http://www.motoringfile.com/2013/08/22/mini-settles-cvt-class-action-suit/

Judge Will Approve Mini Cooper Transmission Class Action Settlement
By Anne Bucher


A California federal judge has indicated he will grant preliminary approval to a proposed class action settlement involving allegations that BMW of North America LLC concealed a transmission defect in its Mini Cooper automobiles. If approved, the class action settlement would pay thousands of drivers as much as $9,000 for vehicle repairs.

U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez requested more information about the class size and suggested some revisions in the Mini Cooper class action settlement notice. Plaintiffs’ attorneys indicated that approximately 1,200 Mini Cooper owners had their transmissions replaced at BMW dealerships. However, it is unclear how many drivers took their Mini Coopers to a third-party facility for repair.

The plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit alleged that BMW hid the Mini Cooper transmission defect from customers at the same time it issued bulletins acknowledging the issue to BMW dealerships. The transmission defect can cause significant delays in acceleration, loss of forward propulsion and total transmission failure while driving. Even more concerning is the tendency of the transmissions to fail without warning. These transmission defects can contribute to traffic accidents that may lead motorists to experience serious injury or death.

In their class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that BMW sacrificed the quality of the Mini Coopers in an effort to keep the vehicle prices low. Therefore, the company manufactured cars of substandard quality that put consumers at risk. The plaintiffs accuse the car company of prioritizing profits over customer safety.

Since the first Mini Cooper transmission defect lawsuit was filed in 2011, four similar class action lawsuits have been filed. The plaintiffs’ attorneys estimate that the number of Class Members in these consolidated class action lawsuits could number in the tens of thousands.

Judge Gutierrez has said that he will wait to approve the Mini Cooper transmission defect settlement until he receives an updated estimate of the number of likely Class Members.

Under the terms of the proposed class action settlement, BMW will reimburse drivers under the eight-year/150,000 mile warranty for all of their out-of-pocket expenses associated with the transmission repair. The plaintiffs have estimated their repair costs to range from $6,000 to $9,000. The proposed class action settlement will also provide a maximum of $4,100 to Class Members who had their Mini Coopers repaired at a third-party facility and up to $2,000 to consumers who sold the vehicles at a loss due to the transmission defects. BMW has also agreed to cover all future repairs for Mini Coopers up to $150,000 miles and eight years.

Owners of Mini Coopers who replaced their vehicles’ transmissions after the warranty expired will receive a three-year/50,000-mile parts warranty, according to the class action settlement.

Plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit are represented by Roland Tellis and Mark Pifko of Baron & Budd PC and Payam Shahian of Strategic Legal Practices, among others.

The BMW Mini Cooper Transmission Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Aarons v. BMW of North America LLC, Case No. 11-cv-07667, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

http://www.topclassactions.com/lawsu...on-settlement#

 

What exactly is the defect? Automatics or manuals? I'm having some issues with mine. Not sure if it would be related?

 

i assuming this is just for cvt/auto's right?

 

Yes The CVT.. Here it talks about it some more.

http://www.topclassactions.com/lawsu...tion-lawsuit-#

 

http://www.motoringfile.com/2013/08/...s-action-suit/

 

If our 2006 with 74,000 miles on it is going to fail, hope it does it in the next 10 months before it's more than 8 years old !

 

Hard to believe after all these years that there's no Sticky in the 1st Gen "Stock Problems/Issues" forum about the CVT.

The history is long, well documented, and sordid.

 

Does this cover the whole US or just California?

 

i got the proposed settlement in the mail the other day for the cvt transmissions. i have an 04 non S cvt automatic with 94K miles on it no probs with the trans as of yet but i drive it like an old lady god bless their hearts. anyway as i read the legalize a car as old as mine would not be covered for future replacement since it only goes out to 8 yrs as i read it and that is 8 yrs from the mfg date not the settlement date i think? but i may be reimbursed for 1500 dollars if the trans fails at a future date and i just sell the car for parts or whatever as long as it is under 4000 dollars but is this for previous failures only or future failures and sales as well? does anyone have an interpretation of the settlement on this point of future failure reimbursement?

 

I got the class action notification in the mail yesterday. It is for the CVT. I had my transmission repaired twice within 2 months in late 2009 with less than 40K miles. I had an extended warrantee that paid for the first fix but when it was not fixed right the great folks at Inskip replaced the bad CVT at no cost to me. I traded the MINI 9/2011 while it was still in great shape. In any event, I'm glad something is being done but I am thankful that I also do not need to benefit from this lawsuit. Just the disappointment of owning an unreliable car that I really liked.

 

Got my notice two weeks ago, and I was affected by it back in 2005... even have an old thread about it: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...n-failure.html

unfortunately, its been 8 years, I had a name change (marriage), the car got sold (2 kids), and the dealership that did the work changed hands. We found the invoice for the work, but have no record of payment for it, so unless I can find someone willing to sign the affadavit of work completed, I won't be getting anything.

makes me wish I hadn't been as proactive about shedding documents over 7 years old, but that life i suppose.