As I bought my '13 Hardtop just two months ago and have 1500 miles on it it's still a little early to call it bullet proof. However, I've not had a single problem with it, not even a rattle.

 

BTW, I would be remiss in not adding that we will never buy another BMW product again, even though our current car has had minimal problems.

We just don't trust the company after seeing multiple instances of how they treat their customers.

What we had to go through to get our car replaced was just totally unfair. Despite that our car had to be towed back to the dealer multiple times, we could not get their attention until we started a lemon law legal action. Calling bMWs customer service department is a complete waste of time. While they are well-trained in how to apologize to the customers, they are useless for any other purpose. And while the dealer was nice enough to order us a new car right away, it took way too long before we were certain that we had BMWs formal agreement to replace the car, and what the exact terms would be. In hindsight, we should've just bought a replacement car, and continued with the lemon law action in order to get a refund.

We were also former owners of a 2003 hardtop, and the early years of the first-generation cars had an overwhelming number of power steering pump failures. Soon after they gave us the replacement countryman, we happened by chance to read on this forum that BMW was reimbursing owners for the power steering pump replacements.

The widespread problem with the power steering pumps is well documented, and the right thing would have been for BMW to replace the pumps free of charge in the first place. The Canadian equivalent of NHTSA finally took action against BMW because of the defective pumps, and it must have been obvious to BMW that the federal government was about to do the same, because after all these years all of a sudden BMW announced that there was an extended warranty on the pumps, and that customers who had paid to have the pumps replaced would be reimbursed.

As instructed by BMW, last July we sent in a copy of the receipt showing that our dealer has replaced our pump at a cost of approximately $1400. We called BMW customer service at least a dozen times over the next few months to find out where our reimbursement check was, and every time we called we received a different excuse. Numerous other owners experienced the same delays as we did. It's all documented in the first generation section of this forum.

The last straw was the final time we called customer service, and they told us that the copy of the service order from the dealer did not prove that we really paid the dealer to have the power steering pump replaced. What absolute nonsense! We called BMW USA's executive offices, and let them know that we were not going away. After several more follow-up phone calls, we finally received our check last month.

If you think I am making this up or exaggerating, just go to the first-generation section of this forum, and do a search on "power steering pump", and you will see lots of examples of customers that they treated the same way.

We are also current owners of an X5 and we have purchased numerous BMW products over the years, including a motorcycle. But after what we have experienced, we will never buy another BMW product again. BMW is simply not a trustworthy company.

 

Owner of my 3rd Mini (2012 White Countryman S) with about 11050 miles on it. I've had ZERO problems with exception of the occasional rattle, but no big deal!

 

There are certainly reliability extremes like Shark for instance, and that is inexcusable.

I think the overall theme is that Mini as a car company, to my knowledge, has never been known as a rock solid reliable marque, and neither has it's parent-BMW as a car company has a terrible reliability record.

I knew this going in. I certainly agree that for the price commanded by these cars, they should at least be in the Honda or Toyota area of reliability.

Bottom line for me is, I absolutely love Minis. there is no other car like them anywhere on the planet, and I am willing to put up with a certain amount of reliability issues...up to a point. I don't like it, but it's either that, or don't buy them, and that doesn't work for me.

My wife and I have had our share of pretty cool cars(Porsche GT3, Boxster S, Corvette Z06's, etc), but nothing puts a smile on our face every time we drive like the Minis...

We are now at 11K miles on the CM JCW with 0 reliability issues. Our R56 JCW is too new to really know yet, but initial quality is spot-on.

 

2012 All4 now with 23,000 and all I have had is the driver side window motor fritz out on me (it worked but had to push it a million times to open and close) and a HUGE pothole destroyed my front RF Tuesday night (new tires go on today) but that's not the cars fault. Other then that not any issues at all.

 

well said.

 

I come from the Saab world so "quirks" are something that I am used to and accepting of. A saab is the DEFINITION of quirky. But the R56 has been plagued with several serious engine issues which go beyond quirky. A turbo 4 cylinder making 170-180 HP is no engineering marvel. The fact that the N14 and to a lesser extent the N18 are not reliable is a serious problem. It's 2014. There's no excuse for the number of ENGINE related issues that people experience on the R56 platform.

 

true, border, very true indeed.

 

I just traded my R60 in yesterday and when talking with salesman, he told me that the R60 took a huge hit over the past 6 months with values because of the reputation it has but who knows. No car holds their value, so it didn't matter.

I had mine for just under 2 years and only issue I had was my dash shorted out. I now went back to an R56 myself.

 

That's because you traded it in. If you were buying one he would have told you that the R60 is on the upswing, in demand and with a great reputation … thereby negating any discount.

 

Car dealers just amaze me with their lies. But even more sad is when you hear how a customer has been taken advantage of with their dishonesty.

 

Try selling one privately, it's a *****, I've been trying to sell mine for a couple of weeks, it's fully loaded, only 24,500 km in 3 years, 2 years warranty remaining, only missing navigation and flat load boot floor, no nibbles. Looking at the other CM (about 10 cars in Norway) for sale privately most have been listed for at least 6-8 weeks before they sell. I believe the issue is trying to find a buyer who wants what yours has, there are so many options, no two are the same, which makes buyers very picky. I'll probably have to take the trade offered by the Audi dealer, it's a good trade, but still short of what I should be able to sell it privately.


.

 

We have a 2012 CM with 13,000 miles that seems to have developed a rough idle. Since I got my 2006 MCS in July, my wife has been driving the CM and when I drove it the first time in months, I don't remember it idling like it does now. Maybe my gen1 idle is butter when compared. It's not so rough that it shakes the whole car, but it is less smooth when I come to a complete stop.

I just added a bottle of Techron, so I'll see in the next couple of weeks.

 

I have a 2011 Countyman, which I bought as a pre-certified pre owned one year ago. No problems so far...