Just over the holidays, the battery on my 2016 Clubman S went dead. We bought our car new in Sept 2016, so it was a little shocking to us that the battery only lasted 3 years and 3 months. First question: How long does the battery last on your MINI?

Other than another MINI that we have owned in the past (a 2003 MINI Cooper) where its battery again went dead after 3 years of ownership, all of our other cars (mix of European, American, Japanese cars) have batteries that last at least 5 years if not longer like 7+ years. I generally take very good care of the batteries as there is usually 1 car in our family that is not often used during winter, so I have a few trickle chargers lying around at home and I have a good habit of putting on trickle chargers when any of our cars won't be used for more than 3 days. Oh, we generally disable the auto stop/start function too. I wonder if MINI/BMW are designed in a way to put higher stress on batteries, or perhaps we have bad luck with MINIs... My data points are limited (2 MINIs plus 5+ other cars we've owned over last 20 years), but it suggests MINI batteries only last half compared to the other cars...

We went to a dealer today and unfortunately the dealer said the battery is not covered by warranty (well, they used to cover the battery replacement on the first 2003 MINI that we owned; perhaps too many MINIs need to change their battery under warranty and hence they've changed their policy... j/k... ...). They wanted CAD$500+ for a new battery. Second question: For those of you who have changed battery (in your Clubman or any previous MINIs you've owned), do you use OEM or any brand you'd suggest?

I am going to my Indy this afternoon, who would only charge me 2/3 of that dealer price for the same OEM battery including re-programming. I've learned that the re-programming is a necessary step given BMW/MINI use "smart" alternator, which will compensate the old battery performance by charging more; hence a re-programming is needed to avoid shortening the new battery life. BTW, going back to the point about stressing battery, I wonder if MINI/BMW is over-engineering their electrical stuff as I don't recall needing to do this with any other cars I've owned, including other European brands... I already had a ECU problem fixed under warranty; I know the ECU problem should be unrelated but so far I don't have too much confidence about MINI/BMW electrical/computer stuff... Anyway, this is a little rant.

Thanks in advance any comments/feedback on this topic.

 

Our Countryman 2011 needed a new battery this year, so 8 years or so.
My 2014 still has original battery.

Since you mention CAD, I assume you are in cold weather, climate and usage plays a big part in battery life.

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

Yes, we are from Toronto (Canada), so definitely we see cold weather at least 4-5 months per year. Understood about that but it doesn't help that our other cars have been performing well (like 7-8 years that you've experienced with your MINIs) under the same circumstance.

 

When I bought my first MINI (used) from the dealer, the finance guy pounded on me to buy warranty coverage because he said MINI electronics were unreliable, which I laughed at. Couldn't understand how telling me the car I was buying was crap being a good sales strategy. He was probably right.

Maybe the batteries are undersized for the car? I sure don't know, but to get as many years out of a battery as we did was amazing to me. Back in the old days I'd be looking to replace a battery by year 4.

I spent two weeks in Toronto in the 80's and damn that was a frigid experience for sure.

 

Thanks!

Another theory I have is that this car has been sitting for months without proper care at dealer lot before our purchase. This is a dealer inventory car when we've bought it in Sept 2016. The manufacturing date is Feb 2016.

Anyway, new battery is in now. Crossing my fingers and hope this battery will last 7+ years like on my other cars.

 

I just replaced a 7 YO batt last month. Yours, sitting on the lot for that period of time would make me wonder how often electrical and/or electronic systems were demonstrated without firing up the engine.

 

It might have been better if it was a showroom demo. Usually cars in showroom are connected to charger.

I suspect this car was just parked in the lot for months with battery drained multiple times, and then boost started once in a while whenever they needed to move the cars in the storage lot.

Anyway, I've been enjoying the car so far. Hope the car is not going to give me too much trouble after warranty ends, so that I will keep it around long enough to test how long this replaced battery can last.

 

The shortest battery life I had was in my VW TDI, its battery would go after 5 years on the dot (being diesel the battery very consistently died on the first 'single digit temperature day after 5 years' heh). My old Subaru's OEM battery lasted 7, then the replacement Sears battery I put it in lasted 6+ (sold the car). So yeah I think 3 years is too short.

I do think you are correct, if it was 7 months between being built, and being bought, that likely plays into it. Any idea how many miles were on the car when you actually bought it? That would give us some indication of how often it was taken on test drives, anyway.

FWIW I will probably be in the same boat. My car was manufactured in April 2018 and I bought it in March 2019 (and actually took possession of it in April 2019, as it took a few weeks for the dealer to install some add-on parts prior to my actually driving it home). It had only 121 miles. Manual F54s do not sell well in the United States, apparently...

 

I forgot the exact mileage. It was definitely a low number - less than 30 km (less than 20 miles).

This certainly gets me re-think about ordering new from factory vs. buying off inventory when buying another new car in future.

 

Heh yep!

One benefit to buying a vehicle off of a dealer lot though, you can usually get a bit of a discount on it, unless you appear way too eager ;-)...every time I've purchased off dealer lot, they've knocked off $1500USD or so off the list price, without even asking. It probably helps to mention that you are curious about custom ordering, because the car doesn't have feature XYZ/color that you like better. The 'lot discount' more than offsets the cost of a battery and brake rotors, which are the only things that really go bad from sitting in the weather for < 1 year. Dealers want to move vehicles through their lot quickly (lots of reasons for this: but the big ones are they are usually buying the cars on credit with the manufacturer where the dealer has to pay interest on it after a few months; the second being, manufacturers often provide incentives to dealers who sell a lot of cars like giving them the ability to pre-purchase more premium trims or special edition vehicles or simply cash bonuses). If you find a car has been sitting on a dealer lot for > 6 months, you can usually negotiate down the price even further with that knowledge in mind.

Anyway, I hope the new battery lasts you many miles and many years...and I hope I don't have to join you in shelling out for a new one sooner (although, I probably will :( ).

 

I wonder what the sales person's reaction would be if you said you want an additional $200 price cut due to the reduced battery life on a new car that has been sitting on the lot a few months. Probably will take them by surprise, to say the least!

 

Oct 19 dealer covered my battery under warranty . . .

 

I have just changed my Mini F54 D 2.0 (Nov.2016) battery for a new 70Ah VARTA. Im from Madrid, Spain. Cost: 179€ installed in my car for a mechanical than came to my home because the car didnt start.

 

have a 2017 clubman. battery only lasted 3 years or so as well. They blamed it on my hardwired dashcam. Anyways just had them changed it for me, they gave me a discount on it.

 

My 2020 Clubman JCW battery is 3 years 9 mons and it's starting to die as I'm getting the "battery drain" message :(

 

When its hot like this and you don't have your MINI in a garage and on a tender, they batteries end up going , https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Sit...attery_tender/
. I store my R52 and R58 and what i found it driving them periodically and using the tender extends the battery life. I had one Genuine MINI battery last almost 10 years. When they went bad it was usually on a hot day and it killed them. MINI owners in Florida, AZ, and Cali seem to go through them the most.