After pining for the new Countryman with it being available for the past year or so -- and waiting patiently to see if the hybrid was worth the extra monetary investment -- I finally bought Emma Frost last Tuesday, happily contributing to a massive sales month for MINI USA and the Countryman. Or so I thought.

Driving off the lot late that night, I noticed the check engine light was lit on the tach gauge and the outside temperature was reading -40 degrees (no, I don't live in Siberia). But nothing seemed amiss with the way she drove and I thought it was too late to bother the Motoring Advisor who actually had troubles getting back into the building minutes before since he was the last one left at the dealership.



Reported the issues to my MA, dropped her off at service two days later and departed with a near-identical Pacific Blue Countryman loaner. One busy service weekend later I get a message that they will finally get around to checking out my car and then I don't hear back for a day. So I call for an update and talk to my Service Advisor -- techs haven't figured out either issue yet but it's likely in the car's computer they say.

So now I've "owned" Emma for over a week yet only driven her for two days, actually logging many more miles in the service loaner. How long do I sit things out and wait? What's the pain threshold? At what point should I go back to the dealer and ask them for an entirely different car to replace her?

 

RUN away. I would return the vehicle for a new one. I'd also not name a vehicle t'ill he or she is a keeper

In all seriousness, there is no way I'd keep that particular vehicle. Starting out with electrical gremlins? No thanks.
I'd go back right away. They will try and convince you otherwise but stand your ground. You probably have 30 days to return so don't let them delay.

 

I'd give them a chance to root cause and fix the issue. You've got a near identical F60 loaner, use that and put the miles on it. Unless you want something on the lot, if they did consider giving you a replacement, you'd likely have to wait 2 more months for a new one.
​​​​​​If they come back saying they fixed it and something seems wrong, then I'd consider other action.
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I'd get rid of it too.

 

Get rid of it and get a new one, IMHO. Unless they can give you everything you need to know that this issue is resolved, will not happen again, and you've got your piece of mind.

 

Finally a more positive-sounding response today. SA reports it was a bad temperature sensor and they've since replaced it. So somehow it alone wreaked havoc on the car's computer and is why it was throwing bad diagnostics readings all around. Full diagnostics tests performed and passed afterwards.

Crossing fingers and taking this nugget of information with a grain of salt. If anything else weird comes up I'm definitely putting the dealership and MINI to task, especially since it took them a week to figure out this issue.

Thanks for the responses!

 

Odd that the first thing they didn't check was the temperature sensor. Must not have been written in the flowchart that way or they didn't have the part in stock.

Glad it's fixed for you.