I bought the MINI OEM roof rack about a month ago and paid the local dealer to install it. I tried to remove it this last weekend just to see how easy it was to take on and off. I loosened the bolt that holds the jaws that go into the rain gutter together on one of the ends and they opened up and came partially out. I was not able to get them back together and clamped under the bolt no matter how hard I tried. I had to take my car into the dealership this week for another problem and asked them to reclamp it and show me how to do it.

To make a long story short, they were unable to reclamp it, removed the front bar entirely, and told me I need to buy a new one and won't honor any warranty because I loosened that bolt.

I'm so twisted up about them shafting me like this. I argued several times on the phone with my service advisor but he said he already went over the issue with his manager. I'll be picking up my car in the morning and will plead again with management in person. I'll never ever go back to this dealership. I really hope they realize what a huge mistake they are making in the morning and make amends... stay tuned

 

wow...they need to step their service up!! I agree with you, that's just not fair, hope it gets resolved though for your sake. Good Luck!!

 

As this is a n item that is meant to be taken on and off then they should honor the warranty.

Check out this thread it is for a clubman style car but the rack goes on the same way. in fact for a while they used the same part nubmer for both cars. I wrote these instructions because the OEM instructions do not tell the whole story.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=145279

 

wow, schatzy, good advice, I'm going to pass this along to one of my friends! Thanks!

 

And please note that MINI has finally come out with an "official fix" to the roof rack base installation issues that some have faced. See this particular post in the never ending roof rack issue thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...&postcount=671

I'm shocked Fugitive at what you've written. Do not let it end at that dealership if they won't honor your problem. Call MINI USA and don't give up!

P.S. My own dealership's Service Advisor told me today that he'd only just gotten the bulletin on the official fix last week.

 

After a twenty minute debate with the service manager this morning, which started with an offer to replace the rack at material cost, he finally understood my point of view and had it cleared with his manager to replace the rack free of charge and have the technician install it in front of me so I can see how it attaches properly and verify there won't be a pending issue.

The failure with mine was that the threading on the bolt at the front passenger side connection point had stripped to the point of being unusable. I believe this happened while the technician struggled to get the rack on. Unfortunately it was not noticed until I started removing the bolt and metal shavings came out with it so they assumed I was careless because it looked fine when it left the dealership. It is a very sturdy but extremely difficult designed product to install. I would consider the installation permanent and not remove it until which time I do not want to reinstall it. Not to say it can't be done, but it is not easy, as anyone who has installed it will tell you!

I'm very disappointed at how difficult it was to get the dealership to do the right thing and fear that should I have a major in-warranty failure with the car that it will be the same uphill battle... Its absurd that I am left feeling this way over a product that probably cost the dealership about $150.

 

i dont understand what has been changed.. ive had my rack for almost a year now and ive had no issues with it.

once you figure out how it works, its actually very easy to attach and remove. It is also a very solid mount with a relatively high weight capacity compared to other base racks.

Im probably going to leave mine on just for looks

 

Ghosthound, forgive me - I realized after I'd posted that the changes I referred to apply to the roof rack base for the Clubman: There is an extremely long thread on the problems that some Clubman owners have had with the original base roof rack.... If you're really bored you can read through it all https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=137414 and see what's up. Those that have been happy are happy, while there were enough issues that MINI officially pulled the base rack for the Clubman due to issues with some of the cars... They now have come out with a "fix" which has also been written about: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...&postcount=671 Now you probably know more than you'll ever need to! Schatzy's sticky, which he refers to above, over on the Clubman forum is excellent.


Fugitive, if you find you continue to have problems with the dealership perhaps there is another one you can take your MINI too? I'm glad you won out on this one, but I know how you feel about fighting with the place you bought your car from - it's disappointing to be sure.

 

There are two others only about a half hour further away

 

Good - you've got back up.