I'm thinking I want a new Mini hardtop non S for my next car... I have several questions and would appreciate any advice or opinions anyone has to offer.

I understand Minis in the past haven't had great reliability. Does anyone have any predictions about the reliability of the new ones? It's a big concern for me since my current car has oodles and boodles of problems and I'm looking for something reliable to replace it. I've driven everything I'm interested in that falls in my price range and I like the Mini best but I need to make sure it's not going to be a money pit.

As a side note to that... has anyone dealt with the people in the service department at Global Imports Mini in Atlanta, Georgia? How easy was it to get the help you needed and get your problem resolved? Every time I take my current car in to get serviced I get it back damaged in some way and it takes making a fuss to get the work I need done since it's under warranty.

Also, I plan on having kids sometime in the next 5-10 years and also plan on having my next car for at least 7-10 years as this will be my daily driver. How hard is it to get a baby in a carseat in the back? Does anyone have this car that has an infant or small child who can give me a bit of advice about this? I guess what I'm asking is if you feel the fun and enjoyment of having the car outweighs the trouble of getting your kids situated in the car. I want to get a car I can enjoy and have fun with but not if it means being frustrated down the road when I have kids because it's a hassle to go anywhere.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Nobody here can tell you what or what not to buy: In the end, we all buy based upon emotion, then invent rationales to justify those decisions afterward.

Based on your criteria of worrying about reliability for 10 years and being able to put kids seats in the back, I personally think you should buy a Honda Element but maybe you want a fun car, not a mom car? We bought the Mini because it is fun. Nothing else in the price range is as fun and I knew, going in, that it probably will not be as reliable as our 4Runner. But that's why we have a 4Runner.

What made sense to each of us may not make sense for you. Ultimately, it is you who will have to decide where your priorities lie. Best of luck in your search.

 

4 door hardtop coopers are coming out in the near future are they not? That's what I am waiting for, I'm not the biggest fan of the F56 but having just had my second child, my 13 Cooper s doesn't work for transporting two kids, at least not for me! To keep with my love of minis the 4 door F56 would be my choice!

 

First thing came to my mind was you should buy a Honda and forget the MINI. The Honda will meet your needs quite well and should provide more worry free miles than the Mini.

 

+1
This is a top rival for the mini when I decide to go 4door , the new Si is a clean *** car IMO and can't beat honda reliability!

 

Forget it.
If the reliability is your top priority, then MINI is not for you based on previous year rating on several auto websites. I bought my first MINI because it's unique, fun to drive, performance and economical (36.7 mpg average).


Do a search on business rating like "yelp" and see how many stars they've got. That's how I determined which MINI dealership I decided to buy my MINI.


Very hard!
It will be a genuine PIA for you.
Not only moving the baby/carseat in & out of the back seat thru the front door, you ALSO have to think about the cargo space to carry a baby related items and a baby stroller (which most likely would not fit in back of MC Hardtop rear cargo area) for a few years after having a baby. In total, carrying one baby (& his or her related items) take up a way more space than an adult in a car. I had 3 babies some 20 years ago so I know! A 4-door hatch, wagon or suv is a much smarter choice for you.

 

If you really want a MINI, I would get a MINI. If I were in your shoes I would wait for the next gen Clubman as it will have tons more space for kids. I'm confident that in the next 10 years your family will outgrow a standard hardtop.

I'm of the firm belief that nowadays all car manufacturers are more or less the same as far as reliability is concerned. Japanese cars are no longer the end all be all for reliability. That being said, a European car will cost more to repair when it does break and that should be something to take into consideration. You can always opt for a improved warranty through the dealership to ease your worries.

If your primary factor in choosing a car is reliability MINI's would definitely not top the list, but most people who choose them are willing to put up with a few quirks. The good far outweighs the bad.

 

Agreed with much of what was said above, but disagree on this point about kids. I just sold my 2006 Cooper. When new, my kids were 2 and 4 years old. Is it as conveniant as a minivan??? No... but it was far from a PIA and that small inconvenience was more than offset by the overall enjoyment I got from the car.

Also, I sold my car with 125,000 trouble free miles. While Mini's are not the most reliable car on the roads, it also doesn't mean they are full of troubles either. Driven reasonably you more likely to have a reliable car. Push it harder and reliability issues will likely creep up.

Good luck on your search!

 

For reliability we have my wife's Honda CR-V. We bought our MINI for the fun factor and not because of it's reliability. If we were to ever be a one car family it wouldn't be a MINI.

 

10 years downstream is a long time to expect all the crap they have in cars now to keep working. Electronics is the culprit. It's not the engine and transmission controller you have to worry about so much but the secondary electronics like entertainment, seat belt & airbag modules, lighting systems, and so on. Those things are just not designed and built to the same level of predicted reliability as the components in the running gear. The problem is that most of this junk will make it through the warranty (there's a whole subset of reliability engineering devoted to nothing but Design-To-Warranty whose objective is to build stuff just good enough to make it through the warranty, but no longer), but what happens when the fancy 18" flat panel display wakes up into jumpy colored bars some winter morning? You're in for a HUGE expense. And to add insult to injury, you may not even be able to drive the car due to some unfortunate system dependency on a noncritical component.

Painful as it is to accept, these cars are just not built for the long term. They're designed to dazzle in the short term, not to haul the freight 12 years later. (Don't believe me? Price out a really nice used 2008 760iL. They're now to the point where ONE module failure financially totals the whole car.) To assume otherwise is to open yourself up to a world of expense and inconvenience.

So what would I do in your size 6es? Get the SIMPLEST Honda or Toyota you can find. Not only will you spend less now, you'll spend a lot less in the long run. And you'll spend less time looking at your "fun" ride on a rollback on its way to the $120/hr dealer service department.

 

Don't get caught up the "reliability vortex", the car's under warranty and is very reliable in general. Personally I wouldn't want to mess with a carseat in the back of a Mini Hatchback. That's why the Countryman sells so well. Forget the Clubman get the 4 door. If you want a Mini now with 4 doors get the R56, or else wait for the 4 door version of the F56.

 

Didn't realize it, but just how unreliable are these cars? I am buying this Mini as a primary daily driver, and most likely will put on 15000-18000 miles per year. I can deal with the electronic BS, wifes BMW X3 is unbelieveable as far as that. However, if the car fails to run, start, and basically provide safe transportation on a daily basis, then I need to re-think taking delivery on my car that's sitting in Baltimore awaiting EPA approval.

 

Had an '07 Civic that needed its steering rack replaced after 38 months and about 25k miles. At 30k miles axles were replaced. Worst Honda we ever had. Traded for a Mazda.

You may always be wondering what it would have been like if you had bought a MINI.

 

Overall Minis are reliable cars. The F56 is new and there's not any data yet, but the engine isn't brand new to BMW. You can't decide on whether or not to take ownership based on yahoos like us in these forums. If you like the car buy it. That's why it has a warranty.

 

If they failed to do that they wouldn't be in business anymore. Forums are always full of people with problems, it's one of the only places they can go to find solutions.

Having had 4 MINI's (plus a classic) and none of them ever having anything major happen to them, I can say for sure that the reliability issues are overblown.

 

Hahahah!! That's pretty doggone funny! You working on a standup routine, maybe? I'd like to know by what standard you can make such a preposterous statement. Mini has one of THE WORST reliability ratings in the Consumer Reports 2014-04 Auto Issue. It's down in the basement with Jeeps and Ladas. (I made up the Lada part.) Horrible. If anyone is buying these cars with reliability in mind, you may have an unfortunate awakening in your future, based on brand history.

 

Says the guy with no history with the brand.

 

FWIW Consumer Reports has MINI rated above average for 2013. They are doing better.

 

I just traded in a Honda Fit for my Mini S (also have a Element SC) I can say the Mini is more fun but the Honda had way more interior room and the two extra doors would sure help with the kids.


The Mini is loads of fun to drive as my daily commuter but if I had to have only have one car I would choose my Element or the Fit over the Mini.

 

I bought a new '10 MINi sedan & driven it over 55,000 miles & it has been stone reliable. Only twice did it get less the 35mpg. Ordered 2015 sedan in June. Service at the Beaverton, OR dealership has been great.

 

Well, if you're referring to me, smart guy, I have had a string of BMWs starting in the mid-80s and know exactly what I'm talking about. They're fussy cars with bleeding edge design features, many of which don't work out too well. Z8 front shock towers, anyone?

I put no stock at all in reliability reports of vehicles that are only one or two years old. That's too soon to draw any conclusions. What I DO put stock in is the durability of older cars because that's directly indicative of how well they were made in the first place, and indirectly of the philosophy of the manufacturer. Put another way, early reliability returns tend to be dominated by engineering/tooling/oversight/infant-mortality kinds of issues. Long term reliability tends to reflect the fundamental quality of design and materials, as in how long stuff lasts before it wears out and requires replacement. BMW (and Merc and Audi too, for that matter) doesn't look too great through that lens and their resale values reflect it.

 

I think the Element and the similar, squarish Toyota are no longer imported because the hot-selling Kia Soul chased them away.

 

I absolutely loved my Honda Element. It was stone cold reliable, and a trooper when it came to just working. But apart from its looks, it had no other personality. It wasn't that fun to drive, and it certainly wasn't as solidly built as some other cars I've owned.

I considered more classically reliable cars for my daily driver, but in the end went for purchasing a MINI. I read all of the reliability articles, and came away with this: if you treat the car right, don't push it too hard, they'll serve you for years and years. Cars these days are very different animals than they were years ago.

All of the folks here who are saying that forums portray a skewed reality are right. MINI wouldn't be selling cars if they were truly crap.

They're fun, and they require some TLC, and awareness when it comes to the fact that they're not Toyotas or Hondas when it comes to repairs. But they have personality you're not going to get with a more "mass market" brand.

You'll have to weigh the pros and cons, and remember, in the end apart from very rare circumstances, how you use it will determine how it fares.

 

I'll sell ya an old car: want a 75 Volvo 240? Cheap. With a troll doll hanging from the rear view mirror no extra charge.

 

You might also want to consider safety and passenger comfort which weren't mentioned in your criteria list.
- safety: F56 received 4-star for front seats but only 2-star in back seats.
- comfort: F56 are more towards the sporty side. Front passenger may be OK but rear seat passengers probably will feel too bumpy.

I think it's difficult to find a compromised solution to meet your long term requirement. I'd suggest to enjoy life while you can and trade in for a other car when the time comes.