Just picked up my wifes 08 Clubman from two days at the dealer. As a loaner they gave me new Countryman S . Wow, that car is *not* a Mini. Handles very poorly, leans a lot around turns and wanders too much on the highway. This was a FWD, perhaps the AWD steers better but nothing to do about the sway I'm guessing. Its also just too big inside and out and those rear bucket seats....

I was also not that impressed with the Turbo engine. Serious lag and when not in Sport mode the automatic really lagged the engine at low revs. At 50mph it was in 6th gear and running at like 1600RPM. Rediculous.

Here were the warranty items of the day :

- Replace leaking thermostat (at 22k miles??). Seems to be the standard fix for cooling system problems. Hopefully this was actually the source of the leak.

- Replace Club door latch for second time. This time, it was a sticking lower lever.

- Replace metal door sill trim, both sides. They never adhered properly from day one, and were quite mangled after 3 years.

- Adjust sunroof for excessive windnoise at highway speed. Sound familiar? Seems better, time will tell.


All covered under Warranty. This may be the one car I might consider an extended warranty for...

 

Personally I do not like the Countryman either and as for the S models, I love the performance but not the increase cost of maintenance and reliability.

 

I had my thermostat replaced as well with under 5k on the odometer, due to coolant disappearing. It seems to be doing the trick, but I keep an eye on the coolant level every month or so as a precaution.