just found this site, actually I was looking for minisucks.com but it wasn't there, so most mini owners must be happy with their purchase......maybe I just got the world's biggest lemon....have had the mini now since May, 5K plus miles....after 1500 miles the supercharger went kaput...in the shop for 10 days till a new one was located....at 2500 the rear hatch started rattling, in the shop 2 days to replace the rear hatch latch....at around 3700 miles the run flat tire sensor came on, fortunately in town and took it to the mini dealer, the tire wasn't flat but defective, in shop 14 days since it had to be located on the east coast to match the other 3 runflats, guess there are several brands of run flats used on the minis....but the cue de gra was two weeks ago the air conditioning compressor went out and it's been in the shop since, there is not one single air compressor in the US for replacement, has to come from overseas....the dealer has been very nice and apologetic and most recently gave me a BMW to drive. I decided I couldn't take the frustration anymore and asked about a trade-in on a BMW....I paid a little over 22K for the mini, MSRP at the time....they offered me $17K trade in on a $32K BMW...I told them that seemed low, so they suggested I sell it myself...only problem is it is hard to sell sitting in the repair shop with no AC...

Anyway...just venting here,,,anyone else had mechanical problems...don't get me wrong, I loved the car when it wasn't in the shop...maybe mine was made by the Brits on a monday after spending all weekend in the pubs drinking pints..lol

 

(((((((((HUG))))))))))
I am SO sorry to hear all that! You are venting to the right people....most everyone on here will lend an ear to what you have to say!

L.Mini

 

Sorry to hear this, but it does happen. Most states have lemon laws:evil:. Sounds like it is about time to get that MINI replaced.

 

I might even go to arbitration if I were you... it looks like you got an early-build lemon. Alas, I cannot remember the name of the orginization, but i'm sure if you do some digging in the phone book, you'll be able to find something... also, have you called MINI to tell them what happened? From some other posts they seem quite accommodating...

Rocketboy_X

 

That Sucks. I agree with the others, you should look into Lemon laws in your state. I know FL has a Lemon Law. I have a Cooper S with almost 6K miles on it and I have only had one problem and that was a leaking coolant tank. Apart from that it has been a strong running car with no problems... knock on wood.

Keep us posted I want to know the outcome. You may want to contact Mini directly to air your complaint & request for a new Mini since yours is a Lemon.

Good Luck

Kesh

MCS

 

Sorry about the bad luck with your MINI....
I agree.... check your states lemon laws....

By the way..... you must have gotten one of the first "S's" to hit the streets..... you said it was a May delivery right...... did you buy the demo from a dealer? It was my understanding that the "S" was not to be sold until June.

Again sorry to hear about the bad luck.....
Hope everything works out.
SW

PS... welcome to the site!

 

>>By the way..... you must have gotten one of the first "S's" to hit the streets..... you said it was a May delivery right...... did you buy the demo from a dealer? It was my understanding that the "S" was not to be sold until June.


Hmmm..... I was thinking the same thing. Very curious.

 

Let's put things into perspective. I think the factor that has had a greater impact in the prompt resolution of some of his MCS problems has been the lack of readily available replacement parts. This indeed has contributed to his frustration when dealing with the required repairs. Perhaps if he hadn't had to wait 2 days for a replacement latch, 10 days for a supercharger, 14 days to find a replacement run flat tire and more days waiting for a replacement A/C compressor may be, just maybe he would have been a bit more tolerant about the issues that have come up with the car.

As far as qualying for Lemon Law, remember that the car has to have documented safety defects and repeated visits (2, 3 or 4 whatever state law specifies) to repair said safety defects. With that said, a rattling rear hatch, a failed A/C compressor and a defective (Already replaced BTW) runflat tire could aid in building a Lemon case but these are not deciding factors as none of these are considered to be safety defects that impair the use and value of the car.

Now, the only defect that could qualify for Lemon Law is the failed supercharger. It appears to be that the Supercharger has since been replaced and hasn't failed again. If the new replacement part does not, sorry you don't have grounds for Lemon Law relief. The same part has to fail again and again.


As of now, based on MINIBlue's story, he has ZERO Lemon Law recourse at this time. If he is unhappy with his car, he needs to get the A/C fixed and trade it in or sell it privately on his own. I don't see any other way to solve his satisfaction issues unless he is willing to give the car a second chance and keep it a while longer.

Also, he has an early build MINI and unfortunately you can expect to encounter some issues with any new first year car if you want to be the first kid on the block.

Lemon Law was not designed to give relief to those new car buyers with after sale remorse or with minor-non safety related defects. Lemon Law is aimed at providing sufficient legal aid to those who have genuine safety related new vehicle problems that can't be effectively and timely solved by the selling dealership and the manufacturer.

Good luck.

 

Sorry you've had so many probs with your MINI S! Forgive me for what is probably going to be a little cruel, but, :evil: My gawd, 'blues, but, #1, the car's only been stateside for 5 or so months! and #3, Did you really expect ANY dealer to voluntarily pay what your trade in is worth?! Especially a BMW dealership? (BTW, You really have a knack for picking out the high-demand cars, don't you?)

(Back to sympathy mode):

 

WOW I am sorry to hear of all the troubles you had with your MCS. I also got my MCS in May but the only problem I've had so far is the back seat handle breaking and the rattling of the hatch. I'll get that fixed when I go in for the oil change. The only other problem is the small ding in the door from the electrician when I lived in the Bay Area. I'll get that fixed soon.

I love BMW's but to give up the MCS, that would kill me but it is understandable. Let us know what happens.

 

cooper4us...

thanks for the post...very knowledgable, sure my mini doesn't qualify under the lemon laws....and the problem is the reolacement parts...if parts would have been available, then the shop time would probably have been only a day each time...I remember my mom buying a 74 chevy Vega when it cam out with the aluminum block.....that made the mini seem like no problems...lol

I was just venting...if I ever get it back or wait till winter gets here then I'll try it again, my God what else can break....seriously the tire and hatch were minor, hopefully they are stacking tires at least at the dealers where the car was purchased...the air compressor is really not that big a deal if the part was available, unless there is a design flaw in the compressor, mine was the clutch so they are replacint the entire compressor as they are worried it could be a clutch problem. The only serious problem seems to be the supercharger....regarding the May cars i orginally was put on the waiting list almost 2 years ago when I orginally saw the mini articles about them coming to the states in 02...I was scheduled to get a cooper and test drove one in April and loved it. But in May was called by the sales manager and told they received cars including 2 S's and I should drive one which I did and loved the quicker response, so i bought it, dark silver, white top...it only had 75 mile so I assume it wasn't a demo....don't ask me about production dates or delivery dates because I have no clue how that works....

anyway, once I get it back (I will get it back won't I) I'll see what happens...I am enjoying driving the 3 series BMW, but it doesn't have a stick shift which is a bummer....

Thanks...

 

>>anyway, once I get it back (I will get it back won't I) I'll see what happens...I am enjoying driving the 3 series BMW, but it doesn't have a stick shift which is a bummer....
>>
>>Thanks...
>>
>>

Just to let you know these things CAN have a happy ending, I had similar problems with my (then new) Golf GTI VR6. Had to have parts of the electronics surrounding the steering wheel replaced, transmission occasionally "ground", and it never handled "right". To make a long story short, I hammered away one at a time; I've now had the car 3 years and it is rock solid (Neuspeed/Bilstein suspension cured most of the handling). My wife will take over this car when the MINI arrives; and the Golf looks, and feels new. I've almost forgotten some of the problems.

Now, SHOULD those problems have occured? No. But since they DID, you either take care of them or continue to feel miserable. And the latter just isn't enjoyable! So, keep the faith, and let the dealers know that you'll learn all of the names of the owners grandkids; if that's how much time you have to spend with them to get the car FIXED. Suddenly, the problems will start getting resolved, and you can enjoy MOTORING again!

Hang in there!

 

>>As far as qualying for Lemon Law, remember that the car has to have documented safety defects and repeated visits (2, 3 or 4 whatever state law specifies) to repair said safety defects. With that said, a rattling rear hatch, a failed A/C compressor and a defective (Already replaced BTW) runflat tire could aid in building a Lemon case but these are not deciding factors as none of these are considered to be safety defects that impair the use and value of the car.
>>

This all depends on the state. The safety defects are the biggest issue, but there are defaults in some states which depend on the number of days in the shop or "out of service days" your car accumulates. I would talk to MINI and tell them the record of days and your frustration. I had the same problem with my '99 Jetta VR6 (57 "out of service days&quot. I sent VW copies of the service records along with a notarized lettered and they were pretty good about it.VW, not wanting to hurt their customer service record bought the car back from me as long as I signed a waiver that said I wouldn't officially Lemon Law it. They were also willing to give me a new car if I prefered. I opted out and haven't looked back. Check it out. Most manufacturers, new or not, do care what is going on with their cars and it's no skin off their backs to make things work (tax write-offs, etc.), if you stomp your feet and make some noise. Help may only be a couple of phone calls and a notarized letter to MINI, away.

Good luck,

J.

 

Seems to me the MINI should not have been made available without first establishing a replacement part network to support the vehicle. I remember back in '87 Mazda postponed the installation of their new V-6 in the 4WD "B" pickup because it was not "shelf ready" as they called it. The OEM parts suppliers were not ready. So they used the Mitsubishi 2600 inline 4, which had good parts availability. That, in my opinion, is what a responsible car manufacturer should do.

Maybe most of those who bought a MINI don't depend on their car for commuting to work, but to those who do, it chaps their *** when the repair takes 4 hours but the wait for parts takes two weeks. Like they want to hear crap like, "well, y'know, you can expect this from an early build car." Yeah, easy to say when you can just hop back in the ol' SUV while your MINI's in the shop for half a month. BMW didn't re-invent the wheel here. This is not new technology. It is not a given that a new model is going to have mechanical problems. The only thing that is a given is that sometimes new models do...but if they do, it is not excuseable. Over and over I see comments on this site that dismiss the automaker from their responsibility to make a sound, reliable car because the car is "new." Well, its not. Its already over a year old. Excusing them because the car is new is like saying its ok for them to practice making a reliable car on the first buyers. That's bunk.

As MINI owners and enthusiasts, I think we should be leaning on MINI to fix anything we see that needs fixing. That means getting up to speed on replacement parts availability, fix that damn rear hatch rattle (yeah, mine started doing it at 1500 mi), come up with a better fuel curve for the MCS so it doesn't surge under moderate acceleration, and anything else we collectively identify as needing a fix. Look how long it took MINI to do anything about the shifter cable problem. We saw on this site that it involved more than just a couple of cars months before the recall. There's strength in numbers, and there are a bunch of us who frequent this site. Maybe the moderator can come up with a way to "petition" MINI regarding some of these complaints. At any rate, stop making it easy for them to screw up. Hold their feet to the fire. Maybe you'll be the next one waiting 14 days to get your MINI back from the shop.

 

Heres a post I made on a vw enthusiast site regarding my woos with my 1999.5 VW GTI VR6

I have been patient to see my car fixed as I DIDNT want to lemon it even though in retrospect I SHOULD have.....

HERES MY STORY:
************************************************** **

I am in the midst of writing VW etc a nice 6 page letter.... This is my story
First let me start by saying I have been a VW fan for ages

yes thats right "eighteen" of them. (a break down of 1 every 2 months or so since I bought my car)

I could - believe it or not - accept/deal with the inherint flaws of these crappy plastic clip based window regulators, if I had a good service department that treated my car and myself with respect. BUT I cant stand that no one is able to keep the car fixed in proper working order.... So I am writing the letters I SHOULD have a long time ago....

What I will do is hard to say... I guess it depends on what happens when I hear back from VW....

 

My heart goes out to you. be patient no lemon issues here except possibly vehicle down time. good luck and have fun

 

more blues

nobody is going to believe this but late yesterday afternoon I got the call from mini that my car was ready and if I made it by 6PM I could pick it up or otherwise it would be this morning...

Wow....I was excited....rushed out to mini, turned in the bimmer and saw my mini after they pulled it up...got a nice thank you for your patience from the service tech and jumped in my mini to take off and then thud, back to reality. The seat back would not adjust, it was all the way back and would only release all the way forward like when you are sliding the seat forward to get to the back seat...only one position, all the way back...I worked with it for about 10 minutes to no avail before finally calling the service guy over to take a look...he worked on it for awhile before finally telling me yep, it's defective, you are going to need new seat frames, we will do both the driver's side and the passenger side, even though the passenger side is okay. He told me they were having trouble with early mini's and the seat catches on the frames had been changed on later models. He said they could tell by the vin # which seats could be a problem. What was unbelievalbe was I watched him take the back part of the seat off, just plastic to look inside the seat, it looked like it had been made by KMart, he then just snapped it back on with his hands. He told me he had a mini and hated the seats and mini was working on new seat designs for next year.....anyway I asked, how long...answer, we will have to order seat frames Monday, probably be a week, but drive your car anyway...I asked will you call me and he said no, wait till you get your letter from mini regarding your vin # and the seat frame issue, you will probably get it before we get the seat frames..that's refreshing.....

anyway...I drove it home...I had to lift the seat up as high as I could in order to get it to tilt some forward so I wasn't totally laying back, but since I'm 6'1", my head is virtually at the roof line...lol At least the air is working great now...lol! BTW..the seats in the bimmer were heaven, great side support and pull out thigh supports, I really miss those seats, especially now..you would think seats would be a #1 priority for any car since you sit in the damn things...lol!

I will never say again "well nothing else could possibly break now"...that's the kiss of death...wish I would have waited another 6 months to get a mini....I think the posters here still waiting for delivery are the real smart ones compared to me thinking I was cool for getting one of the first ones...lol!

 

forgot to mention.....the driver's seat worked great when I took my mini in for the new air compressor....anyone ever had a car part become defective while it was actually at the dealer's getting fixed....this one is a first for me...lol!

 

miniblues,
Sorry to hear about the continued bad luck.

Considering everything you've gone through.... I would suggest sitting down with your sales manager or General Manager at your dealer. Explain to them the troubles you've had and push for this to be taken care of in a more timely fashion. If they won't give you any indication of effort..... let them know that you are an "avid" MINI enthusiast who follows one of the largest fan based web sites in the world for the MINI. Let them know that if they don't show effort that you will express your fealings for their facility and staff here for everyone (pontential buyers as well) to see.

Also.... it's been said that you don't stand much ground with the Lemon law.... but... I would suggest you contact MINI USA and discuss your situation with them..... If for no other reason, It may help get the problem resolved a little sooner.

Again... sorry to hear about the troubles..... I hope everything works out.
SW

 

hey blues..

I'd call mini and ask them if your mini was built in the old Jag factory by former Jag employees, laugh! Those old Jags were gorgeous machines but one needed a tow truck to follow you around if you owned one....

I'd certainly sell that baby before the warranty is up though......starting to sound like the ford Focus....laugh...

 

nolan

thanks for the tip, I'm sure the mini will be long gonde before the warranty expires...I did however buy the extra year of coverage, so I have to 48K...

After watching the service guy simply take off the back of my drivers seat with his hands and looking inside to see how cheaply constructed the seat was and than watching to see him just snap it back on with his hands, I decided to investigate aftermarket seats while waiting for the new seat frames to be ordered and delivered. I found an aftermarket custom shop that does all types of seats, I'm waiting for a price on the 2 front seats.....might consider it if the price is not too high since I really wasn't that fond of the seats before seeing how cheaply they were made.....

Has anyone done any aftermarket seats on their mini and if so, how did they turn out.....appears mini cut cost on the interior of the car while delivering top notch on the suspension, styling, etc....

 

>>nolan
>>
>>thanks for the tip, I'm sure the mini will be long gonde before the warranty expires...I did however buy the extra year of coverage, so I have to 48K...
>>

___________________________________

Oh no! They didn't rip you did they? The MINI has a STANDARD 50k warranty!!!

 

Re: "Posted: Sep 14, 2002 - 11:25 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
more blues

nobody is going to believe this but late yesterday afternoon I got the call from mini that my car was ready and if I made it by 6PM I could pick it up or otherwise it would be this morning...

Wow....I was excited....rushed out to mini,"


Mini,

OH MY GOD!! If you posted this on 9-14 about picking up your Mini yesterday well...hey...You picked the car up on FRIDAY THE 13th!!!!

Need I say more?

 

u4ea.............dude. I would definitely seek legal help and/or lemon law on this one. You must be one patient individual. Have you ever tried going into the garage when they are fixing? Will they even let you? Can't believe you haven't sold & never bought from them again. It's time for you to call your local TV station where they find dirty dealers and what-not. Something for goodness sakes....Good luck to you!!!!!!

 

I think I have said this once before.....As it stands today, MINIBlues has no Lemon law legal recourse. Indeed, he has many quality control annoyances here and there, but none of them affect the value, use and safety of the car. Besides, for him to find relief under lemon Law a critical component (engine, brakes, suspension, etc) has had to fail 2 to 3 times or more to even been declared as unfixable.

Lemon Law was designed to provide legal aid to those car owners that have experienced serious safety flaws with their new vehicles, not to provide means for "Buyer's Remorse" or minor quality related glitches.