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Lord, I, as an owner of an N14 MINI, know and accept that it has MANY defects, the Peugeot engine is a POS, I've driven a Peugeot in Europe and thought the thing was going to fall apart while I was driving it! luckily mine has had some luck (that's following a 20k mile oil change interval!); I bought the MINI knowing these defects and really don't care, there's no other car that drives like the MINI's, look so cool doing so and are so customisable (roof decals, rattles or leaky gasket, so many options!!) I've driven really great handling and fast (expensive) cars, my dad has an M4 and a Z4 35is and had a last gen M3 and a Boxster S, but after getting in my MINI after driving these cars, i realised how much more fun the MINI was, and don't go around saying MINI is the only company that doesn't own up to there defects, GM knew about the ignition defects for a very long time, the oldest affected model was the Saturn Ion and that was an '03, and didn't recall until people started dying and the NHTSA made them, also my mothers Land Rovers, an LR3 & LR4 (back to back) have horrible known defects (the LR3's engine and transmission were both replaced within 50k miles!! Repeat, ENGINE and TRANSMISSION!!! and the LR4 has had one water pump and is in the shop for another and the brakes have self destructed themselves 3 times in 45k Miles!) all these problems are known to Land Rover, yet they're making us pay for the second Water Pump and the LR3's engine they blamed on us, and didn't want to cover until we threatened with a lawsuit, yet my mother still swears by the Land Rover's and says when she's done with this one, she'll get the new Discovery when it comes out. The point is MINI, like all corporations, is looking out for themselves and isn't going to openly recall something unless people basically start dying (which would be unfortunate, but highly unlikely, for such a problem) and the Gov. gets on them. I believe you had mentioned in another thread that you haven't taken the car to a dealer yet to get the Timing Chain replaced, you should try that first and see if they'll replace it as goodwill and if not, like I said, get rid of the car. Are you really enjoying it? How could you enjoy knowing that it is full of defects?

 

Lord, now you're in this thread posting the same stuff about your girlfriends car that got thelast thread closed? Give up man, nobody on here wants to hear it again.....MOTOR ON!

 

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Here in Europe the tensioner and chain were replaced by Mini (only the ones with problems of course)
Most it was a no cost operation for the customer. Of course not at 100.000 miles or 5 years old car.

 

WHY jump in GregoryK's F56 thread & ruin it with your complaining? He is seeking help for his very real problem.

You managed to get your first thread about the 2008 MINI closed with your hatred. You were given some very sound advice there, but you attacked those who were trying to help. I don't understand it, maybe you're going for the record on closed threads?

Back on topic.....

GregoryK I think what has happened with your new F56 is quite terrible. If the come to Jesus talk falls on deaf ears with your MINI service folk, hire a lawyer. They will most likely buy your MINI back. If it gets lemon law'd the title is branded as one & the car becomes basically unsalable. Much better for MINI to do the right thing.

PS Not all MINI's are lemons, it happens to all car makes once in a while.

Good luck GregoryK

 

Looks like Lord Kinboat jumped overboard lol.

 

I'm glad that's over.

 

I'm not sure how the Lemon Law's here in the States compare to the Far North, but They can vary quite a bit state to state. I would check your local laws and see. For some reason there is a little voice in the back of my head that tells me the Canadian Lemon Laws lean more toward the Consumer than they do the Manufacturer when compared to what we have here. Obviously I don't really know. But I feel as if this should be a Lemon Case.

I'm in the Car business and work in the service department. Between the 2 dealers I've worked for I have had experiecne with Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Volvo, Suzuki, Isuzu, Mazda, Volkswagen, Scion, and Toyota. I have seen several Lemon 'Buy Backs' and most, if not all, cases did not get resolved for the customer until the Customer called the Manufacturer. Once the customer gets corporate involved it doesn't seem to go very far at the dealer level. And thats not to say everytime they did call the manufacturer they had the car bought back. Its just for the cars that were bought back, it didn't happen without a call being made.

If it were me, I'd keep to your guns, don't give up. If need be start making calls to MINI customer service lines and keep moving up the chain of command until things get resoved. I don't feel as though this car is going to be reliable once your warranty is out. And who want's to have a car more unreliable than a N14?

 

^^^ That is some very good info. I know I said call in a lawyer, but that would only be if no other method works.

 

His ghost has miraculously appeared on the other site with the same rant.

 

"lemoning" a mini is interesting to me. When I "lemoned" the second one I owned, sounded like the dealer was simply going to take it to auction for resale. Not sure how it was technically branded because MINI had no "formula" for their "buyback"; they were referencing NADA or KBB, which didn't make sense to me, so I showed them my buyback calculations instead. Not sure what exactly happens, but I am curious to the extent that I would not want to purchase one that was actually "lemoned" nor sell one as such when instead it was disguised and advertised as something else.

So I guess my question is...What exactly happens when a "buyback" happens or it's lemoned? It is actually retitled and described as such?

Greg

 

I have had the joy of dealing with a "Lemoned" car after the fact as well. The one I dealt with was a Mazda. Customer brought it in after buying it from a used car lot, that bought it from auction. I'm not sure if the title itself showed it was a buyback vehicle or not, but I DO remember on the Mazda Dealer site, when you entered the VIN number, they made it very clear that it was a Lemon buyback car.

That car was a nightmare. Supposedly the previous problems were repaired before it was sold at auction. But this customer had problem after problem. Bad news bear kind of story.

Not to discourage people from buying cars that were at auction at one time or another. Good cars go to auction all the time. At the dealer I work at, if a used car sits on the lot for too long, they will send it off to auction due to lack of interest.

 

If someone start posting here as Lord Binboat alert the mods ASAP!

Used car buying rule #63b: If you and the salesperson walk up to the car and the hood is up OR there's someone on a creeper underneath it DON'T BUY IT!

 

You might get a discount on a new car....
But why would you expect any better? Rollout issues on a new model are common....and many folks, like me, avoid model year 1, or even wait for the "refresh"...
Call it the " early adopter tax".....
A bit nit picky for the list...know it is a NEW $$ CAR, but "strong windshield washer smell"... Sounds like a reach...a few yeas back some places were mixing air freshener with it...some users in some cars could not smell it...had to do with the fresh air intake grill spot...
Other stuff...yeah...annoying...Tranny IS a HUGE item....but some % of any make will have issues...
I understand you want a " perfect" car....they cost big $$, but maybe you should Wait till the bugs are worked out....I would hate to see the same thread on the JCW....heck you would need to ask for an office at the dealer....

 

Zippy. Yep have a bed there too! I hear you thanks for the advice. I believe that it is time we first model year buyers were treated better. Why is BMW (or any other car manufacturer allowed to export new cars without supplying parts to us. We should IMO be able to go to the dealers yard and pull the parts we need off the freshly delivered cars on the lot. That would only be right and fair from my perspective.
My understanding is that MINI Canada and USA order cars from MINI Germany. They probably also pre-order parts. They probably order very few on a new car because they do not want to get stuck with stuff on their shelves. I'm sure they had stacks of timing chains for the R56 after year 2 but if you were in year 1.....
Point is the problem is probably local and not with BMW or MINI international....hence we should be allowed to pillage the new vehicles for our parts.

 

To add to my previous post.
I think we are gong to see more and more of this type of problem in the future. Cars are becoming like cell phones - the technology race is on. With all these changes going on trying to update a system for engine that was designed back in the Victorian era. Real change is not possible. We are stuck with an engine that shakes itself to bits and all the manufactures can do is add more bolt on crap to it. Every week they come up with something new and therefore manufactures are scrambling to keep up. The mechanics are not getting info on repairs on new products. How easy will it be to get parts for the B48 engine? How many did they make?
What we need is a serious revamp of the consumer protection laws to take this "new world order" into account.

 

Why does Lexus not have those problems =hybrids= complicated
Why does my Minis not have problems?

 

Deovolens.
Firstly - is a hybrid more complicated? Probably the engine does not need as much crap on it to pass the pollution laws... Maybe Lexus USA have more parts on hand when they break....or are you saying they are reliable??
The fact your Mini does not have problems is irrelevant. Some don't. I've had Mini's that did not. BUT if your car did develop a problem could they fix it quickly so your enjoyment of your new car was not interrupted.....or would you have to "wait 40 days to have a new gearbox installed".

 

Fact is the "refresh" cycle is getting faster...
Look at engine life cycles....
Once a motor would last, in production for DECADES....small improvements would get done, refinements, etc..
Now, if a motor get 10 years of production, it is interesting....
So a motor or "motor family" rarely gets beyond its "youthfull teething problems" before the manufacture moves on....
Gregory....yes, I think it MIGHT be fair to yank a part off a new car if the dealer cannot get a part in a reasonable time...say a week or so...might be an incentive for mini/BMW to stock parts...but the pencil pushers figure, new cars, should not need part "x" for 2 years, and if we have more part "x" we can assemble more cars for the same total $$, no piles of spare parts on the shelf.....
They seem to forget costs, both in $$$, and in goodwill in getting a new car owner into a rental for several weeks.....
Yes...MINI makes me wonder..some dealers are OK, and try very hard....
But stories of dealers that treat folks the same as VW'S historically bad dealers are becoming more the norm than the exception...
Yeah...wish the early adopter, the trendsetter, etc would be treated better when the rollout is as bad as it has been...
But events like you have experienced is WHY some companies, like VW, do not bring a new model to the US/Canda till fairly late in the first year of actual production, or even a full year late to work the bugs out before bringing cars to the US/Canada....
Kinda of a shame things are the way they are, but even builders are pushing for 2 year leases to quicken the upgrade cycle, and matain ownership of the cars....the new car is a bit of a commodity (with computer based buying services making most owners get cars for very similar $$), and more $$$ is made selling a used car.....also, I suspect, it is to limit some aspects of liabity, etc, but also to shift lots of $$$ making to the finance arms, rather that the production arms, thus shielding the income and profits from future lawsuits......cynical, yes. But most automakers would rather make the the $$ on the finances, and have a lower per car $$ to give them more leverage in negotiating lower costs, from parts suppliers and labor unions...at the end if the day, they can still make x per car, but it shows in a different department.....
Sure beyond the scope of the thread, but think, as you eluded too, many changes are happening in the industry....

 

Gregory,
here in Belgium its very simple if they can NOT fix it in a few hours I'll get immediately for free another Mini. When the repair is done I'll get it back with zero costs.
Hybrids are much more complicated but in Athen taxis (hybrid) are still driving with over 300.000 miles.

 

Tough day. No repairs that were promised. Now I have to wait another month for parts that will hopefully fix 2 of the problems. Shocks and driver's seat.

 

Yeesh. I'd probably get the Lemon ball rolling and get into a different F56. Obviously the one you have is cursed.

 

What he said. It would be unreasonable to me if I had to drive a loaner way more than my own car. Ask for a JCW or an M3 to drive Greg.

 

It all comes down to production. You could be waiting on a fuel rail bolt for 3 months, but you could get a (insert random oddball part) next day. Theres no telling with a new car.

Does it suck? Yea...its not an ideal situation for anyone. Not sure how you think you guys should be treated special though...If there is physically no part produced, What do you want MINI to put on your car?!