Hi. I am new to this site. We purchased a used 2005 Mini Cooper for our daughter in February 2008. We have the usual chips in the bonnet from the road rocks. I have read online that these are common with this car but we are experiencing something else that I was wondering if anyone else has. After washing the car this weekend, we noticed by the passenger side headlight we have paint coming off. I checked my carfax report and there was no report of this car being in an accident. I also checked with the original owner, who was meticulous about this car, and he said it was never hit and repaired. Has anyone else come across this problem? I called our local mini dealer in Mtn. View, CA and no one has returned my call. Does Mini warranty the factory paint job? Needless to say, we are sick about this as it looks as though this 2 inch by 2 inch spot of peeling paint could keep going and going. Other than that, the car is in excellent shape and my daughter loves it.

 

Hi Connie and welcome to NAM,
Congrats on buying your daughter a '05 MC.
And I am sorry to hear about the paint coming off around the pass. headlight which I am sure is very upsetting.

Honestly I don't know much about the Mini Cooper since I am a new owner myself other then it comes with a factory 4 year/50,000 mile limited warranty and a 12 year rust perforation limited warranty.Maybe it will fall under one of those.

I would still keep trying the Mini dealership service dept. and see what they say as I am sure they will need to take a look at it first to determine if it falls under a warranty repair.

Good luck and keep us posted when you can.