I've meant to post this for awhile but have been starting a new business and busy doesn't even begin to cover it...

That said, my wife discovered that the clutch in our '11 CMS all was slipping AGAIN at 18,000 miles. As MINI of Portland had made it clear that they and MINI USA would only cover it once, I slid it into another marques dealership and traded it before the $3k bill.

What a disappointment... $33k+ for a pretty loaded up car, custom ordered, and when the clutch went at 11k, they treated us like second-class, used-car customers. They had the car for a MONTH while we debated who would cover it. Only my thinly veiled threats of dispersing this info on forums made them cave.

If that had been the only problem, it would have been too much, but we had injectors (2) fail, oil leaks, tensioner problems, the peeling chrome, a rear view mirror that split in half, a 12v socket that disappeared into the abyss, I'm sure I'm omitting something, but in my 20 years of buying cars, from Mitsu and Jeep to Maserati and Porsche, this was hands down the worst experience I have ever had with a dealer and a vehicle.

To top it off, the last time my wife took it in for one of the myriad problems, she accidentally left 2 items in the loaner car. She called to let them know, I spoke with them and confirmed (we live several towns away) and yet one week later, when I showed up to collect them, I was informed that the items had been donated to Goodwill (!?!) and that they were 'sorry about that'. Fuming, I spoke with Rory, the service manager, and told him that I was done, that I wanted out of the vehicle, and that he needed to let 'Jeff', the regional rep know I wanted a buyback. He assured me that he was on my side and would do 'everything in his power'. Needless to say, I never got any sort of resolution.

I am floored that MINI treats its customers this way. I traded the MINI on a $42k RAM 1500 and ordered a 2013 Subaru WRX the same week. It's not like I can't afford clutches, or for that matter, buy new cars... its just that none of them, EVER again, will be a MINI.

I strongly recommend you research alternatives... this is a massively under-engineered and further, poorly supported brand.

Tad, aka
Sir Stirling

PS- MINI USA, if you're reading this, don't reach out to me. WAY too late. :(

 

Wow, I cant believe one of THE avid mini-lover/enthusiast has given up. This is making me little nervous since I'm driving a manual w 39k on it. So far so good but, this issue w under- engineered clutch is unacceptable even after soooo many has failed in this forum alone- not even counting the folks who is not a NAM member. Miniusa better do something about this.

Good luck to you Sir Sterling....

Steven

 

Hey Tad,

Sorry to read this. Another MINI CM fail. What's pathetic is that most of us bought the darn thing because it was offered as a manual. It's like MINI is trying to kill the manuals for good.

My car hit 15k miles a couple of days ago and it has not broken down but the clutch feel plain old sucks. I won't drive it on certain streets in San Francisco because of the weak clutch. I think my clutch has not failed yet because I mostly drive the car from the Bay Area to Reno, so it's a 200 plus mile highway trip instead of stop and go. That being said I hate that clutch and I don't trust the car for the long haul.

We're keeping the R53 which is holding up well and I will still have the 2 BMW's, but for the "practical and sensible" vehicle in the fleet, I will likely ditch the CM and go back to a Jeep Grand Cherokee with the diesel motor coming in the 2014 in the next couple of months. I hate car payments and normally pay cash for cars, but I might lease for the first time in my life so I have an out in case I end up being the beta tester again.

 

We are awaiting the arrival of a replacement vehicle agreed to by BMW because our CMSA4 keeps blowing fuses, which causes the engine to shut down.

Hearing story after story like this makes us wonder if we are fools to accept a replacement Mini when we have the alternative of just getting our money back under our state lemon law.

Even though we had no problems with the clutch in our car in the brief time we had it, thankfully we had the sense to specify the replacement with an automatic transmission, for which we have heard few if any complaints.

 

I let my CM go after three months. The horror stories on here like this and simply popping the hood to dry off the engine compartment after a wash and seeing little blocks of rubber (or was it styrofoam) that could easily be bumped and knocked off from under the hood was my first personal sign of concern that this might not be a 'keeper.' Then there was that disconcerting feeling like I was losing control when the MC wanted to dangerously jump over a lane when the run flats hit a bump in the road. So I decided to be proactive and move on after those things, rather than wait for something to break down and strand me someplace.

I can afford anything I want but I bought another car for half the price that I like twice as much and it has a spare tire.

 

I'm looking at other options for my 2012 All4. I've had too many problems to entertain keeping it 1 mile past the warranty period.
My only difference is my dealership has been absolutely awesome in terms of taking care of issues, communicating, having loaners avail, etc...

 

Sir Stirling - I would appreciate it if you would cross post this in the Smelly Clutch thread too. I am on a mission. MINI has elected NOT to upgrade our clutch in our 2011 All4 as the dealer can find nothing wrong. Well, they found nothing wrong the four times I brought the car before the clutch failed at under 5k miles. This is shameful. I am using the hash tag #shameonyoumini in response to all MINI tweets and Facebook posts. This is disgraceful. I had direct dialog with folks at the executive offices and they will not budge from their position. They need to do the right thing for all of us who purchased manual transmission Contryman. Utterly disgraceful. MINI buyers beware!

 

Starman, just curious, what did you buy to replace your CM?

 

I hesitate to say on a MINI forum because I feel pretty certain people will laugh and ridicule but I absolutely love it. I have owned nearly every brand of vehicle over the years and money isn't an issue. Size, gas mileage and style are my main criteria. I will put it in this alphabetical list of other cars I'd investigate and compare to a MINI Countryman and say that it was one of these:

2013 FORD C-MAX SE - with Pano Sunroof rated at 47mpg
2013 HYUNDAI ELANTRA GT - North American Car of the Year
2013 HYUNDAI VELOSTER TURBO - went to the press preview in La Jolla
2012 or 2013 KIA SOUL Exclaim or Plus - just keeps getting better
2013 KIA RIO 5 SX - amazing back seat cargo area when seats are folded down
2012 SCION xD - RS 4.0 2012 limited edition, great gas mileage, great size

 

Oh man, this does not make me feel good. My new Countryman is my third Mini, and I did look closely at the automatic this time before settling on the manual. The automatic was so bad that I didn't even consider it. But I did have concerns from the get go with how the CM clutch felt. I just figured it was a matter of getting used to it. Now I'm worried.

I still have an R53, and so far the Countryman has been great, but it only has 1,500 miles on it!

I think the idea of starting some loud and strident communication with the Mini hierarchy that addresses the clutch issue is a good idea. Wish I knew how to do this facebook and Twitter thing. Might be worth learning so I can participate.

 

Actually I like the first three a lot...less familiar with the others (and could care less about being ridiculed). One other car that you could add to this group, the new Ford Focus ST. We test drove it, and were very impressed.

For us, if something gets derailed with the replacement CM, we have already decided we will buy a Forester. The local dealer has two in stock that are exact color and options we want in stock, is willing to make one heck of a deal because a completely redone 2014 model will be out soon, and calls us every week. Granted it's not as entertaining a drive as the CM, but we have yet to meet a Subaru owner that does not speak highly of their car, and we know a lot of them.

 

Hultman, just curious, what did you not like about the automatic? Thanks.

 

This board has frightened me away. I love minis, but I bought a Golf R and absolutely love it!

 

Interesting read....my 2 cents....We have had NO problems with our Non S, Automatic Countryman. I post here so that other's reading do not think that ALL CMs are under engineered, etc. My advice, go with Base CM, Automatic....has Sport mode, similar MINI driving experience....we had ours custom made/delivered 2 years ago, have 17,000 miles and have had ZERO isues. No chrome beltline peeling, no coolant issues, no issues to date....
In fact, we will be keeping this one for my 16 yr old daughter and I will be ordering a Paceman in March.....Again, I can appreciate frustrations with a vehicle, any vehicle can have issues.....my concern would be on dealership practices. Here in DFW we have 3 options, so there again, we have been fortunate to have these options....wish all who had issues with their CMs good luck and enjoyment with whatever they get instead...but we're keeping our CM and looking to our next MINI.......Cheers!

 

For what it's worth, the folks complaining about the clutch (myself included) have All4's. Unless I missed something, the base Cooper and FWD S seem fine.

While we will not keep the CM as long as planned, we will probably replace the R53 with another MINI hatchback when the time comes. The new bodystyle is coming soon so we will monitor the boards closely and stick with the MINI core competency of small FWD car with spunk - unless there are rumbles of major quality issues of course.

 

I'm picking up a manual S on Tuesday and these threads scare me quite a bit. It's not an All4 and hopefully it has the new and improved clutch (it's a 2013), but who really knows if it'll be any more durable.

I'm trading in a 350Z, which also had a horrendous reputation for the first model year or two (bad camber issues, front tires often wouldn't last 10k), but mine was the third model year and I didn't really have many issues with it. I got 7 1/2 great years out of it.

 

I think you're on to something. We purchased an Automatic "S" and haven't had a single problem yet (knock on wood) - lots of power and tons of fun.

 

Well I'm sorry to see you go and to hear of the problem you had. My experience has been the opposite.

I bought a 2004 MINI Cooper S in December of 2003 and it was a fantastic little car. Fun to drive, attention-getting and I drove it to 165k miles and sold it this year for $8000. Sure stuff started to break around 100k miles but my experience of ownership was worth every repair.

As a result of my experience, my new JCW Coupe is on its way on a ship right now. I hope the problems you experienced are rare and relegated to the Countryman. I love this brand and my dealer.

 

It shifted like a 1967 Chevy two speed! I have an '08 Chrysler Minivan that is the best automatic I've ever driven. They built in a slight engine hesitation between gears, and it is lovely to drive.

I was expecting the mini to have something similar, but it didn't. Just the old style automatic shift that drags the engine speed down to the new gear ratio.

The paddles seemed like an afterthought. I was really disappointed, so I ended up with the manual.

 

Sadly I'm in the same boat. Hoping for one more part to go out but already at 46 days in the shop, and like the TS the treatment over the clutch was the final straw.

Getting a 2010 or 11 gs350 AWD next. Worst to first in initial quality.

 

Maybe the Countryman is just a lemon model. I don't hear this kind of discontent among Coupe owners I've been carousing with since my order.

 

I'm an ex Subaru owner, had a few actually. There's a reason we buy em over and over. I sold my 01 Impreza 2.5 RS and bought my R53.

I did things in that car I would never do in my mini...



...and that's just how I washed it.

 

The most problematic component is the clutch on the All4, other version seem OK. It seems all other issues are being handled more or less gracefuly by the dealers under warranty, but there have been reports of owners being presented with a repair bill between $2,800 and $3,200.
If you read the Automobile Magazine long term report on the CM All4, they had clutch issues too. I think C&D did as well.

 

If these sorts of problems are being encountered by a large proportion of the CM ALL4 owners, and there is good reason to believe that they are, MINI is going to take a big hit. They need to fix this, fast. According to scuttlebutt, the clutch was a victim of the tsunami in Japan, which destroyed the plant where they were made. The new plant was not prepared or trained to make the equipment, and the clutches are just not right. MINI had better be gearing up to replace... for FREE... those clutches in the ALL4s.

Our 2011 MC has been perfect, not a whisper of a problem, for almost 23,000 happy miles. I wouldn't take a CM ALL4 if someone offered it for free, at this point. I really hope that the OP gets a reliable car, and that the owners of problem cars get satisfaction. It is sad for all of us when the brand we are fans of, MINI, disappoints so deeply.

 

I bet there will be a bunch of 3yr old All4's once the leases start to end. I really hope they get this sorted out.

4,000 miles into my adventure :-)