Hi everyone,

I have a question for you folks who have owned your MINI long enough for the warranty to run out, or who have cars (like mine) whose warranties are about to expire.

I have a 2005 MCS which I have happily owned for two years now. It has about 42k miles. My husband and I both *love* this car and are enthusiastic MINI owners. I am starting to get a small nagging concern, however. My car has needed to visit the MINI Dealership about every 6 months for maintenance or repairs. So far, it has all been covered under MINI's warranty - with no complaints.

I know that some of my repairs are simply a result of normal wear, and those do not concern me. Some of the other repairs, however, have surprised me for a car that is only 2.5 years old. This car is not driven on the track, it is always garaged, I don't have to commute daily or put the car through a lot of daily stress, so I don't think it is my driving habits that have caused undo wear.

My questions to you are as follows: 1 - for those of you who have cars that are a few years old, do you find that you often have a repair bill? If so, for what kinds of issues? 2 - given the list of repairs, does anyone see any reason for concern about my future with this car? (I really would like to avoid having a car payment and a mechanic payment every 6 months.) 3 - Is this level of maintenance normal for a 2.5 year old MINI?

Here is the list of the things that I've had serviced/replaced/repaired at my dealership - listed newest to oldest:

• Replaced right front wheel bearing
• Replaced passenger side axel
• Cold start (known MINI issue)
• Burns a hell of a lot of oil (MINI states this is within normal limits)
• Replace brake rotors, pads, sensors all around
• Went into shop for Check Engine light twice – on second time replaced O2 sensor
• Fixed coolant leak
• Replaced water pump
• Replaced motor mount (it was leaking fluid)
• Replaced headlamp assembly on left front headlight
• Unclogged windshield (passenger) and headlight wiper nozzles

Sorry about the long post - but I know that people here have a lot of experience and this web forum offers a lot of collective wisdom. Thanks in advance to all who take the time to reply.

 

The simple answer for you is to consider an extended warranty and do it before the current warranty runs out to get the best price. The longer you delay the higher the price goes.

Extended warranty can come from your dealership- makes profit for them or
You can shop around (I think there is extended warranty on NAM) and look at the deductible for each incident as well as how comprehensive is the coverage for how long a warranty period.

You can pick up another 3 years of warranty with deductibles of about $50 per visit.

You have more repairs than my old 2003 MCS. 35,000 miles

By comparison with my MINI-

• Replaced right front wheel bearing- (Never)
• Replaced passenger side axel- (Never)
• Cold start (known MINI issue)- (Never)
• Burns a hell of a lot of oil (Never)
• Replace brake rotors, pads, sensors all around (I have upgrades)
• Went into shop for Check Engine light twice – on second time replaced O2 sensor (No O2 sensor, Lots of SES light which I clear myself)
• Fixed coolant leak (replaced 2 coolant bottles under warranty)
• Replaced water pump (Never)
• Replaced motor mount (Never)
• Replaced headlamp assembly on left front headlight (yes, Xenon quit)
• Unclogged windshield and headlight wiper nozzles (Never)

And mine had a few other problems-
Fuel sender replaced (gas gauge not working)
Passenger window motor regulator replaced
Airbag light on- seatbelt fixed
PCV hose collapsed- replaced
Underbody Rubber Jack point fell off- replaced
Boot latch failed- replaced

and others have reported other common problems
Cracked windshields
Clutch problems
Transmission problems
Air conditioning problems
Sunroof motor problems
Cabrio facric top wear problems
Dead battery after two years

 

I have an 04 MSC that I bought about three months ago and also have some concerns about reliability. When I bought my car I got a GE 3yr/75K warranty from the dealer (not a MINI dealer) which covers some of the repairs but not any maintance things. I took my car to the MINI dealer this week for some issues that were covered under the factory warranty. At the same time the car was due for its routine service (as indicated on the dash) and needed brakes. I was told I could buy the BMW warranty that would have covered these items for 6yrs/100K for around 1500.00 which I passed on since I just spent a good deal of money on the GE warranty three months ago. The routine service is costing me 400.00 and the brakes would have cost me around 1000.00. Since I have the ability to do the maintance stuff my self I will be doing the oil changes and routine service myself from now on along with the brake services!

 

I've only put 5K miles on my MCc since I bought it at the end of July. I bought her with 17.5K miles and she now has 22.5K miles. In that time, I've replace an engine mount, the driver door trim (cracking), rear seat lock (broken lock), and the sunroof stuck twice. Also, this weekend, the CVT gear indicator was showing EP instead of the normal P/R/N/D/SD.

I will definitely be looking at an extended warranty. As much as I love my car, the reliability is highly questionable and these are not cheap cars to fix.

 

Look around your local clubs and try to find an enthusiast/mechanic....
Be warned, these cars are not cheap to fix, but not that expensive if you find yourself a good mech or tuning shop...
the dealer around here charges 120 bucks an hour labor!!!!
My mechanic 70 bucks an hour..(and you could be sure he really does the work)

 

When you say it burns a lot of oil. How much oil are you talking about?

YD

 

See in my search for reliablilty I find stories like these. My Cooper is gonna hit 80k this comming weekend. All mine was ever in the dealership for (besides the free stuff) was the seat back breaking in a reclined position, and the interior door lock failing. I have an 5/03 build Cooper. (KNOCKS ON WOOD.....)

 

Thanks for the suggestion. The warranty that I have now certainly has paid for itself many times over - as you can tell from my list of repairs. I absolutely *love* this car, so I don't really want to seriously consider giving it up because of some mechanical issues. I think an extended warranty would be a good idea - and is a suggestion that I hadn't yet considered. I looked around on the NAM site and couldn't find the extended warranty that you mentioned, so if you happen to run across it, could you send it to me?

 

okraD La - thanks for the suggestion. I know all about cars that aren't cheap to work on... When I bought MINI, I gave up a car (BMW 325ic) that was very, very fun to drive because it loved my mechanic a little too much. I know what it is like to have frequent ($600+) mechanic bills and that's no fun either. (I even had a BMW mechanic who worked out of his personal shop at half the "official" shop rate!)

I have yet to find a MINI mechanic who is willing to work independent of a shop, but I am keeping my eyes open. Checking with the local clubs is smart...

 

I don't remember the exact quantity of oil that was left in the pan, but I think when I took it in to the dealership, it was at about the 7k mile mark on the previous oil change and it had about a quart or a quart and a half left. (I could check the repair records if accuracy is super-important.) My engine was beginning to make that nasty "out of oil" noise, which caught me off guard immediately. I hadn't been checking my oil level (because I didn't know that I needed to be keeping an eye on it) until that point.

My car had not been leaking oil (it is garaged every night and I would have noticed) and it was not visibly burning oil when I drove it. We bought the car when it had 23k miles from it's original owner. That person appeared to also take very good care of the car. The car went into the shop with the oil complaint (26647k miles) along with a faulty head light assembly complaint.

The MINI dealership says that the oil was indeed low, but not "out," and they told me that it can burn up to one quart of oil per 750 miles - which seems like an insane amount of oil - but I'm no expert. They also said they did not find any leaks at that time.