Thumbs up or down for the automatic transmissions in "06 Mini Cooper?

 

I'm surprised this thread isn't at least 2 pages by now. Be patient.

Do a search and you'll probably find a bunch of CVT threads, at least one of which extols the virtues and reliability of the CVT. To summarize:

Thumbs up: Many report having many care free miles on their CVTs. The earliest reports particularly praised their smooth shifting.

Thumbs down: Although the CVTs can sometimes just get out of adjustment, they sometimes just implode, often somewhere beyond 50k miles apparently. The usual "fix" (complete replacement) reportedly costs $6k to $8k. A few have replaced their CVTs with a manual, but that's not exactly straight forward.

Then there is the "lost" acceleration between the automatic and the manual in a non-S.

Last year my wife bought an '06 with the CVT that now has over 50k miles on it. It's working fine so far, but I won't be shocked if i get the dreaded call to come pick her up.

 

Thumbs up on the auto for the Cooper "S" and thumbs down on the CVT in the regular MINI.