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Hello.
I live in Davenport, Ia. and I am considering a Mini Cooper S Clubman. As you well know my closest dealer is in Naperville, Il. I am concerned about service and whether the Minis require a lot of service other than the regular sceduled service covered by the first 3 year warranty. How reliable have they been for you owners and have they ever failed to where they could not be driven. I ask this because I wonder if the roadside assistance would cover a transport of a Mini from Davenport to the Naperville dealer for service. Any information would be greatly appreciated as I am new to world of Mini ownership but have been a fan for many years.
oh and btw great to see you on here if you have any questions or anything let us know.. even if you dont have your MINI yet stop by one of the events to see us and introduce yourself...
I am in the same position you are. I am thinking of a clubman. I was recently in the chicago area and went to a dealership in Lake Bluff, IL to check them out. I live in Mount Vernon, I am trying to determine where I would be able to get any of the service done, like the oil changes ect. The other concern I have is how they handle in the winter? Any comments out there from Mini owners on how they got along driving their Mini's in this last Iowa winter? ethou
well being from Mt Vernon I know you know what a terrible winter we had in this area, (Iowa City)
I drove every day monday thru friday on I380 from IC to CR on all season tires I never slid out or had any problems. Next year I am switching to true snow tires more to protect my rims from pothole hell that is I380 but all in all I say a great handling little car...
I dont expect the clubman to be any worse
again to the new people come visit us at our next rally!!!!
Hey Michael, glad to see your post and good to welcome you into the prospective MINI family!
We have quite a few 2nd Gen MINIs in our group (i.e., the non-convertible models of the MC and MCS built since '07; includes the Clubman). I can't speak for those folks but I don't seem to recall hearing about any unexpected reliability problems or failures. Most, if not all, are obviously very happy with their MINIs and don't regret buying one. I also think that Naperville is the closest dealer for most of us, though some go to St. Louis, Minneapolis (like me), and Omaha for the Des Moines area MINIs. Maybe some of our other Quad Cities area MINIs will reply with their impressions.
You can search the R56 and Clubman threads here on NAM and get an idea how people are liking their MINIs. Of course, the impression you'll get is a bit skewed since it's the 'squeaky wheels' with some issue that are more likely to rant. The bulk of happy MINI owners tend to be the silent majority.
BTW, the service agreement and the warranty are separate animals. The service agreement, which covers all scheduled maintenance costs, runs for 3 years or 36K miles. The baseline warranty, unless it has changed since I bought mine, runs through 4 years or 48K miles.
Again, welcome to NAM and hope our collective experience can assist you in your decision-making. Don't forget to check out our website (see the link in my sig). Good luck with your Clubman shopping!
"...indeed the love that the horses of the Rangers bore for their riders was so great that they were willing to face even the terror of the Door, if their masters' hearts were steady..." --- J.R.R. Tolkien
The other concern I have is how they handle in the winter? Any comments out there from Mini owners on how they got along driving their Mini's in this last Iowa winter? ethou
Hey there Vozzie. Since I run summer performance tires on custom wheels, I had a set of snow tires mounted to my stock holies and run them over the winter months. This past season I made bi-weekly runs from Decorah to the Minneapolis airport (about 150 miles) throughout the winter for work-related travel on every kind of winter road surface you can imagine--packed snow, blowing snow, accumulating sleet, glaze ice, and mixes of all. I was often able to motor along carefully at least as fast as the surrounding traffic and never once had a traction issue. I always felt like I was in full control, even when I saw other vehicles struggling.
I think the only winter condition that would ever be an issue is a deep (more than 4") and continuous accumulation of snow on the road. Though I could probably plow through it, I wouldn't want to run the risk of damaging the lower lip of my Aero bumper.
In short, I'm convinced that a MINI on proper tires and driven within the limits of the road conditions is a great winter driver. If you do some searches here on NAM I think you'll find a lot of agreement.
I'd bet you'd be most happy with the way a Clubman would handle too.
"...indeed the love that the horses of the Rangers bore for their riders was so great that they were willing to face even the terror of the Door, if their masters' hearts were steady..." --- J.R.R. Tolkien
thanks for the reply. My other worries are I live in the country, drive about 4 miles on a gravel road ...wondering how the Clubman would handle all of that. I drive a Chevy Suburban now...kids are mainly grown and I am looking to downsize and am in love with the mini's!! So I am wondering how this all works, if I buy a new clubman, where does one get their regular service work done around this area (Mt Vernon)?
My 2007 MCSm had a throttle problem in below-zero weather. MINI flat-bedded it from my house in Southeast Iowa to Patrick MINI in Schaumburg, Illinois and got me a rental car from Iowa City. They installed a "revised" throttle which performed flawlessly. No cost to me for either.
I took a "vacation" trip to Schaumburg for my oil change. No other service has been needed.
Winter driving was EXCELLENT. I have never driven a car that was more stable on snow and ice. On first snow I made a trip to a huge parking lot where I could safely see how it handled, and it was great. Driving down the highway, the SUVs were fishtailing all over the road while Molly stayed straight and true.
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"Molly2" -- 2011 MCSm
Last edited by oldsbear; 05-15-2008 at 04:38 AM.
Reason: Grammar.
Nah...some (like me) go to Minneapolis 'cause it's closer; others out west go to Omaha, and a few "southern folk" prefer St. Louis.
It's not as burdensome as you might otherwise think. With the standard synthetic oil the scheduled (per the onboard computer) maintenance checks only occur about every 15K miles. A few like to squeeze in interim oil changes on their own dime, but this is personal preference.
Hey, you need to hit the road every now and then to enjoy the MINI anyway, right?
"...indeed the love that the horses of the Rangers bore for their riders was so great that they were willing to face even the terror of the Door, if their masters' hearts were steady..." --- J.R.R. Tolkien
Thank you all for your valuable information. It's encouraging to hear so much positive feedback. Our family took a drive to the Denver Colorado area for a graduation and I took a side trip to visit the only Mini dealer in the Metro area to see a Clubman first hand. They could't keep them on the lot. They sold two Clubmans while I was there and were so busy with other customers that nobody even approached me for a pitch. I loved every aspect of the vehical and am sold on it as my next. When I returned to my hotel room there was a brand new Clubman parked directly in front of my rooms window. I took this as a sign. Hope to join you on the road in the near future.
Good luck with your Clubbie search...guess you could always order it straight from the factory to get exactly what you want, provided that you can stand the wait for final delivery without going bonkers.
Keep in touch, and hope to see you out motoring with us soon!
"...indeed the love that the horses of the Rangers bore for their riders was so great that they were willing to face even the terror of the Door, if their masters' hearts were steady..." --- J.R.R. Tolkien
Is there one dealer that one would recommend over another ( the closest ones to me are in the naperville area)? Also, Is there anyone in Iowa that got anything off the MRSP price for a Clubman? or anything free thrown in?
With the clubmans selling so well I wouldnt expect much if anything off MSRP I know with the first few years of the regular MINI there was a 1 - 5% premium above MSRP...
Vozzie, I got my MINI in Naperville. I don't know about the Clubman, but Bill Jacobs threw in "free" rubber mats with mine. The Naperville people are nice enough, but the Milwaukee people go out of their way to show you they appreciate their customers.
ROHERYN -- 2011 MCS SO/W -- 
No other service has been needed.
