In the fourteenth month of leasing my '12 Cooper S, I've just been begrudgedly handed my eleventh service writeup.

EDIT: For clarity's sake:
I took the car in up to six times for the same problem.
Today, only after I went to the lengths of making recordings, did they admit some are there.
Customer relations has told me they can't do anything because there've been no attempts at repair.
There have been no attempts at repair? I took the car in eleven times.

Driving and dealing with this car has been as close to Hell as I've been while making monthly payments.
The issues came quick, like running out of oil at 2,000 miles. But, compared to the others, that was a blessing: they could see it. They could measure it. They knew what happened and fixed it.
I dragged myself to the next ten service visits essentially hoping they would submit that the issues I was mentioning even existed. They didn't.
Eventually, I recorded them. On video and audio.


They argue, something along the lines, that because they cannot hear them without the aid of a smartphone's microphone, they are within spec.
The audacity and blindness of MINI's representatives at both a local and national level uncomfortably infuriates me. I refuse to be told by however many dozens of service reps that I'm bending the truth, be implicitly told that I am hallucinating. I refuse to give in to these stone-cold idiots.
Especially when I have it on video. And when I'm often asked, for whatever reason, in my car, "What's that noise?"

If you're still reading, I am nondescriminately begging for help. Please. Someone. What. The heck.
I'm opening a case with the BBB Auto Line. We'll see what that does.

Thanks in advance.

 

Can you please help describe what the noise is? I see the videos and listened to the recording but I am not sure what I am supposed to hear? The description says rice crispy noise. Obviously it is beyond road noise or just normal chassis squeaks and rattles.

Sorry, I don't hear it just yet. Have you gone for a drive with the tech or SA to show them the noise beyond what video captures?

Not sure what I am guessing, but exhaust leak, diverter valve flutter, or heat shield rattle.

 

Nothing to do with the engine or exhaust, actually.
Here are the ones in the videos I linked. Headphones help.
- The tweeters emit a crackling noise that stops when the car stops.*
- a high-pitched whine that increases and decreases in tandem with the engine revs is constantly emitted from the front right channel.*
- The clutch produces a screeching sound on uptake.
*These two I think are caused by improperly grounded wiring to the amplifier.

More where that came from.

I've gone on more drives with more foremen and "factory experts" than I care to think.

They're deaf.

 

that sounds exactly like my old 280z when i installed my first stereo... Grounding was the issue/fix.

Man, good luck.

 

I had it too, in my Scion xB. But that was with an aftermarket system.
This is stock ...

And thanks.

 

Heya. Anyone got a copy of the warranty? I can't find it. Thanks.

 

Wanted to chime in and say that... I'm not an angry man. Well, calm for hanging around newsrooms and deadlines and whatnot.

I have never been so blinded with anger, hate, and other generally adolescent emotions as I am by this car and dealing with this company.

I've explained my situation more times and more thoroughly than I would to get myself out of a jail sentence.

*I am doing nothing but showing them defects that are blatantly and grossly out of the norm, and, twelve service receipts or so deep, they say they're normal and walk away.*

I will not fold.

 

Friday, a MINI rep told me the following noise (the same one depicted in the last video listed in my first post) was "normal."

Well, that's dandy. Why, then, did it take y'all seven service visits to find it?

 

"Within factory specifications."