Why are you waiting? You live in California right? The California lemon law, http://ag.ca.gov/consumers/general/lemon.php , states "The vehicle is out of service because of the repair of any number of problems by the manufacturer or its agents for a cumulative total of more than 30 days since delivery of the vehicle". You are at 40 days and counting. If you really want out you should go for it.

I also don't understand when you say "they can't fix it". You say it's a problem with the rear differential locking up. What is it doing when it “locks up”? Have they replaced it? Can't be that hard to do and should not take 40 days. If they did and the problem still exists then I would have to say it was not the rear differential. The only other items different between the drive train of the standard and All-4 going to the rear wheels would be the transfer box power take off attached to the transmission or the clutch attached to and just forward of the rear differential. Did you take it back to the same dealer you purchased it from? Like to know what dealer so I could avoid them; they can't have a very competent service department.

 

As I suspected, you've already hit the criteria for lemon law, cumlative number of days. Start the process.

 

As every one else says here get an attorney that knows your states "Lemon Law" as soon as possible if they give you any problems trying to get a full refund or a new same spec CM...

Hope you get this sorted out quick now, its not good going so long angry and frustrated...

So good luck and hope you get this sorted out soon!

You should be glad you dont live were I live.
I live in Norway and we possible have the highest car prices in the western world.
My Countryman Cooper S, fully loaded has the nice price of 106 000 USD.
YES one hundred and six thousand US dollar.

 

Love it - love it, LOVE IT. It drives like a dream, it is my second Mini Cooper, my husband is also on his second Cooper. This is our first countryman, and we all love it. Drives like the usual MINI, but more roomy.

 

Well done, sir.

To the OP, I agree with others that it is probably time to request a full refund, pending what your state's lemon laws are, as they might be posted on your state's DMV site.

 

OP has gone MIA. Maybe he has gone to an attorney and was told to quit posting on forums.

 

Hey Guys, here's other quick update. It turns out that Mini didn't have the part to fix the rear differential for my car. They also do not have the tools to fix it which just baffles me. So what they are waiting for is for the headquarters in Germany to finish the mold for the tools and then they are going to make the actual tools to fix the car. After the tools are built they are going make the differential parts. So as of now im just waiting to hear back from Mini's main people. they told me to send them my sales contract, copy of my down payment check etc etc. It appears to me that they will refund my money considering that its been almost 2 months. I should hopefully find out if they will cooperate. I did contact a lemon law lawyer and he did say that my case is eligible for a lemon law suit but the only problem is that it would take 60 to 120 days for the case to go through and be resolved and I cant wait that long without a car. I'm hoping that Mini Does the right thing and just refunds my money without me having to get the lawyers involved. It sucks things didn't work out with the countryman...It was a such a cool car to drive around. On a side note the car im looking into getting now is the new BMW 1M.....Wish me luck guys !!

 

Best of luck. Sounds like they are doing the right thing. Let us know.

A 1M sounds sweet!

 

I don't understand this. Why don't they just replace the whole damn thing? There is a part number for it, 33107604789 http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...56&hg=33&fg=05 . It would be cheaper than buying back a car. And as for tools, what tool do they have to make that the company that built it does not already have? And I know they have to have tools to install it.

 

I'm pretty sure MINI doesn't manufacture all parts, assemblies and sub-assemblies in the car from mechanical items to computer chips. The items in need of repair may have been sourced from a supplier to MINI and MINI may not have the tooling required to service them at a dealer maintenance shop. I'm not saying they shouldn't have a method to repair this, just saying that MINI may not have tooling already developed and available that they can send to dealers quickly.

That said, MINI should have just swapped out the car or returned the OP's money in my opinion to keep him happy and the rest of us confident in your (and my hopefully future) purchases.

 

I'm glad you spoke up about it. I've met quite a few people who chug the Japanese Kool Aid and still(!) to this day believe absolutely all Japanese brands are all totally perfect no matter what! I seriously wonder if they cover up the problems they have with them. I've always doubted the reliability of the Honda brand. One car magazine did a long term test on the Accord when it was the best seller one year ago and gave it a "do not recommend" rating! I believe it was around 1990 or so.

 

I don't believe Japanese cars are perfect, but EVERY piece of actual reliability data ever collected has shown Japanese cars generally more reliable than European cars, and Hondas MUCH more reliable than Minis. This, of course, doesn't preclude you getting a reliable Mini and a lemon Honda, and things, of course, vary model to model and year to year, but in general, I don't think there is the slightest doubt that your odds are much better of your car being more reliable when you buy a Honda (or Toyota, Nissan, or Mazda).

OTOH, there is more to cars than absolute reliability and most cars these days, even Minis, are more reliable than they used to be, and probably reliable enough for most people. It all depends on your priorities. But don't kid yourself that Minis are paradigms of reliability because every piece of data we have is that they're average to below average.

- Mark

 

So...All that said does it boil down to the uniqueness "cuteness" and the gas numbers that lure people to buy them?Than why are the sales numbers increasing?Is the buyer just ignoring the ratings?I myself have had a pretty trouble free '07 MCS and would buy another.There are a number of us that have great reliable MINI's,but you don't see much hype on that percentage to improve reliability ratings.

 

They may not be able to get the part needed because it came from a supplier in Japan that was destroyed by the Sunami.

I think the Factory has to buy back the car because the dealer would be stuck with the lemon if they just traded it for another one.

When you get your refund you just need to get another Countryman. There sure are a lot of happy owners with no problems at all with their Countryman's so getting another lemon is very slim.

 

We have owned 4 MINIs since 2002. So far no reliablilty issues. No service issues, no service needed except for the recommended service appointments with the dealer. 100% reliability, for us, for our 4 MINIs since we bought the first one in 2002. At that time I was driving a 2000 Honda Accord and my hubby had the MINI. Honda was in the shop plenty of times, but no issues with the MINI. I can only speak from my own experiences.... Happy MINI owners are we.

 

Thats what I'm talkin about

 

Make sure the 1M has enough trunk space because it isn't covered under lemon law.

 

Final Conclusion: Mini Cooper Head Quarters contacted me yesterday and they are going to buy back my Countryman. Its now going into the third month and they still don't have the tools or parts to fix it. Overall it was a fun car to own (while it was running). Thank you for your support throughout all of this & I wish everyone with a countryman all the best.

 

Good luck to you and glad they finally did right, although it took waaaayyyy too long. Hope they also gave you loaner during the absence of your CM.

Hopefully your next car runs 200,000 miles without a hitch now that you've got karma points (or is it car-ma points? sorry...)

 

Have fun with that 1 Series M.

 

There is a lot of variability within the Mini brand. The base MC tends to get rated quite well, the MCS less so. Even worse then comes the convertible.

The many tailorable options don't help either. In general I tend to stay away from as much electronic wizardry as possible.

 

Wonder what they'll do with the car if they ever get around to fixing it? Resell it? Do they have to divulge past maintenance problems?

 

Most of the manufacturers have the same practice with vehicles after use in test programs, recovery from accidents, severe failures - they crush 'em when they're done. The liability exposure is just too high if the vehicles were ever to make it to the public and a later problem emerge.

 

Not always true, at least in California. You can resale a lemon law car in California. Also those that have been recovered from theft or totaled due to an accident can be resold. The title for a car bought back under the lemon law will have titles with “Lemon” on the face and those that were totaled will have “Salvage”. I have heard it is almost impossible to get a loan, using the car as collateral, if the title is stamped “Lemon” or “Salvage”; that leaves only cash buyer. The owner of the boat shop I was working purchased a used Mercedes CLK that had been bought back under the lemon law. He thought he got a smoking deal buying the car at about 50% of its market value; until he tried to sale it and found it was worth very little with a “lemon” title. The scary part is these cars can have their titles “washed” by moving them from one state to another or by exporting them to other countries then bringing them back into the US with new titles. I remember reading about salvaged cars from hurricane Katrina that found their way to other states and resold with clean titles. Some cars will find their way to Hollywood were they are used in movies as props to be destroyed. When I was working for the boat company we bought back a customer’s boat. It was sold to the movie studio and used in an episode of CSI Miami; they crashed a car into it. I found it funny because the crash scene was shot in Santa Monica on PCH and not Miami were it was supposedly to have taken place.

 

Well this one wasn't bought back as a result of the lemon law, it was just bought back and it wasn't in an accident so no salvage on the title. I bet it'll end up on the used car lot somewhere. For people in the OP's area, it might be helpful to have the VIN number just in case someone sees a smoking deal on a used Countryman...