I want to thank each and every one of you that took the time to chime in
I'm not skeptical of the CVT as a concept, Nissan basically has it in all their automatic cars and it's holding up great. That being said, it doesn't say anything about the Mini's CVT so naturally I started doing research into the matter. Tell you what, my Subaru 5EAT "standard" automatic is no cheaper to fix at a price tag of over 5K for a rebuild or replacement, so ...
It looks like I should be looking into a newer, 2005 and up Mini with a traditional automatic instead of a CVT.

Another question, does the Mini or newer Mini have rear folding seats by chance?

 

They both do. When you drop the seats there is a large amount of room for such a small car.

 

That's great. Well, hopefully sooner rather than later we'll be in the Mini family

 

If you are planning on tracking your MINI, don't get a CVT. I blew out my CVT this weekend on my '04 MC and went through a set of Pirellis in three track weekends. Don't track the CVT....other than that, its not bad. The car has 23k on it btw...

 

The CVT is much cheaper to build than the conventional transmission. MINI discontinued the CVT because it was too much of a liability!

 

i just got a new cvt for my 05 cooper.
33k miles..
has been jerky and shifts hard.

now it is smoooth and shifts nice.

and
i have a 2 year unlimited mileage warrenty on the new tranny

 

Jeez, no wonder everything is so expensive. Mfg are forced to protect themselves from litigation happy folks like you!

 

I put 128k on my '03 R50 with the CVT with no problems.Just thought I'd put that out there.

 

Glad to hear you've had such good luck with your CVT. I think your experience may be an exception rather than the rule.

 

Well, now that winter has come and gone, it's time for an update and a quick thread revival. Wife and I went out yesterday and test drove a 2006 Mini Base with CVT. As opposed to the first time her and I sat in a Mini, this time I had her do the test drive since it's going to be her car. She was timid since she didn't know the car and the way it reacted, needles to say I was very amused by the jerkiness induced by her pulling suddenly and firmly at the steering wheel, touching the brakes, etc. I kept warning her "this is like a go-cart, not like your Focus". We swapped places and I got in the driver's seat. The impression is that with the CVT vs the manual, the car seems quite boggy when flooring it at a dead stop. However, I knew to expect this from a CVT so I watched the speedometer instead of relying on the butt dyno. I'd say it's right on par with her auto Focus (130-some hp vs 110, similarly-weight vehicles). Not the quickest car around town but it definitely moves once north of 50mph or so.
All in all she loved the car. She's always dreamed of owning one and I think we can get one. We don't have a big budget to play with but I'm sure we can find something around $12k.

Anywhoo, the real reason I wanted to revive this thread is to now ask for things that we should pay particular attention when purchasing a used Mini.
How will the CVT behave if it is not in the best condition and/or is about to fail?

 

You need to make sure that the software has been updated by a MINI dealer.

 

they can just go with out warning, or they can making a whining noise. either way having a car with a transmission that will cost as much as the car to replace is not worth while, just steer clear.

 

That's what happened to my CVT. Drove it home from work one day, backed it out the next day, and it wouldn't go into drive. $6000+ quoted to get it drivable again.

 

I bought my Mini in November 2007 with a CVT after having done tons of research on the Mini itself. I needed an automatic due to a bad left hip that makes shifting painful after awhile. I continued to research the Mini after I bought it because of the CVT. This is what I have found out:

The CVT requires periodic transmission fluid changes. Probably every 30-35K miles. Most of the people that had failures never mentioned if they changed the fluid regularly or not. I would venture to guess they did not.

The CVT is not only in the Mini it is in other cars as well. I specifically remember the Prius having a CVT. CVT's are used in Hybrids because of the torque to drive ratio. Mini is not the only place these are used.

OK the 2002 Mini with CVT had problems. The 2002 had problems everywhere. Any first year model is prone to multiple failures in multiple areas. Check out other 1st year release vehicles with CVT's.

Reliability is totally dependent on driver style. If you abuse the CVT by running it up to 6K RPM every time you take off from a stop light, well eventually it will probably fail. So will any other transmission.

The Extended Warranty is a good deal if only to provide reassurance that if you have a failure you are not going to be out more than the car is worth. I paid $1500 for a 4 year warranty out to 100K. They allowed me to pay $120 a month and have actually fixed my passenger side door actuator while I'm still paying for the warranty. I paid my $100 deductable and they took care of the rest. I highly recommend Warranty Direct. Great folks.

I have a 2004 MC with CVT and 72,000 miles. I love shifting into "Sport" mode to leave some tailgating SOB in his SUV watching with his jaw dropped. The acceleration is great, and using crusie control gives me 32 MPG every day, and 36 MPG on the highway.

I would stay away from the 2002, look for a good deal on a low mileage 2004 to 2006. You might have to travel a bit to find a good one. I bought mine out in Towanda PA, and paid 16K for a 2004 with 37K on it. When I brought it back to DC, it was already worth 4K more than I paid for it. Now that's a deal!

Everyone has an opinion on the CVT's and everyone is entitled to their opinion. Most of the people here expressing their opinions don;t have a CVT and have never driven one. They are just repeating what they heard.

I'd like to see the facts! What are the facts on the CVT failures? How many have failed verses how many have been sold? What are the percentages and how do these compare to other transmissions?

Without the FACTS it's all hearsay, and hearsay evidence is not only unreliable it's just plain BS. So who has the facts? BMW? Mini Cooper? Somebody out there knows for sure what the percentage of failures vs percentage sold is.

Now, barring any good hard concrete numbers let me postulate a little theory here. I have a CVT. I also got an extended warranty for my Mini out to 100K. I took out the extended warranty as soon as my dealer warranty ran out at 42,000 miles. The extended warranty covers everything, including the complete cost of replacement for the CVT, which is $7-8K. Now if the CVT's were as unreliable and failure prone as the "experts" on this site say; do you think the extended warranty companies would insure them? If CVT's were failing at even a 12-15% of all sold rate, I doubt that the warranty companies would sell 100% repair warranties for $1500. It simply would not be cost effective for them.

When I bought my extended warranty there were two questions I made sure I asked. The first question was, "Is the CVT transmission replacement covered"? The answer was "yes". The second question I asked was, "Do the CVT's have a high failure rate?", her answer was, "Not any higher than any other transmission. We couldn't afford to insure them if it did."

So why does everyone fear the CVT so much? Because it's different, everyone talks about it. It's like a snowball rolling downhill. You don't hear from the folks with Manual transmissions that have failed, and you don't hear from folks with CVT's that haven't failed. They are still out there, some with 100K+ miles on them.

Ok, so this long winded post is designed to put this overly debated controversy to rest....but it won't until we get the facts. Anyone out there with REAL numbers......?

 

I have 20,000 miles on my '05 CVT. While talking to the dealer's service manager about an appointment for our Clubman, I asked if they had serviced any CVT's and he said yes a couple (new dealership). I said I wanted to get it changed around 25 or 30,000 miles. He said they don't need it until 60,000 miles and it's around $300. He also said they had replaced one. I've heard all kinds of service misinformation: from it's lifetime fluid, to 25,000 miles, and everything in between. I'm still going to get it changed, but I wish there was some consistent service info out there .

 

I don't think they ALL fail. But I do think that there have been enough failures to warrant concern. Some of these CVTs (and I'm speaking from the position of a LOT of research, as I own one - I spend time reading about these transmissions almost every single day) are failing at under 30k. That's crazy.

I'm not saying that they aren't being driven in a way to help speed the failure along. But there are many people here that can speak to their extremely pricey CVT failures/replacements and I don't think it's fair to blow off their collective failures in light of a group of collectively still functioning CVTs either.

I do agree that there is a ton of conflicting service information. Some people are being told they need fluid changes every 20-30k, some are still being told the fluid is lifetime.

 

I've had my '03 R50 CVT since November. I took it into the dealer to have all the fluids changed including the CVT fluid given all the horror stories out there. My service advisor told me that the CVT fluid is a lifetime fluid and never needs changing.

Some research into the history of my vehicle revealed that it was serviced at a local shop specializing in MINIs. Infact the owner is a former tech at the dealer and has been working on these cars since 2002. He tells me that the fluid DOES need changing every 100,000KM or every three years; whichever comes first. According to him, the CVT transmission flush is part of the "Inspection II" service, and mine was done in September 2009.

So there we have it. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing when it comes to these cars!

As an aside, the foreman at the dealer told me that he has never seen a CVT fail, whereas the owner of the MINI shop told me that he has seen one fail in his experience, considerably fewer than the comparable Midlands manual.

Asif

 

You'd think that there would be a general MINI guideline on service for the CVT. Apparently NOT; every dealer has a different story on what you're supposed to do, if anything. Even though I have an extended warranty & my dealer says it doesn't need it 'till 60,000 miles, I'm going to have it changed around Inspection 1 @ 25,000 / 30,000 miles. Hey, I may get out the Bentley Manual, do Inspection 1 myself, and have them do the tranny fluid. (The every 3 years version is a new one to me, but who knows?)

 

When you consider changing the CVT fluid check out AAmco. They know what needs to be done, insured they had the right fluid, completed a service inspections, flushed the CVT housing and added new fluid. Cost=$250.00. The best thing is they didn't try to "hit me" for other things they thought needed done.