The #1 Most Unreliable Car Brand Is...
 

MINI!

According to Consumer Reports: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...-cars/3304413/

As far as I can tell from the cars I've owned, this seems true lol on a whole (don't care that YOUR MINI has gone 200k miles). I think this has to mainly stem from the timing chain issues, no? It just makes me laugh that MINI was quoted to say:

"When our owners speak we listen and act accordingly. We are currently taking a close look at the recent Consumer Reports findings so that we can better understand what our customers reported, and learn from this information in order to improve the reliability of all Mini vehicles."

when it has been such a nightmare getting them to acknowledge the timing chain issue. That said, I've never had a problem with my Mini lol

You are lucky...I bought a used mini with 57k earlier this year and have had an oil leak which required the seals on the motor to be replaced...a 1200 dollar repair job (thankfully under warranty) and had the passenger occupancy sensor fail which is an 1100 dollar fix according to the dealer (bought a used seat for now). I've only had the car for 2000 miles so I'm a bit worried for the long term reliabilty.

We're #1...We're #1...We're #1! :thumbsup:

I've not had any problems with my 2 MINIs either...although I trade them in when the warranty expires. But there's definitely a perceived reliability problem compared to most other cars. It's about time MINI/BMW acknowledges it.

On my 3rd Mini and never an issue. Oooppps flat tire once.

61k miles and still rolling strong! Replaced my thermostat housing around 51k miles and that hasn't deterred me away from the fun associated with this R56!

I have had the Timing chain tensioner(120$) and thermostate housing(600$) replaced and that's the only major conerns after 56,000 miles. not really enough to deter me. i love my car!

Funny...
Bet if the tech issues are tossed out...
MINI would be in the middle....even considering so many folks wail on their cars...
Gen2 n18/14 motors on the S have had some SERIOUS issues.....but the end is near..(not for the installed motors...well maybe...lol)...for the current French pugot co-engineered lump (British term for motor honest!!!)...and nearly time for the new REAL BMW motor....too bad the rest of it does not excite me as much as the new motor....

If you trade the car every three years of course you have no issues. But for the average guy who wants a fun car to drive he cannot afford to do that. I pity the poor person who buys used with no prior knowledge of the mini brand and the get f*****. As someone once said love to drive it hate to own it!!!!!!!!! MINI ARE YOU LISTING???????

No doubt about the placement on the list, and the sentiment, love to drive,hate to own. 65 K on my 2006 R52, and the upkeep is getting too much to handle. Like my mechanic says,it's a BMW after all, and British as well. Worst of both worlds.

Having had owned the worst brand vehicle a VW in regards to quirkiness, reliability and build quality, I am interested to see if all the thoughts are true on Mini being junk and unreliable.

If, in 3000mi my r53 does not start, lights fail, engine smokes, power steering blows, gas pedal falls off, and battery continues to mysteriously die. Then at that point I will think the Mini has issues. Any less it's the quirks of a quirky car.......

Don't forget the well known thermostat, water pump, and high pressure fuel pump issues :lol: Oh and the clutch failures :roll:

I love our mini but it's really hard to justify keeping it when the car is constantly in the dealership being worked on. Our last timing chain repair lasted around 10 months. I heard some rattling this morning which I'm not happy about. :sly: This will either be the 4th timing chain tensioner or the 2nd full timing chain repair depending on what they do. I don't have any issues working on the car myself but spending $4k a year in parts is not a particularly exciting option.

i dug into it a bit more, it was saying more that its not the brand, its the model which would be the CM, the ford was the plug in hybrid... and so on, look at a different site

Having been a member of this forum for several years, why am I not surprised that MINI made #1?

Please don't take the position that every MINI is troublesome. This report only shows that they have earned the title of having more problems than others. Your MINI may be fine, and my MINI is a joy to own, but that doesn't alter the fact that too many owners are finding they have a car that that requires more repairs than expected.

I had read about many of the problems before buying a MINI, but I decided to take the risk in order to have a car that handles like few others.

Having owned other cars over a period of more than 60 years you could probably imagine that I've had some that were a disappointment at times.

Well, I recently bought a used 2010 Justa Cooper, and I actually studied the C/R reliability reports before buying. They break out reliability by component system and by model year. For 2010 model year the overall reliability of the base Cooper hardtop was rated "average" with 7 of the 17 systems rated much better than average (Engine Major, Transmission Major, Drive System,Climate System, Suspension, Exhaust, Audio System) and only one area rated much lower than average (Fuel System). I guess I'll find out over the next few years...

(btw: S model for 2010 was rated "much worse than average" overall.)

The thing that skews much of the ratings is so many cars are tracked....have been tracked...wailed on, and abused....then often mis-matained by well meaning owners....
My 2005 S, has NEVER tracked, has been a GREAT car...fun, economical, and reliable....
The crying shame is so many newbies find a low mile car..and buy it...only to find it was s weekend only track car...and it becomes a money pit....

Zippy, Your post prompts me to recall an episode of Car Talk from years ago when a caller was questioning the issue of buying a used Mustang. The short answer was, they are good cars if you don't get one that has been driven by a knucklehead.

while im sure the average mini has been tracked more than, say, the average toyota corolla, the majority of people, issue or not, have never tracked their cars, and still can have problems. timing chain problems aren't a - whether the car was tracked or not - issue. i have to think it's just a car that requires slightly more maintenance on average paired with a service schedule that doesn't match it. Even for my brand new 2013, Mini is saying 10k OCI's - while that's basically the standard for new cars these days, I'm still going to do 1 in between each 10k interval. Most people don't, even with the previous longer OCIs

I really don't think these ratings are skewed by vehicles being tracked. I wish that was the case, but you really think more people with MINIs are abusing their cars than EVOs, WRXs, etc? Honestly, the subset of MINI owners that track their cars is almost certainly <1%.

The real shame here is that MINI is so unresponsive to actual problems with their cars. But they don't seem to be suffering in sales, so why would they.

To be clear, I love driving mine, but the problems (HPFP, timing, seals, etc) make me agree with their placement on the list.

Guys, it's about the Countryman, not the R56 or other MINI models.

We don't click links!! We ONLY read headlines!!! Lol...:nod:
Guilty as charged!!!
So you saying the Austrians are not good at building cars??
I hear they are good at music and beer.....

I believe the article is saying that MINI overall is the worst, and the countryman is the worst of the worst.

"Mini was worst on reliability overall, and the Cooper Countryman was the worst model. Here it is on display at The 21st Indonesia International Motor Show"

man.. I just joined these forums because I just bought a 2010 Mini cooper hardtop a week ago.. now I am worried. This plus all the timing chain stuff I am reading about has me worried.


should I purchase an extended warranty?

If not an S model, see my comments above. Consumer Reports members can dig thru the details by model year and by S/non-S there's a very distinct difference between the two versions, with S being notably worse.

I bought my wife a "justa" instead of an "S" because of the serious reliability issues that plague the turbo charged models, and given BMWs' and Mini Coopers overall reputation for reliability and cost of maintenance, opted to only purchase and own one of these cars while it was coverd under warranty and will unload my wifes Mini before that warranty expires.
Even with the evolving BMW/Minis' willingness to start replacing defective timing tensioners on certain models, I would never consider purchasing or owning a turbo charged Mini out of warranty and I believe that carbon build up should also be covered under that warranty.

good to know thanks for your reply!

its a non-S model. so far no problems but theres only 24k miles on it