This being my first car, I'm not really sure what to expect. I'm pushing about 80k on my 2003 AUTOmatic Mini Cooper and have had a ton of problems. I've driven the car quite a bit, so I'm not sure if I'm just overreacting or not.

Problems started arising after 30k or so and since then I've:
-replaced the transmission
-replaced part of the drivers seat (seat wouldn't recline anymore so replaced a bracket in the seat)
-replaced window mechanism on drivers side
-and today I found out I need to replace the steering pump

And of course there's little things that don't have anything to do with the build itself.. just my bad luck. Like, a huge dent on the passenger side door I found when coming back to my car after class one day, window and tire replacements.


The only thing that bugs me is that those first 4 things I listed are pretty common problems. But then again, there's 80k on the car, and this is my first car..so I'm not sure if this is normal and if I'm just overreacting. What do you guys think?

 

It's not a honda, so stuff will break.

 

80k on a '03 - pretty average mileage.

The tranny replacement iIS unusual for most cars, but a known problem for early mini's. The other stuff is really not that unusual, especially for a 2nd year build of a new model.

Now, the good part - probably expect twice as many things will come up between 80-120k as did in 0-80k.
If you want reliability, honda or toyota.

 

Common for Auto Tranny to go on Cooper.
As a matter of fact the others that you listded are commmon on Cooper and Cooper S.

 

yeah.. but you can get a car from those other 40 brands (not Honda) and i'm sure the transmission on those will be less likely to go.. than his mini

 

Yeah, unfortunately the CVT on the Cooper sucks, worse than the Midlands 5 speed arguably.

 

Of course, it drives nice stock and that's appealing. Though, I'm not sure if it's great as an everyday reliable type car...

It doesn't seem like I can even get very much for the car as well.

To top it off, on my way home from work today, I pushed the sun visor down and the mirror cap snapped off. :(

 

Did you get it used? If so with how many miles?

 

Hondas brake too. They are too over rated in that dept IMHO. (I owned several so I have some say on their perceived reliability).

We owned a 2002 MC CVT from new and had it for 6 years. Daily driver, never had any major issues with it. We changed the CVT transmission fluid every 25K miles as precaution and this really helped with its durability. Sold the car to a fellow NAMer last year and he hasn't had any CVT issues either.

Can you give us a snap shot as to how this car was maintained?

 

from doing my research seems like the older auto trans will occasionaly have issues and so does the steering pump

the other problems u listed are less common

but like everyone said if you want reliability buy a toyota but their car line up is quite boring

i heart my mini i have no major issues as of now but i got my fingerscrossed hehe

 

I was at Heartland Park roadcourse with another KC MINIac yesterday who also has an '02 MCa, his has 107,000 miles and has been run at HPT in 10 events that I know of. He's always changed the fluid at the dealer at about 30K intervals and has had no problems of any sort with his car. Period.

Again, I think in comparison to the number of cars sold, the MC is no worse than anything else. Because readers come to this forum I think they get an unrealistic expectation of the level of problems these cars have.

 

well stated dave, if you go to the toyota, or honda foums you read the same things from people, if each forum had as many members as cars sold then you could get a fair thought...even then, the ones who have issues tend to rant more then the ones happy!

 

If you read internet forums for all types of cars, you'll quickly come to the conclusion that all cars ever made absolutely and positively sucks!

 

Zactly.......

However, they are a good source of info on fixes and potential things to look for........

On my '03, I've had a couple of the "classic" problems for gen 1 cars, the split seam on the coolant overflow tank and a window motor that failed.....

Likewise, on my Lexus ES300 I've had a radio display that failed and an 02 sensor that failed, does that make it a bad car? Of course not......but a lot of ES300's have also had these problems. You just fix them and go on......

 

A nice MINI badge would be a hand with crossed fingers overtop the MINI wings. The "so far so good" club.

 

I love your horror face!

 

fanks

 

correlation is not causation...

Your right on Honda's though, my dad leased a brand new Accord and about a month in he had to bring it to fix the switches that control the sun roof.

 

You've had all the standard problems on MINIs, except one: you should expect the half-shafts to break soon.