Hi All -

I finally bought a Mini (06 R50) - though it's from my brother. Could get interesting

I was able to afford it 'cause it's got a salvage title - though the repair work seems to have been done well (many years as a mechanic - I do know what to look for).

Anyway - he took it to the dealer while it was still under warranty (few hundred over now) & was told that the warranty would not cover the needed (~$1500) repair to the passenger seat occupancy sensor because of the salvage title. The sensor worked normally for a long time after the accident.

In my searches of the web, this seems common with Minis & Bimmers.

Where should I post questions about this? 1) why it's not covered (airbags did not deploy in the accident), 2) how long the airbag warranty is & 3) what I might do to deal with it for less than ~15% of the purchase price of the car. Pretty new car to use the "hide the light with electrical tape" method - plus I'd like the bags to deploy correctly if needed.

Thanks!

 

I believe a salvage title voids your warranty, but I would say call MINI and ask.

 

Many thanks. That's what my brother was told - even though the bags did not deploy.

Beginning to wonder if I can afford this car. I've owned many Audis - so I know how to spend money on a car - but the stories/costs experienced on the occupancy sensor are just stupid.

 

did you already buy?

 

Yeah. The price was right & other than this the car is in very nice shape. Standard thermo housing needed & rear swaybar links - but that's it.

I was reacting more to what I've seen out on the web where people have replaced this occupancy sensor pad 3 times in 60,000 miles & folks who's warning lights go off with a 6 pack, etc. It's not like this is a radio not quite working right, this is serious stuff & Mini seems to not take it very seriously + thinking buyers have pretty deep pockets.

I get that a salvage title may void the warranty on this (I'm past 50,000 anyway) - but $1500+ for this job is nuts. They designed an obviously faulty part & should at least share some of the pain.

Just my opinion of course....

 

its actually like this with most foreign brand cars

 

Well... Depends. I've been in the car world for much of my life: mechanic, selling parts, selling cars, trucks, etc. I'm no longer doing those full time, though I still buy & sell the occasional car.

Japanese cars are seldom like this. They are also IMHO mostly soulless pieces of machinery - which is why I like European. I have owned & bought & sold many European cars from Jags to Peugeots to Saabs to Fiats to VWs to BMWs to Audis, etc. Certainly there are parts for these cars that are expensive (particularly Audi), but there are plenty of options: junkyards, specialty parts stores, eBay, etc.

The frustration here for me is that I've found most of the above cars designed to go way past 100,000 (or 200,000) miles without having to spend $1500 on making airbags work right every 30-50,000 miles. I could see maybe $300 - but not 1500.

I guess I'll just have to find resistor values so I can bypass the seat pad - but still have it work correctly. The BMW guys seem to have this figured out - but their connectors seem to be a bit different (2 wire instead of 3 I think).

Oh well - don't mean to fill up the forum with a rant. I love driving the car - just frustrated with the Mfr's attitude.

 

1st gen forum is probably where you'll get the most answers.
Personally, I driven over 200k miles in 3 different MINIS and never had this issue.

 

Thanks! I'll post over there. Also good to hear about your experience - much appreciated. Like anything, I guess the folks with bad experiences are louder that those with good...

 

where did u hear that every 30k- 50k miles you have to get a new airbag

 

Here for one: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...at-switch.html

Several other places on the web. Bimmers seem to be having similar issues as well.