I'm still struggling with the fact that my car needs to go back to the dealer for the 5th time since I bought it in July....

I called and asked for a loaner car. The dealership told me they didn't have any, but that the PR guy would give me a call later today.

Here's my plan... I'm thinking about being extremely polite. Telling him that I need the car on an everyday basis. That I have a baby and I can't afford to have something that breaks down every 3 weeks. That my car is obviously a lemon. And then I'll ask - not demand, simply ask - for another car. A demo unit. A new one. A different car (a Series 1, for example). Anything - on the basis that this car is costing US (both the dealer and me) time, money and the like. I'll tell him I'm willing to take a financial hit, but that the car is 1,300 miles, and I simply can't imagine owning it any longer.

I'm 90% sure he'll tell me the car will be fine, it'll be fixed, and to trust them... there's no lemon law here, so I'm completely at their mercy. But hey - there's a 10% chance I'll be able to get rid of my car. That's good enough for me.

Let's see what happens.

 

For your sake after what you've been through I hope you get what you want!!

 

Well, the call just happened. It was friendly, but I didn't really get any straight answers. The dealer acknowledged that my car had lots of problems. They said that they would, indeed, give me a loaner for "as long as it takes to fix your car". They said they didn't know whether they could take the car back, though; but that they'd inspect it extremely well, so that I wouldn't need to take it back for repairs.

I hope it's true. I mean - the more I drive my car, the more I love it. I just wish it was reliable!

 

Wow. I hope some agreeable resolution comes of this. Best of luck.

 

Best of Luck!

 

Just to make the heat a little hotter, I'd send a summary of the call in writing to the fellow you spoke with, the owner of the dealership and to mini...

 

get use to taking it to the dealer...they are not reliable cars just fun to drive and cute to look at...if you dont want to see the dealer in the future give it back now. good luck

 

Next time have your lawyer call..... I am unaware of what state you are in but even without a state lemon law your state has probably adopted a version of the Uniform Commercial Code. Since you have only driven your car 1,300 miles and had this many problems you may be able to revoke your acceptance under UCC 2-608.

 

is that for real?

 

Im noticing this as well.
Ive had mine since 40K miles. I am now just hitting 80K after two years of ownership.
I am noticing a lot of issues with these cars as well. They look great, are fun to drive. But are extremely delicate vehicles.

 

OP is in Mexico, don't know what "Lemon-Law" protection he would have.
__________________________________________________ ___________

As far as "Un-Reliable", I am going on nineteen months and have not seen any reason to return to Dealer yet.

I have twice done Lube-Oil-Filter DIY to save the six hour RT Motor back to Dealer.

MINI-USA has promised a local MINI Dealer within a year, so I may get a Free Service next time.

 

keep[ us posted

 

No, for God's sake, no, it's not for real.

Like any car, there will be a small percentage that has it's problems. Obviously, the OP has had many issues and I can sympathize with him but it's definitely not the norm.

One problem is given any percentage of owners of any particular brand and have them get on a forum, most likely, the majority of the posts are going to be people have problems... whether they're looking for a solution or just a place to vent their frustrations.

You don't hear anyone saying "I've got 1300 miles on my car and it's problem free". However, you will hear when the guy that has 1300 miles on his car and it's been back to the dealer half a dozen times.

There are a bazillion minis on the road and many people with hundreds of thousand of trouble free miles.

I don't care what brand of car you buy, if it's built, it'll have problems somewhere, sometime.

I bought my '09 JCW and immediately had to put a fuel pump in it. That was 11K miles ago and haven't had an issue. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

I hate the OP is having his problems but hopefully they'll make it right.... I understand how frustrating that can be.

Mark

 

Obviously it is real to that person.

My MINI has been reliable, but it has had it's issues too. For me the fun my MINI provides me outweighs any issues I've had. A lot depends on how one feels about their MINI. If one loves it they will be more willing to accept the issues the MINI may have. If it is just a car they are not going to enjoy going to the dealer to deal with issues they feel no car should have. A lot depends on ones dealer. Mine has been great & that has made a huge difference for me.

 

I have never owned a car, truck, bike, or boat that didn't have some issues. True, some are better than others but if it's mechanical it has a chance of breaking. It is also true you will only hear the problems, no one posts how good their Mini runs until they're confronted. I hope "bssiesmth" gets his issues resolved. That will be a test of integrity from his dealer because they can make it happen if they put their heart behind it.

Good luck!

 

Yea, to a bitter person...

Sounds like Tom bit into something sour...


Mark

 

You know how the old saying goes.. if it has teeets or tires, you're gonna have trouble with it!

 

Go on line now and look up the lemon law in your state. Most states have one and they commonly only require you to give the dealer three chances to fix something that deprives you of constructive use of the car.

R

 

Okay so I don't post often but here's the good from me at least. My '09 MCS turned a year old on wednesday and it has 27,500 miles on it with no problems. Went to dealer once for scheduled mait. And gotta go for scheduled vehicle check in 2k mi. That's it. So I hope they get the OP's issues resolved not all of 'em are bad. Good luck

 

Same here. 20k miles, one scheduled service and no problems.

 

Yeah. 23k on first MINI. Zero problems. Not even a rattle. 6.5k on new one and no issues at all.

 

Sorry you're having trouble with your car. The best source for reliability ratings comes from Consumer Reports, as they base their data on surveys from a huge group of people. I've been filling out reliability reports for the past 15 years on all my cars, wether they've had problems or not.

The MINI's reliability overall varies from worse than average to better than average depending on the year and model. The 2009 regular MINI (i.e. non-S) is predicted to be the same as 2008, "much better than average" in terms of reliability. That doesn't mean you don't have a lemon, but there's nothing wrong with MINI as a brand. Its not a Toyota, mind you!

 

Consumer reports? They are not as reliable as one would like them to be.
I remember when they were busted for purposefully flipping an SUV and got busted on film doing it. They have also been caught accepting "gifts" from product manufactures that they were doing "blind" testing on.
The best place to find out about a product is in the public forums.
Of course you will have to read between a lot of rants and raves. and have to understand that most people dont know all that much about the product they are endorsing.

 

Public forums just have anecdotal evidence from people who are having problems-- there's no way to compare a MINI to any other type of car, or even get a sense of the average buyer's experience.

As for Consumer Reports, are you implying their auto reliability ratings are influenced by how much car manufacturer's pay them? Over the years I've read about problems with specific tests on some items, after all, when you review thousands of products since 1933 something's bound to go wrong, but I've never seen anything that would put their entire rating system into question.

 

Except that 99% of the ownerd of said vehicle have not posted anything about thier cars so those are left out of the mix. and then 50% of the posters are doing nothign but complaining about their cars.

So as a whole public forums are very unreliable soruces for this info. as is seen on this forum. If you were to read this forum before purchasing a MINI you would be scared away just as you wold with any other car forum.

Consumer reports and others are (although not perfect by any means) a much better indicator of the true reliability of the cars.