing proposition. I was optimistic for the first 3 years of owning the case, but the harsh reality is that is was a lemon... a bitter, sour lemon that has spoiled my fond memories of the Mini. The car was poorly designed and engineered, and no amount of customer support, no warranty, no amount of Chex Mix or free Starbucks coffee can substitute for a quality product.

After taking a day off from work it was brought to the dealership where I was told there was a notice out from BMW but since the model of the car they hadn't received it from corporate so they wouldn't fix it because they would have to pay for it!!! Doesn't matter that it is a 4 hour round trip plus my cost away from work. When it was finally down they had to take the hood off and clean the "slime" off - which is what they stated was used to prevent rust from the transatlantic trip. OK, if that is what a takes, even if it was inconvenient and expensive for us. She wanted her dream car and said it was worth it.

A week later the white slime was back and a passenger side window molding fell off. Called the dealer and they said to take another day off from work and make a four hour trip down - of course at my convenience. While trying to figure when to take it down we noticed that some of the Mini medallions that are throughout the interior were starting to peel off. I finally got so angry I called the Mothership; BMW of North America to file a complaint. After nearly 2 weeks I was called today and told I had to deal with the dealership only and that BMW of North America had "nothing to do with."

I said the dealership didn't build it and that BMW of North America does indeed have everything to do with it as they represent the brand and factory and that whether a car cost $5,000 or $5,000,000 there should be no reason for shabby workmanship. He continued to deflect responsibility until I just disconnected the call. So, save your money and buy a used Yugo - at least you know the quality to expect.

My last hours as MINI owner had me wondering if it was going to make it through the 20 mile trip to the dealers. It had been sitting for 3 days and would not go into 1st or 2nd for a few minutes. Okay, my Sonic is not cute as a Volcanic Orange button, its turbo is not a rocket like the MINI's was. And, it looks like a Chevy. I had my own personal paradigm shift on what was important to me in a car. After owning 3 Euro cars for the past 25 years, Volvo, Volvo, MINI, I decided I was done, done, done. If you have the need for a cute car, the MINI certainly is that, but you'll find the irritation factors outweigh the cutes in about 17 months or less. BTW, I'm not seeing 2014 Volcanic Orange MINIs on the roads/highways lately. I assume they all went to the bone yard (auction) like mine did.

The dealer Enrique ** told me the car is $32,000, but it is only $26,997. I have paid $3,000 down, $270.5 per monthly of 35 months by leasing. And a maintenance service fee $600 package (I called MINI Service it is only $399). Again, I want to lease a new car, not a second hand or loaner car. The main point is NO ONE mention it is a 9,662 miles loaner car or a pre-own car until I found out, this is such a fraudulent conduct.

On 7/14/2017, I called the manager Omar **, he is not helping to get this case done, he yelled at me, speak so loudly, and didn't even say sorry to me. Just say: "bring the car back, I give your money back." I took 2 days off, driving 2 hours from New York City to NJ, spend my time to deal with the dealer, and I am a client and big fan of MINI, I should not deserve they have this kind of attitude to me!

All in all, I cannot believe that MINI Morristown Dealership is so rude and deceitful! I have my friend accompany with me, so that I have all the text messages can be used as evidences. It destroyed my dream of the first mini car I have. I need to have my right back! I need an apology and solution on this as soon as possible. If your company just try to let it go and fool me, then I will file complaint to NJ Consumer Affairs, BBB. Furthermore, I will report it on all the medias since I am working in the media and PR field for 5 years, I will use all of my connections to get my fight back! Even seriously, sue Mini of Morristown. I am NEVER THAN EVER DISAPPOINTED!!! Shame on Mini of Morristown!!!

In 2014, I convinced my wife to get rid of it at 105K miles because it was evident it was going to be a money pit. She then saw and fell in love with a used 2012 Mini Clubman S. Low miles, well taken care of, fun to drive. Seemed to be a good car and I stupidly thought that, perhaps, BMW had addressed their quality problems so we decided to buy it. The Mini had 23,000 miles and was still under warranty so I thought, "OK. The car is a daily driver that is not abused in any way and only driven on paved roads."

Car went in for a service at ~28,000 miles; nothing wrong. Went in again just after the warranty expired for a bad ABS sensor in the right front wheel and the dealer was nice enough to fix it at no charge. Run flat tires were replaced with non-run flats at around 40,000 miles. Always hated the run flats because of the very harsh ride. You could feel every imperfection in the road. New tires were great and gave a much improved ride quality.

Right around 50K started hearing a droning sound from the front end and the tires started wearing oddly. I am an excellent mechanic and have been doing all my own car repairs for 40+ years. Oil changes, brakes, shocks, engine repairs, transmissions, torque converters; you name it, I've done it. So I quickly found that both front wheel bearing assemblies were bad. I mean wobbly, sloppy loose bad. Car was out of warranty and I knew Mini would charge an arm and a leg for the repairs so I did them myself and saved $$. Not happy about wheel bearings going bad at 50K but, oh well, it wasn't an expensive fix because I did the work myself. Probably caused by the crappy run flats transferring shock and vibration to the suspension.

No further problems... until now. Car has 60K on it. The other day all three of our cars were in the driveway and my sons and I were standing there when we heard a loud "ping" sound. Couldn't localize where it came from but I know the sound of metal snapping. So we quickly checked over all three cars but didn't find anything. A few minutes later I asked my son to move the Mini so we could play basketball. He starts the car, puts it in reverse and the moment he started moving backwards, the left front dropped 4 inches with a bang.

Got the car up on the jack, pulled the tire off and saw that the coil spring had snapped about 1 full coil up from the bottom. I was dumbfounded!! I couldn't believe that a car with 60K would have a spring break let alone break while sitting still in the driveway. Other than the BMW, I've never had a car or know anyone who's seen a coil spring break like that. Thank God it happened in the driveway and not on the highway as I'm sure that the sudden change in the steering geometry would have caused a potentially fatal accident.

Called the Mini dealer 35 miles away in Bedford, NH and explained the situation and that I wasn't happy about the coil spring breaking at 60,000 miles and potentially putting my wife's life in danger. I asked them to send a wrecker and get the car and replace the spring for free because a close inspection of the break clearly shows it had cracked at some point, rust had invaded the crack and weakened it. This is clearly a defective spring. And, while they were at it, they should also replace the right spring too because now it couldn't be trusted either.

They refused to do anything. Said it was normal for springs to break. Told me it was my problem to get the car to them if I wanted them to repair it but they would be happy to sell me a new strut assembly (which they didn't have in stock anyways) if I wanted to do it myself. We went round and round about the defective spring being Mini's problem, not mine, but they wouldn't budge. Suggested I contact Mini USA which I did.

After waiting 3 days I was told that I had to get the entire car to Mini of Bedford, at my expense, for them to "diagnose" the problem but that there was no guarantee Mini USA would pay for the repairs. I told the nice woman that the diagnosis was very simple: The defective spring broke! I explained that it made no sense for me to pay $250+ to have the car towed to the dealer, have them "diagnose" the broken spring at $120/hr, then tell me I would have to pay for repairs (another $300+ for the part(s)/labor) when I can get new strut assy for $125? So I would potentially be out $500+ for their defective spring. And, if I chose to repair it myself, then I'm on the hook for another $250 tow back to my house?

She said Mini USA would not consider doing anything until the car was brought to the dealer. I offered to take pictures of everything and send them to the dealer and anyone else inside Mini/BMW. I offered to remove the strut assembly and bring it to the dealer for them to look at. I offered to do all the repair work myself if they would pay for the parts, since, after all, the spring is defective. She refused it all. I asked if we could escalate this issue higher inside Mini USA. She said no, she was the highest person who would deal with this.

Mini/BMW does not stand behind their products at all and does not give a crap if their defective parts could cause fatal accidents. I am through with BMW forever. I've learned the hard way that they build cheap cars with cheap parts and that they could care less about driver safety. A coil spring is a vital part in any suspension and for one to break with so little miles is totally unacceptable to me. There's no way you can convince me that it's normal for a coil spring to break under normal use.

When the X3 had the broken rear spring I did a little research and found that BMW used to use a German company for their springs but had switched to a Romanian company in the early 2000s. Since then, hundreds of reports cases of broken suspension springs across all their models. I don't know why there hasn't been a NTSB investigation/recall yet.

I waited in the waiting room for an hour and a half while my car was being serviced, at which point someone from the Service Dept came out - and handed me an estimate for over $1,100.00. "Your calipers are seeping." I said I didn't want the new calipers - I planned on trading the car in soon. I didn't hear anything else: "Okay" was the reply from the Service Dept Rep. He came back 30 minutes later and said "You're all set." But the funny thing was the lack of any indication of rotors and pads on the bill. I went out to my car, and saw there was no brake work done, at all. I was not informed of this - I could have driven off thinking I had new brakes. Instead I still had the dangerous situation I drove the two hours to Burlington to have fixed.

I went back into to Service dept and wanted to know why they had not replaced the rotors and pads. The reply was: "This is tricky" - just what you want to hear from an auto dealership. "Your calipers were seeping, and this voided the warranty." Before I could go any further he then dropped another bomb: "And your warranty doesn't cover the rotors and pads anyway."

So that was three hundred miles and five hours of driving - for absolutely nothing. I'm getting out of Mini Coopers as a result of this experience, and I would strongly advise anyone to STEER CLEAR of any and all Extended Warranty offers made by any car dealership - it is a complete con job. And you might want to consider this as well: after 70,000 miles, these cars become incredibly unreliable and expensive to own: AT 70,000 miles, things started to go expensively wrong: another dealership, a Mini dealer in Albany, NY, told me I needed a new thermostat - and wanted $1000.00 ($975.00) for the repair.

I said no thank you - and took it to a certified independent BMW mechanic, and got the exact same job done for under $500.00. I needn't tell you - if you have the deep pockets and don't mind being ripped off on a continuing basis - by all means keep using the Mini Cooper dealerships. They are more than happy to have your business. They will never get mine again.

Other than that, the car is small but has terrible fuel efficiency. It is too small for road trips (unless you really, really like this car), too small for carrying much more than a few groceries, and too small for anyone with children. Yet it is not a luxury sports car, and it sure isn't an economy model. The ride is nauseating. There is such turbo-lag that it is dangerous to try to pull into fast-moving traffic because your car will wait a beat or two before lurching forward.

and THIS TIME the dealer wants us to spend more than $3,700 to fix all the little things they say are rotting off the car everywhere they look. To review, with oil changes, that is more than $4,000 in maintenance to drive a "Certified" car 2600 miles over 3 years. Good thing / bad thing? BAD THING! Bad bad bad car!