Hey mini lovers, I'm getting pretty serious about buying a Mini here in the near future. Can any of you tell me anything about the ease of having your Mini repaired if something goes wrong? I've heard that there's very few places that will repair them, and that it's rediculously expensive. I've also heard a couple of horror stories of engine bay fires totaling your beloved minis. How many people has stuff like this happened to? Other than that, I'm pretty set on buying one. Let me know.

Thanks guys.

 

Few things to consider:

Where do you live?

New or used?

How DIY capable are you?

How much do you want to spend?

Personally, I've only heard of a few enginebay fires over the past 3+ years of being involved with MINIs.

 

The MINI is not the cheapest car to purchase or maintain, especially if you use the dealer. Rates depend on your area. Like all BMWs, repair costs are relatively high (i.e. vs. Honda, et. al.) but independent shops will do the work for less. The engine bay fires are few, but it's disconcerting.
If you're buying new, you've got 3-4 years before you have to worry about anything. Being cheap, I was concerned about repair costs as well. My solution is to do any work myself.

 

All the cars i've owned have been expensive to maintain, so i'm used to high costs of maintainence. It's all relative. If you're coming out of a Honda Civic, then of course it will be expensive, you're comparing a 25-30k dollar sports hatch to a 12k dollar econo box. The fun factor out weighs the cost of ownership for me. As for engine bay fires, I've only heard of 2, maybe 3 since i've been involved with Mini's. Accidents happen, if there were 30-40 cases on the forums i'd be more concerned about it.

 

From what I've read, the engine bay fires seem to be in the 2002-04 models. They found the causes and seem to have fixed them in the 2005-06 years.

 

You are asking this question on an enthusiasts board .... so the answers are going to tend to be skewed. Many people will put up with about anything because they love the car so much and this is not a representative group of the 150K plus cars sold.

I would suggest you SEARCH and read the threads about the problems. In doing so remember, that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. People who have nothing wrong with the cars do not ususally write about that while people will problems will be quick to complain.

While some people will complain about repair costs, as others have said ... its all relative ... MINI repairs costs are CHEAP compared to say buying a Ferrari but maybe EXPENSIVE compared to a Toyota

Do you research and you will find what you seek

Best of Luck

 

I'm down in Southern California, and to answer one questions, and I do like working on cars. I think your advice has helped me with my decision. I didn't think the whole engine bay fire thing was too much to worry about (as I searched the forum, and found only about 2-3 topics on it), but with something that potentially lethal, I wanted to make sure. I'm trying to get my hands on ordering an '06 (and soon, as they're only taking orders until the 3rd week of October!). Thanks guys, talk to you soon.

 

Congrats on your decision! The warranty on my '04 has made repairs REAL easy. Not to mention that I'm fortunate enough to live near one of the best MINI service garages at Classic MINI in Mentor, Ohio. They have taken great care of me and Dobby. 'Cause I will say that there are lots of little *quirky* things with this car. But nothing that has left me stranded yet...knock on wood...WORTH THE INCONVENIENCE as far as I'm concerned, and hasn't cost me a dime...

 

2006 mini on order, nothing can touch that decision except for a 1250 cc engined 1960's Mini I so want one now.