I have owned a Pepper White MINI for 9 months and notice that the "S" is available in P/W for 2004. I would like an "S" but am concerned about the early reliability issues I have been reading about. What is the current opinion/experience on this issue? Also, the availability seems to be much better. What is the best pricing out there.

 

Later builds are much better and the quality of the cars seems to continue to improve from month to month. Many issues with early build MCS' seem to have already been resolved like the leaking coolant bootle (There is a new revised coolant reservoir bottle in production).

Our Pepper White/Black Cooper CVT has been very reliable (8/02 build) and we have reason to believe that our new '04 MCS coming in October will be even better.

 

Also if you order a new '04 MCS, expect to pay MSRP as probably you did with your Cooper. Perhaps the waiting times are much less but this depends on the region where you live and how many MINI dealers are in your immediate area.

The MINI has excellent resale value, so you will probably do well on a private sale if you want to move over to the MCS.

Consider your options carefully.

 

:smile: :smile: I guess we are pretty lucky considering some others have had MANY issues - we have a very early build - 2/02 - picked up 5/02 and have had 2 issues to date....the coolant tank and the cracked windscreen.
donna@dcmetrominis.org

 

I have a '03 S with the "new" coolant tank.
It was leaking on delivery.

 

My impression of MCS reliability is that for some folks it has been good, while for others it has been close to a nightmare, and for others again something inbetween. That tells me that more than anything else build quality and reliability are inconsistent and vary considerably. Overall, quality and reliability appear to be improving, and MINI appears to be quite involved in addressing issues, but then there are a lot of issues that need addressing.
I love my MCS, but based on my own experience I would say it is not a car to go for if you want top notch quality and reliability.
I have had my Dec 02 build date 2003 MCS since late January of this year and have just completed 20,000 miles. These are the issues I have had, of which none to be honest have kept me from being able to drive my car:
Temp gauge malfunctioned from time of pickup at dealer. Speedo went bonkers once. Both solved at first service at 12k miles by a new speedo cluster. Other electrical gremlins: Auto AC control panel went dead a few times. Alarm malfunctioned. Both not addressed since problems not replicable at dealer and have not reappeared lately. My window dip function still has to be reset about 1-2 per week. Driver side window motor conked out (window inoperable), which was solved by a new window winder motor and controller, although that has not eliminated the need for frequent window dip resets. Once (at same time as alarm trouble) passenger window did the constant dipping and up (sewing machine type) with closed door. Has not reappeared.
My windshield is so pitted that soon I will have to replace it because of visibility issues. ANYTHING that hits this windshield will result in a chip or at least small pit, although I have not had any cracks yet. I probably have well in excess of 300 chips and pits now (estimated).
I did not want to wait for coolant tank leaks on long trips since I had the old tank installed, and took things into my own hand by installing the Forge Motorsports aluminum tank.
The interior trim has started to peel, something that I dealt with by repainting the interior trim myself.
Too many squeaks groans and rattles to list. The door panel speaker buzz and all door panel squeaks I also solved myself.
Unresolved issues: the AC howling and rough running, and an extremely noisy throwout bearing of the tranny that I continue to monitor. I have also just started to notice the steering column to click every now and then, as others have reported.
The sunroof shade keeps popping out of the tracks, and the rear sunroof panel has started to make very loud popping noises when driving over road imperfections, both of these issues I will have the dealer look into at the next visit, which I will schedule for this coming week.
I love my MCS, but it needs a lot of work still to sort out!
M.

 

I too love my MCS. I have also had good reliability. My car is a 09/02 prod. 2003 model, that I picked up in October, 02. To date I have 8,000 miles on the clock. I was fortunate in that I was able to use my previous ride through one of the hardest winters in memory. I am on my original windscreen, with a couple of pock marks, and no cracks. I've not experienced the leaky coolant tank, although I had a couple of overheating incidents when a short in my p.s. fan caused my auxiliary cooling fans to blow their fuse. I have the old 31 software, and have had no cold start issues to date. Its been a reliable little car so far, and I hope this trend continues.

 

I have some of the "general" issues noted and am able to live with them. I was particularly interested in issues with the supercharged engine, overheating, oil consumption, etc.