My friend bought a certified used Mini Countryman from the Austin Texas mini dealer about a month ago. Ever since she got it, she has been having trouble with her car not starting in the morning. It has happened maybe once per week since she bought it. She says the headlights are on auto so there is no reason the battery should be dead in the morning. She brought it into the Houston dealer to ask what was going on and they looked at it (it's still under warranty) and said that they want her to try a new battery to see if that fixes it, but the price they are charging for the battery is like $400

If she bought a certified used Mini, shouldn't it come with a working battery, and if that battery is bad or potentially bad, shouldn't Mini replace it for her at no charge? Would she have to go back to the original dealer she bought it at for that (3 hours away), or is that something she can do at any Mini since it is certified?

Also, does she have any option to return a certified used Mini if she finds out it has problems after she buys it that the dealer did not disclose?

It may be as simple as needing a new battery, but it might also be an issue with the automatic headlights in general if they are not turning off as expected, or turning on at night. I can't confirm the issue, I was just surprised that Mini tried to charge her $400 for a certified used car she bought from them that has problems and I'm wondering what she can do.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

 

If it's a CPO car they should take care of it.

 

Do you mean any MINI dealer should take care of an issue with a CPO car, or she needs to go back to the original dealer (3+ hours away)?

 

I don't believe that in the long run batteries are covered. But one month out sure screams that they sold her a car with a near dead battery or other issues like alternator failure. I'm guessing that the dealer won't get any money from MINI so they are pushing back at her. Probably need to talk to selling dealer and work it out on the phone so you don't have to drive 3 hours.

 

This is not a bad idea. When I bought my CPO (<5K miles) the warranty was actually better than if I had bought it new. Any dealer should honor it because it's a MINI certified pre owned car. Not your dealer CPO.

 

Yeah that's what I told her, to get on the phone with the original dealer and try to sort it out with them. Apparently they aren't so easy to get in touch with.

 

Also call MINI directly. Get regional management involved if they give your friend more crap.

 

That dealer is scum. Batteries are load tested to determine the remaining CCA in them. Takes longer to hook up the tester than the test.

 

The dealer that sold you the car need to take care of it. We recently had that experience with my daughter's CPO'd MINI. Even though the CPO takes effect immediately after you pick up your car, it takes MINI almost a month to process it in their computer. If something does go wrong with your car that should have been taken care of in pre-inspection, MINI will claim the dealer sold you a car with a pre-existing condition so will deny warranty on it. This is something the dealer should have taken care of.

If the dealer service is any good, the service manager would fix it and bill it back to the sales department. It shouldn't be the customer's issue. The service manager, in my daughter's case, was very apologetic about wasting my daughter's time, and had a loaner for her the whole time. In this case, the audio system controls were not working.

At least that's what my dealer did.

 

..IF the Dealer is good... the other option is to just take it to AutoZone or Advanced Auto or the like and let them do the FREE Test and replacement if necessary for about $160.00 new battery and then they can use the time they saved to find a great Indy Shop that will look after the car the way they want it taken care of.

Motor On!