All dry humor aside I was curious to find out how long owners on here plan on keeping their Countryman's? I'm still hanging out saving funds to get just what I want. With that said I'm not one to change cars like I change clothes, and where I'm from that's beyond common. If I purchase a Countryman (or whatever car I end buying) I plan on running it into the ground. I don't expect owning a CM to be cheap once the warranty is up but I don't expect it to be as much as a standard BMW (I'm also considering an F30 328/5 or whatever they end up calling it??). Fire away with your thoughts and comments. I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts and ideas.

 

Bought the maintenance plan to 100k and will probably evaluate then.

 

+1

 

I think this will be my last new car...... ever. So I plan to keep it.

I am going to have the stripes added today, and that annoying peeling "chrome" tape fixed at the dealership.

 

Till the wheels fall off (of course I may still try to put them back on).

Have had my 2003 since 2003. Damn near still looks news. Plan to do the same for the CM.

 

Agreed!

Although I bought the extended warranty on my Element, intending to keep it for a while. I traded it in after 40k miles.

But I really do like the Countryman wayyyy more than the Element.

 

It's been a long time since I've seen a car I got as excited about as the CM. I plan on keeping mine until it's an antique. I will probably keep it even if I get a new one.

 

I'd love to say I'll keep it until it dies, but the longest I've kept any car is 4 years (that was a 2003 MCS). This is also the reason I didn't buy an extended warranty...

So that being said, I'm shooting for 5 years on the CMS I just got. We'll see how it goes.

The nice thing about Mini is that if you're like me and trade cars every few years, you don't take as big of a bath on the Mini as you would a Ford or GM etc.

 

+2

 

Ditto. 2004 MCS JCW since Oct 2003!

Out of warranty service (for failures) has consisted of:

1. new battery ($110, my labor);
2. driver's door power lock module ($97, my labor);
3. windshield ($0, insurance covered).

"Wear and tear" items like wiper blades, tires, bushings, and brake pads have also been changed but I don't regard those item as "failures". The MCS is garaged, the oil changed every 5,000 miles, and is driven about 50/50 city/hwy. I have kept all gas receipts since new and it has averaged 27.3 mpg.

Note that the car has 90,000 miles, dynoed recently at 194 whp (original dyno after JCW @ 14,000 miles was 198 whp), and has provided much enjoyment at autocrosses and the track.

Why would I get rid of it???? I'm expecting my "on-order" CM-S-2 to give me comparable service.

 

You're extraordinarily lucky my friend. Here's what my '03 MCS had done to it while I owned it:

- both power window modules stopped working
- both power lock actuators failed
- boot rattle
- dash rattles
- driver's side door handle cable snapped
- new clutch @ 47k miles
- tensioner had to be tightened
- power steering motor replaced
- oil leak
- power steering hose leak
- assorted other hose leaks
- sunroof creaking

Loved that car, but wow.

 

No argument there! However, the 2004 model year saw a vast improvement in reliability and a reduction in many previously niggly items found in the 2002-03 MINIs. I think the "sweetspot" for the R53 were the 2005-2006 model years as the quality improved further and the gear ratios of the lower gears became "closer".

In the future, I would expect the 2006 GP (only 2000 made) and the 2006 MCS JCW to be the most sought after supercharger models. Time will tell...

 

Yeah, probably. Mine was built in August of 2003 so it was a "late 03" model. Again, LOVED that little car... Wasn't keen on the part failures every 6 months. But here I am with an '11 CMS, so what does that tell you?

 

I'm somewhat surprised at these comments. Totally understandable, however, I am one of those fickle car owners that needs new stuff often. Also, when a warranty expires, I would tend to lose sleep worrying about some catastrophic expense. I lease my cars for 36 months. After the second year, I begin to get antsy about getting the newest with all the gizmos. So, mine is outahere in January, 2014 and will be replaced by another CMS.

 

I plan on keeping long-term as well. Being the first Mini/car I have custom-ordered, I feel its more personalized and unique to me vs a car off the lot thus a deeper "connection"

 

Agree. When you get to custom order it and make it yours, you are way more attached to it. Our current CM will be passed down to 16 year old daughter next year. We plan on her using it all through High School and into College! She already has it adroned with Univ of Texas logo items! Once she gets it, I plan on moving over to the Paceman.

 

6 year (100k miles - won't see that many though) warranty - at least that long...

 

I see a lot of you are getting the extended warranty as well as there are a lot of DIY'ers on here. This car has a pretty simple package with not too many gizmos if you stay away from things like MINI Connected or anything else heavy on the electronics side that could be costly later. Anyone have experience on here with independent MINI shops? What are their prices like compared to dealers? Obviously this is the first ever BMW/MINI Countryman so there are a lot of unknowns, hopefully these things turn out to be mostly bullet proof.

 

I usually trade in or sell my cars a few years after I've paid them off. That way I get a few years sans payments. So it usually comes out to 6-7 years depending on when I pay off the car loan.

I'm planning on passing on the extended warranty, but haven't completely decided that yet. I'm going to have to do more research on that and it'll probably depend on if I get a good price on it or not.

 

For the rest of his or my life, whichever comes first. I drove my last new car for 17 years.

 

I usually buy for keeps. Usually when a car is beyond the point of no return, I give it away. Some have been dragged back to life kicking and screaming and some are parts or scrapped....

Of course NOW, with this being my first mini AND all the horror stories, we'll take it one day at a time. Its been great thus far with all 2500 miles and its a blast to drive...

But again, the horror stories. I must allow for those possibilities...

I will let the mini tell me how long.... Almost afraid to name it cause once I do, it will die...... LOL

 

Want to keep the CM for a while but... allready, windown dont go down all the way, they just replace the driver side 2 weeks ago. And all ready today same problem ! Nav dont work sometime, ...

 

I have almost 16k on mine already and plan on keeping it till it drops- which may be sooner than I think- already changed out the clutch under warranty - large piece missing from clutch plate-Mini of GR covered it and were excellent. If the next one goes out that fast I may need to reconsider my car purchase- but I love the car and really missed when it was being worked on.

 

I drove my first car, a used '92 Volvo 240, to about 120,000 miles (got it at about 80,000), and only traded it in because a yahoo rear-ended me and I was able to get a lot more for it by taking the insurance check and selling the wreck than I would through repairing it.

My second car was an '02 Jeep Liberty I bought new and traded in for my CM this year. I got 9 years and 140,000 miles of great service out of that Jeep. I'm hoping for a similar service life from the Countryman. I bought the 100,000 mile service and warranty plans (usually, I don't think they're a great idea, but with a new model with so much new engineering, it seemed smart), so I'll assess the investment when that expires. I'd love to have it for the next 10 years.

 

I kept my '03 MCS (delivered Nov 2002) for 130k miles until I bought my Countryman, I'd like to keep this car as long, or longer...

I bought the extended warranty from Geico, It was not much extra per year but supposedly it covers non-regular maintenance costs (like if the turbo goes) for up to 100k or so.

So I bought everything for durability and upgradability. The cloth seats I think are very durable (I had cloth in my '03 MCS and it still looked like new). I got connected, no nav, because I thought having a screen was very flexible in terms of feature additions to the car. I got the Xenon lights because I never had to replace the ones on my '03MCS.

I also got the sunroof which is probably not durable at all... I think of it as Geico's problem now.

BTW, someone mentioned replacing a clutch at 47k miles - my manual clutch on the '03MCS had to be replaced at around 120k miles. I never did replace the supercharger, I always wondered how much longer it would go.

I also had to replace the head, because a spark plug blew out and destroyed the hole doing so - I always figured it was a plug but in too loose and working it's way back out, eating up the thread with fire as it backed out... the REALLY odd thing is that I had the exact same problem with by previous car, a dodge Neon. In both cases it was after I had someone else replace the spark plugs... never again.