x 1000!

 

I agree that it's often difficult to discern that much about repair frequency from forums like this unless you start to see a significant number of owners experiencing similar issues with their cars. You can have the worst made car in the world and you will eventually find several owners that claim to have had no serious issues, and with the best made car in the world you will eventually find several owners who returned their cars under the lemon law. While not perfect, the two sources that I've found whose owner survey results seem to be useful and tend to reflect the real world are JD Power and Consumer Reports. They are the only ones that I've seen that survey widely enough for the results to be statistically significant. Predictably you will see them attacked by owners whose cars did not fare well, despite that they are merely attacking the messenger as all JD Power and Consumers Union are doing with the surveys are tabulating and publishing the results.

 

something to keep in mind is that mini makes anyone who has a car replaced in lieu of a lemon law buyback signs an NDA, so informal surveys like this might miss some people who had negative experiences...

 

I'd just like to chime in and state that I've owned a 2009 MCS hatch and a 2013 Countryman All4S and I've had no troubles with either.... none.

 

Also, JD Power & Associate may still just measure initial quality vs Consumers Reports 3 year long-term ownership reporting which measures dependability vs short term break downs and major owner issues with the car. With that being said, you cant judge a 14 model by the debut 2011 model, I think the main concern is the turbo engine for long term ownership, as well as clutch longevity, even post nov 2012 builds.

 

One 2014 survey (can't remember which one) put MINI dead last. Upon reading the text, it turned out that the primary problem was the CVT in the First Generation Cooper! Seriously? If I'm expected to believe their surveys, and I rarely do, it would at least be sporting for them to get somewhat close to current models!

I had a very early 2007. By all rights--and surveys--I should have had all kinds of problems, but I didn't. A few teething issues with software, and the timing chain issue, which MINI paid for, and that was pretty much it. The rest was routine maintenance, and things that can and will break on any car when they're pushing 8 years and over 100,000 miles old.

So far--and I'm really crossing my fingers here--nothing at all on the 2015. It's a month old, and has about 3000 miles on it.

 

Nobody should trust consumer reports. They are very bias to Toyota.

Sent from my iPhone using NAMotoring

 

oh boy.... and here i thought they were biased towards everyone else....

 

We had a CVT from 2002= never had any problems.We sold it after 6 years.

 

http://www.tradeinqualityindex.com

 

My Saab from 1988 (900) is still "on the road".It was for me the most reliable car I had.
The only car in my long life that stranded was a Honda.
The BMW Minis had never any technical problem, the original UK one had a never ending story due to the horrible quality control.
In those index the input is mostly from the "complainers".
My Lexusses were the top,my Toyotas were only average.
The only index I trust will be my own daily use

 

Pretty sad.

 

Unless I missed it, it doesn't specify the ages of the cars sampled. The car of 2002 is a far cry from the car of 2012---and the 2014-15 models are even more likely to be reliable. How many of the transmission issues, for example, were for the CVT, which was unreliable for many manufacturers?

I filled out a number of J.D. Power surveys with my R56. I always gritted my teeth when I did so, because the questions were phrased in an all-or-nothing fashion. If I went to the dealer for something very minor, it was counted as if the car had a total meltdown!

For what it's worth, my experience so far has been steller with the F56. I now have some 3700 miles on the car in 5 weeks, including both local mileage and 2 major trips. Absolutely nothing bad to report, other than windshield damage from 2 rocks, both from dump trucks. I don't consider them to be the manufacturer's fault.

 

My wife and I just bought a '15 CMS All 4 to replace her '12 Justa (as I take it they are called) which was on lease. She loved it and didn't want to look at anything else for a bigger car for when the eventual small human comes along. The R56 had no real issues apart from recalled thermostat and the computer being reprogrammed after snow driving confused the hell out of the traction control). Not a single squeak of rattle after 3 years of driving in Boston. I'm praying the CMS will treat her just as well. If not, I'll sell before or after the warranty is out (and probably get another Mini).

 

You can poo-poo a survey but every line of car has its complainers. Do you think mini cooper owners are just more whiny than other car owners? To me it would indicate a real problem.

 

The N12 and N16 engines are about average reliability, slightly below maybe. Guaranteed to charge you for a $500 thermostat housing and possibly a timing chain tensioner bolt $300, once you get up near 100k. Mine was beyond max slack at 60k and it cost me $350 to put in a new tensioner bolt. I sure hope that's it. Any turbo model is almost certain to need walnut blasting, timing chain tensioner or replacement and maybe more unless you change your oil way more often than the computer says.

The normal aspiration N12 and 16's are low on power by today's standards, but are still fun to drive and quite peppy under 60 mph. Passing over 60 requires a loooong stretch of road.
I love the fun of the turbos, but my checking account appreciates the normal aspiration (NA) engine.

Too bad Consumer Reports doesn't separate the two engines. One year they did the Clubman separate from the hardtop and it came in average or above! Now it's all black dots, but lots of fun.

 

I understand the timing chain tensioner is a cheap easy fix but not so if the timing chain needs replaced.
If your timing chain was beyond maximum slack, wouldn't that have required replacement of the much more difficult and expensive whole timing chain assembly rather than just the cheap and easy tensioner?

 

Suffice it to say that a Mini is not a Honda--which is good news in the performance department and bad news in the repair area (it's not "bullet proof")

 

My R53 went in for leaky motor mount a few times (typical, though baffling to have topography troubles on a car from Germany, in part) and eventually clutch. My R55 was clutch only. My R60 zero issues. Granted each was about a three year ownership, but I felt quite reasonable. And to be fair on the clutches, hilly, traffic clogged San Francisco (and the R60 passed those mileage points with a strong clutch,so) and I'm not the smoothest shifter.

Reliability is not a concern for me, and I hope this continues into my upcoming F56...

 

Trex,
I left the Mini at the dealer for the day and they found the slack and followed hat they called the BMW protocol, which was to just replace the tensioner bolt with the newly designed one (longer and with a better spring in it). Perhaps too because my car was beyond warranty, to save me about a thousand dollars (I only asked them to check the slack.) Now that it's in the past, I do wish I'd replaced the whole cassette, which I'll probably do as I approach 100k.

 

Honda performance in general pretty good, largely due to a horsepower-bragging-rights-battle with Toyota, and more recently, the Korean brands. But driving feel, style, character, soul, and those sorts of things... no competition.

I was forced to drive a gold Corolla S once, and it almost sucked all of the life force out of my body.

 

I owned 3 wranglers and everytime i read the jeep forums i got scared with all the problems people wrote about.

 

I've been active on the forum for many years and I think I can add some historical perspective, at least as far as the Countryman is concerned. Like many new models, the first year the Countryman was produced owners has far, far too many problems, and if you look back at the time period (all the posts are here on the forum) you see so many owners reporting the same problems. But every year there seems to be less and less problem complaints. We owned a 2012 that had major electrical system problems and BMW finally agreed to replace it after we commenced a lemon law legal action. A number of changes were made for the 2013 model year, and when we took delivery on our replacement Countryman (a 2013), the improvement in the build quality was immediately noticeable. While I can't say the 2013 has been completely trouble free, after 36,000 miles the only issues we've had have been a small crack in a wheel bearing that was making a humming type noise (my guess is that most owners would not even have noticed the noise), broken driver's seat lumbar adjustment, and very recently a software upgrade was required because we received an erroneous message that the rear brake pads needed replacing. We've also found that we need to add an occasional bottle of Techron (fuel additive) to keep the engine idling smoothly. If you just look at the number of complaints posted here on the forum you will see a steady decline with every succeeding year. I fully expect the next time Consumer Reports and JD Power do their surveys, the improvements will be obvious. I'm not suggesting that any BMW product is ever going to win a most troublefree award, but at this point I would not hestitate to buy a new Countryman or even a used 2013 model year or newer so long as there's clear evidence it's been well maintained.

 

I just purchased 2015 Countryman s all 4, the first thing i did was to replaced the run flats the results were night and day. The issues im having now is the black roof scrath easily and the engine is kinda loud i dont know if this is normal it sounds like a deasel engine .

 

My last MINI was a very early '07 MCS. I expected problems with a just-released total redesign. I never really got them. Yes, there were some, but nothing exciting, and all were handled through warranty. Most annoying was a persistent rattle on certain types of roads. Others, driving the same model, also first year, had plenty of problems. Could it be because mine was so early everyone was really eyeballing the assembly line? I drove that car over 100,000 miles before I ordered my new one.

So, although the new MCS wasn't quite a first-year on the Gen 3 total redesign, it was close. There were only about 6 month's worth of 2014s when the '15s came out. And I have to say, this one is not only far superior to the R56, it also doesn't have bugs or problems. I am going to ask that they check the driver's side exterior door lock button when I go in for the oil change, but that's about it. And it works, just takes a few presses in contrast the the other door. It's nothing that justifies a trip by itself. This, after 3 3/4 months and 7200 miles. It's the first new car of any marque that got a perfect score on the JD Powers survey I filled out a couple of weeks ago.