It's also pretty easy for a money hungry shop to say the calipers are sticking. "The tire didn't spin feely, calipers are shot, that'll be $750 please"

 

You guys are all super awesome. Shawnnn, thanks for all the advice. Kinda funny: it all ended up being a false alarm, at least for now. I had my appointment, I had a great experience at IA, Tim was very nice, and there's actually nothing wrong with the car. Don't get me wrong, I honestly don't think the initial mechanic that did my inspection was trying to pull a fast one on me in any capacity, I mean, I did go in and he told me straight out that they don't see many Mini's... But anyway, I told Tim over at IA about these supposed issues and he said he'd take a look and check for any slip warnings with the tranny. 45 minutes later, he came and found me and told me he'd 'reflashed' and that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my car. I blinked. He repeated himself. I blinked again. He explained that sometimes, if the car is propped, the design of it can make the rear cables pull so it may have looked like the brakes were shot. He also said he saw no problems with the front axels. Said I was getting some minor wheel shake probably because my front tires are just starting to wear a little unevenly and he gave me a nice estimate on two regular front tires (not the stupid run flats) before the snow flies. I forgot to get an estimate on the oil change for this weird little car, though, I know it'll be high at a place like IA, but I'm considering the tires for $349 since I'm not sure what other places might have Mini experience. Seriously nice guy and I can't help but figure that if he really had wanted to take advantage of a young woman he could easily have agreed with the issues I told him about up front. I'm cautiously optimistic, and besides--my extended after-market warranty is good for 48 months and I just got her in June. Just in case. So, yay!

 

That's great news!

Since your car is fixed and it cost you nothing definitely buy some new tires

 

No idea what size rims / tires you have but we can't comment on the $349 for two tires unless we know that. A decent all-season tire is about $100-150 for a 17" so the cost doesnt sound out of line. $20 per side for mounting, balancing and disposal.

When you say tire wear -- is the tire worn out? Do you have a tire depth gauge or can you take a picture of the tire / the tire with a penny in the middle most tread (ghetto method)?

Is the original issue of the car shifting hard still happening? What did he charge you for the re-flash?

Lastly -- you have 48 months -- in this time keep a very good eye on the transmission and get whatever needs to be replaced / fixed taken care of -- once the warranty is done -- you will legitimately be SOL. I would personally try to dump the car before that happens.

Good luck.

Oil changes are about $70-100 at the dealer. Not terrible. If you use synthetic + OEM filter the parts cost is almost $50.

 

Don't worry, guys, I'll be keeping an eye on the tranny. It does still feel a tiny bit hard from reverse to drive, but it's super intermittent and Tim didn't seem to find it odd. He said initially that might've had to do with needing the program update. He was pretty upfront, he said the '05 CVT is pretty jerky even on a good day, so I'm gonna take that to heart and go with it just for now. Again, he could easily have said, 'this is wrong, this is wrong, the total will be $1150' but he didn't. So I paid the $105 for diagnostic and reflash, he gave me the tire cost and sent me on my way. I haven't done any checks on the tires since purchase (beyond checking the level), but I did examine them on the lot (don't worry) and they seemed pretty good. Don't get me wrong, if he thinks they're wearing funny, I'll check again and probably just get it done before it snows on Milwaukee, but I haven't got my camera right now or I'd upload for you guys to look at. But Shawnnn, I laughed when I read your comment, because that was my first thought too! 'No tranny (even with the warranty?!) no brakes?! No axels?! I'm getting two tires, YES!!' haha

 

Oh, and thanks for the quick estimate, there, Kahnfucious. That's pretty much what I was expecting. Dunno if I'm brave enough to attempt to do any work by myself...

 

oil change - I would skip a few days of Starbucks to make up the $20-30 gap between DIY and dealer service just to avoid getting dirty. There is nothing particularly hard about a mini oil change but it can go wrong in a few ways pretty easily (stuck oil filter housing, stripped drain bolt, snapped oil filter rubber ring). I actually have a fumoto drain valve installed which allows you to drain the oil with a flick of the wrist but the Dealer near me has an on-going special for like $70??? Makes it really not worthwhile. DO NOT go to a jiffy lube type place, just don't - the horror stories are consistent.