I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new 2014 Countryman S (no ALL4). I was hoping to get some advice from other Countryman owners:

1) When I bought my '10 Cooper S, I was told not to exceed certain RPM's for x miles, and to get an oil change after x miles. Is this still recommended, and if so, what are the numbers? Any break-in advice is appreciated.

2) I've opted to get the extended maintenance warranty, after regretting to do with my last purchase. Would it be smarter to opt for the extended mechanical warranty? I've heard that the Countryman has had some issues, but I've also heard these have been worked out. I'd like to see what others have observed.

Thanks!

 

Congratulations!

1.I've seen people give all kinds of advice about this, but I always just followed the manual on both of our Minis, regardless of what an MA or SA or other Mini owner said. it has very specific break-in rules for the clutch, brakes, and motor, that extends out to 1,250 miles.

I figured they engineered the car so they should understand the best way to break it in.

2.we also got the extended service plan. We take our cars/bikes to The Dragon a couple of times a year, and when at home we drive them like they were meant to be driven, so brake wear is going to occur pretty often. We are pretty confident we are going to run through a couple of sets of brake pads/rotors and possibly a clutch within 36k miles. I am NOT a wrench on our Minis, so the dealer will do all the service and at $650-$700 per brake job, it will pay for itself. I just had a 5k oil change done on my R56 JCW(it just crossed 5k miles total mileage), and the service tech told me I had some pretty good brake wear on the front Brembos already, and asked if I had been doing track weekends......well, sort of :-) At Minis on the Dragon this year, the brake dust was flying, I can vouch for that...

Regarding the extended maint. warranty. We did NOT get that on either of our Minis, but may consider it before the 4/50 warranties are up. While many of the Coutryman gremlins were flushed out by the 2013 model year, BMW's and Minis don't have the greatest reliability record. Our issue is the $3800 cost to take the warranty to 8 years/100k miles, including all electronics. Wow, that is a bite to pay at the outset of ownership on an already expensive car But it could easily pay for itself-just the luck of the draw, you know. I can report that we are at 16k miles(still young, I know) on our CM JCW and not a single problem yet.

We are loving our CM. You know the only thing that drives me nuts about the CM? to remove the head rests, you need 3 thumbs. You have to push in a button, then use a small pointing device to depress another tiny button, all while pulling up on the headrest. If that's my only complaint during our ownership of the car I will feel very blessed!

 

I would not purchase either of the plans, but if you are going to pick one, I would pick the defective part warranty instead of the maintenance plan. The main reason is that even time you bring it in for your pre paid oil change the dealer will do a courtesy safety inspection that will return several thousand dollars worth of work. I'm not saying that the work is not always needed, but the prices quoted when it's out of your pocket explain how they pay the rent, and why new car sales are up.