As the title states, passing this info along as a safety concern to fellow owners in hopes that no one gets hurt.

These pictures are from my 2018 Countryman that was purchased in early March 2018. I took it to my dealer to get a small air leak in my left rear tire addressed and found the lower control arm to be severely damaged. It is bent and cracked. This car has never been towed or abused while in my possession during the 8k miles on it. I park indoors, swerve for all potholes, and go over railroad tracks at a snails pace.

This part is not typically replaceable under warranty so I have opened a case with the Mini Customer Relations. It is currently under review.

In my professional opinion (10+ years as a mechanical engineer) this could not have occurred while driving. A very large downward force on the control arm could be the only root cause of this issue. Improper securing the vehicle during transport comes to mind as one possibility.

So everyone please be careful out there and check your control arms before taking delivery. I feel very lucky that there was no actual failure that occurred because that could have been very serious on the highway.

Pictures.....

 

Wow i have never seen that unless a MINI was pulled by accident by a tow truck driver. All i can think is that or maybe in transport from the dealer to location? Either that or something hooked on there and pulled down while driving?
Thanks for posting up.

 

WOW! THAT should have been caught during Dealer Prep/Pre-delivery Inspection. If the damage had been done prior to you taken possession.

...Maybe a demon from the gates of the river Styx grabbed on there when you were driving like a bat out of hell?

Glad you are safe.

Motor On!

 

Wow, that had to have messed up the alignment on that tire. Any signs of uneven tire wear? I could see a hard impact from the side causing that, but if there's no damage to the wheel/tire and the top arm is OK, then I agree with ECS - probably some numnut thought it was a good place to strap it down on the delivery truck.

 

Not an impact from the side, something from the top did that. It could not have happened while driving, more damage would have been done. That looks like something hooked the car while stationary and pulled down.

 

It would be logical to assume the force applied to bend as reflected would be from the top and one does not need to be an engineer to understand that.

The question is whether MINI will accept fault or punt it back into your field.

 

I completely agree that the force would have needed to be significant from the top. Normal contact with anything while driving would not have done it. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the underside at delivery that would prove the theory. I think it was strapped down incorrectly during transport.

Surprisingly I did not notice any pull on the car if the alignment of that tire was off. Give the damage I would have thought I would have noticed something off.

For now it's fixed and that's all that matters. I hope no one else has damaged parts like this because it could be a bad situation if it does fail completely.