Press release from Mini itself. If you read this website as often as I do, very few problems are reported on 2004 Mini models. The improvements are very obvious to owners who purchased a 2002 then upgraded to a 2004 Mini.



"Ideas from employees at BMW Group's Oxford plant, home of MINI, have saved £10.5 million in the past two years following the factory's ongoing commitment to BMW Group's strategy of Continuous Improvement Process (CIP).
Every employee at the plant is set a target of implementing three ideas a year to improve the business. 11,064 ideas were put into practice from a total of 14,333 submitted in 2003, an 80 per cent implementation rate. The suggestions ranged from simple things such as saving unnecessary paper through to more complex engineering solutions to improve production processes like the development of a new overhead assister to enable equipment to be fed through the MINI bodyshell as it moves through the paint shop.

A 'Working in Groups' initiative, part of a wider programme of change management, has created more than 200 teams of between eight and 15 people each with the power to tackle a range of production issues. Each month, the production line is stopped for 90 minutes to allow the teams to put forward new ideas and review plans to implement existing suggestions.

Commenting on the CIP strategy, Dr Tony Heiss, managing director of the Oxford plant, said: "I am very pleased with the results achieved which exceeded the plant's 2003 target. We have moved away from a strongly directive management style to a much more autonomous team working approach. This places the achievement of plant improvement targets directly into the hands of our employees and has made a real difference to the business."

Savings of over £43 million were achieved in 2003 from similar CIP schemes throughout BMW Group's global production network of 24 production plants located in 15 different countries."

 

I've recieved over 5 calls from BMW NA and been asked how many miles and any problems to report and what I'd like changed about the car. I haven't had any problems that aren't already apparent and being addressed (yo-yo, stumble, trunk latch rattle), at least they're setting the remaining problems straight. Happy to report though, that my 2004 has been flawless and I've been easily able to overlook the problems b/c the rest of the car more than makes up for the few small bugs.

 

My '03 was more problem free, and tighter than my '04. Go figure

 

I am sure that J.D Powers initial quality stats for the 2004 model year will be higher than the results posted for the '02 and '03 model years. I also concur with the article...their more agressive (Shall we say "Toyota Production Methods&quot approach is paying off as the build quality and reliability of my nearly 6 month old '04 MCS has been excellent. The car is much more carefully put together and more substantial in comparison to my '02 Cooper CVT. But our CVT for a first year car, has been nothing sort of outstanding.

 

Wednesday car?

>>My '03 was more problem free, and tighter than my '04. Go figure

 

Funny you mention that! My '03 was a Sunday car, but my '04 is a Wednesday build!

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>>Funny you mention that! My '03 was a Sunday car, but my '04 is a Wednesday build!
>>


I have a car scheduled for a Wednesday (March 27th) completion. Is there any correlation between completion day and quality?? Or just coincidence?

 

It is all part of the marketing
Ever heard of "New and Improved"
How about 20% Bigger?

 

They need to institute the Continuous Improvement Process within their dealer network -- and soon.

If they can get CIP to work on the west coast, it'll work anywhere.

 

I think the problem rate may also have to do with picking a MINI with more options and more technology.

My opinion is that a simple but solid base MC 5 speed or MCS would be pretty trouble free.

Add more than a few options and the complexity increases and so do the problems.

Techonology is wonderful, ain't it. :evil:

 

Well, whenever a car has been around for a few years, the automaker will have the chance to get the bugs out of the car. When a car is first released, they think it is up to snuff, but problems will rear their ugly head. Complaints will arise from these problems and solutions will be made. One such example is v.36. It has improved the drivability after 3 years, but it still has problems.

MINI USA rep Claude Bruni told me they keep coming up with new software for the cars, but other situations will always arise. Everytime they get the software certified, it costs them millions of dollars. At that time (Feb.), he told me Hawaii had the hottest temps (mid 80s) in the nation and that would affect the performance and drivability of the cars. I would sure hate to see how the car will drive when the temp hits the 90s.

 

if i remember correctly, Claude also mentioned something about how their MINI's are built to be a "world car" and to work the same throughout the world. uh...we shall see.

all i know is that come this summer, when it hits 90 degrees, my a/c better not break again.

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i love trouble-free mini coopers, too bad i don't own one.

 

So far it has been just great having the Mini.I hope we feel this way a year from now. :???:

 

My '04 has had a couple of slight build issues, but nothing like the horror stories that are out there. It is not Japanese... but hey... it DOES have a personality.

 

Let me tell you, my supercharger did *not* sound happy that afternoon.

 

I assume that you are in AZ or somewhere similar?

 

That was driving across Nevada in August on my way from Denver to L.A.