First of all let me say I love my MINI! But...
Well it seems gremlins have struck my MINI
I have read the horror stories posted by some and have felt lucky that I have not had any problems. The right headlight has been intermittant since the car was 6 months old, but it wasnt that big of a deal after 15 min I could turn the lights off and back on and usually it would fire right up. Well the problem progressed some so I reported it at my 2nd maintenance and the tech checked the bulb and wiring and didnt find anything However the light worked for 2 weeks then it went back to the same routine.
I must also tell you I drive 100-150 miles a day in the MINI so the miles pile on quick. By the time I was 5k miles from the 3rd maintenance the turn signal indicater in the tack started to act up since I was so clost to the maintenance I decided to wait a little while and kill 2 birds with one stone.... well 1 week later the auto wipers started going south so I called and made an appointment to drop the car off. By the time I dropped it off the turnsignals wer flashing real fast, the wipers would stay on a medium delay and not turn off or speed up in the auto position and of cpourse the right headlight would only work on very rare occasions
Well 4 days later I finally got my car back, the tech said he had replaced the lighting control modules, and the main wiring harness, reflashed the ECU, and had the complete interior, dash, and ever light and light assembly out of the car and was of the opinion that the right headlight assembly was malfunction still so he had one on order and would change it out when it arrived in 3-4 weeks.
6 weeks later it finally arrived. By this time the right light totally quit functioning after 2 days, the daytime running lights quit on both lights, the fog lights would turn on without the headlights on, the door locks started to act funcky, (lock on their own, not autolock at 15 mph) so I picked it up this past friday night, 1 park light was out. The next night before dinner the right headlight was out but the park light worked, after dinner the headlight worked and the park light was out again GREMLINS I SAY!

Let me say again "I love my MINI"
the service department and the dealer have been perfect in my opinion they have made every effort to repair the car and have done so with considerable effort to keep me satisfied... But I have 8k miles left on my warranty and I cannot afford to pay for these repairs. I drive too many miles to be broke down, and I work on a submariene base and it take around 1 hour to get a loaner/rental car through security to get a pass to where I work

So I am seriousely considering Lemon lawing my car
What do you guys think?

 

Not sure how the lemon law works, may be different in every state. But I feel your pain, I have had many electrical gremlins, my car has been back to the dealer on average every 1500 miles. (and sunroof leaks, and window regulator/motor melt downs).

My plan is to sell it before the warranty runs out (03 MCS) and get another one because we love it. But it is a hassle driving and seeing airbag, traction control, flat tire lights etc. going on and off. Looks like we got a touch of the true British car in ours!

regards,
Red

 

Sorry to hear about the problems; I don't have any of those problems with mine, except for the damn airbag light that keeps coming on. But it sounds like you got a lemon.

 

Yeah Ive heard of some of the problems from the leaky sunroof... the water runs down the front A piller and onto the electronics in the kick panel... the tech first suspected this on mine, and immediately pulled the panel as we had been getting an abnormal amount of rain even for Florida :smile: , he even cautioned me to use the a/c more (helps dry out the car) as he knew I dont turn it on much from our prior conversations. I think they were surprised that even though I have the JCW kit, some bolt on goodies, F&R braces, Camber plates, and the entire aluminum dress up package under the bonnet, I havent touched the electrical at all I even installed a cigarette lighter plug on my boost guage light in leu of cutting it in the harness. They admitted that they searched the harness hard for mods because besides the headlight the symtoms are unlike any thats been reported before.

I just cannot trust Coop to be reliable anymore and the headlight out has resulted in me being pulled over twice now... luckily no tickets yet for speeding
I plan on getting another MINI to replace Coop mabe I will name him
Coop II, im gonna skip the works package though as it is classed very tough in SCCA for auto X
Good luck with your gremlins, and I hope you dealer treats you as well as mine has so far

 

I've heard of 3 people personally that have lemoned their MINI's. One of the guys lemoned two of his MINI's, and is driving his third one now.

Anyway, I guess my point is that if you get a good lemon law lawyer, you can lemon your MINI.

 

Why not lemon law the car? What would the possible drawbacks be, other than emotional attachment? Sounds like you'd end up having had 25,000+ miles of essentially free MINI motoring.

 

I looked up the Florida Lemon Law today and mine definately qualifies as ive given them the three times to fix the problem.

I guess I just need to make up my mind what I want to do

 

I called and left a message (It was short and nice just informing them that the problem was still there and to give me a call) with the SA Monday, and when she returned my call she had already decided to open a PUMA? case on my car, this is where the tech gets online with the folks in New Jersey, and the ones in England, and they go over the symptoms and what has been done to the car to date and try to come up with a solution. She says if this doesnt fix the problem she will reccommend a buy back this keeps everything inhouse without the "lemon law" blemish.
So I dropped it off this morning they gave me a nice SUV loaner for the wife as I will drive her car (a MCSC!) to work and that way I will only have to spend 45 min getting a pass once instead of daily. I spoke with the Tech and we realized that the problem started 1 month after the upgrade to the works package that added the CAI and fuel injectors so he is going to check these first. Well I hope things go well.

 

It's very sad hearing about your poor MINI But at least it sounds like you have a good dealer. The fact that they were the one that mentioned a possible buyback if necessary is very encouraging. It sounds like this dealer deserves a

 

Well after 10 days I recieved my MINI back last friday and saturday morning the light failed to come on I turned the lights off and back on again and it came on! We auto crossed on sunday I decided to co-drive the wifes 05 MCS Convertable and give Coop a break, the light turned on sunday morning but after 1-2 seconds I turned them on at the track to show some of my friends and the left park light failed I did this several time with the same result, I would turn the lights on the right side had the 1-2 second delay and then the park light would fail.

So monday I called MINI USA's help line {1 888 ask MINI} and spoke with a very nice person who then called the dealer and was misinformed and told my mini was fixed and ready to pick up! (I picked it up friday) As a defence for the dealer the service manager was on vacation the week before and the service advisor walked off the job on thursday (very high strung) so he walked in from vacation with a mess on his hands.
I e-mailed the MINI csr back and informed her that I had actually picked up my car after 10 days in the shop and just like the last 3 times it didnt make it 24 hours before it failed again. And I was going to persue the lemon law if there was'nt anything else that MINI could do to reslove this.
She called me back on the phone 15 minutes later and informed me that she would get an engineer scheduled to fly down and look at my car but it might take a few weeks. After sleeping on it I went ahead and filled out and sent the defect notification form to MINI headquarters giving them 1 last chance to repair the car then they must buy back / replace the car
I am currently driving the wifes MINI(her 1st new car) and I have already put more miles on it than she has Sorry the post is so long I guess I had a lot to say

 

Tremec.....seriously, thanks for the update....very valuable and interesting info. I'm sure you are understating your disappointment and inconvenience. Sounds like you've handled the case very well indeed and, as a result, are getting something resembling proper attention. I truly hope someday this will appear to have been, in the grand scheme of things, more of a good thing than a bad thing. Please keep us posted.

 

If you decide to go down the lemon Law route, make sure you have not run out of the statue of limitations. Florida Lemon Law "Rights Period" ends after 24 months since the motor vehicle's original delivery date to a consumer.

My personal recommendation: Push for a "buyback" from MINIUSA rather than pursuing "Lemon Law". Lemon law is not a pleasant option and it is time consuming and can prove utterly frustrating. Consider "making lemonade" as your absolute last option.

 

True, but it is very important to make sure that the car is 24 months old or newer since in Florida you run out of luck after that Statue of Limitation gets into effect.

 

Yeah I bought the car the end of september 03 so im good there.
I tried to take the easy route and just trade the car in on a new one but the sales manager said since he knew I was having "issues" with my car he couldnt give me a fair price for my car. He offered 19k im standing there looking at an 03 S with 50k miles they have for 21k and it didnt have all of the options that mine had nevermind the 210 hp JCW upgrade. I told him I couldnt take that kind of loss to save MINI the hassle and embarassment of a Lemon Law suit, and justifiabley he said he couldnt take the car knowing it had problems and pass them along to someone else either. He said I could E-Bay it and most likely someone wouldnt have a problem with the headlight not working all of the time like I do! (this is the only time that I've got mad)

I have opened that door (buyback/replacement) to everyone that I have spoken with about the issue and they seem receptive but insist on taking their time to resolve it so I went ahead and submitted the notification to at least get that out of the way.
My situation is kind of different as I work on a Naval sub base, security is tight and rental cars are a big hassle you can only get a one day pass if you are a contractor like me I already drive 3 hours a day the extra 20-30 minutes to get a daily pass is just out of the question.
Then there is the issue of me driving the wifes car 800 miles a week, if it takes them 3 weeks to make a decision not to buyback or replace my car and then 4 months for arbitration that is 15,000 miles piled on the wifes first new car. I might as well keep it and get her a new one as she hasnt been able to drive hers as much as I have already
This is just so frustrating, on one hand the car is so much fun to drive and runs so good I hate to give it up, on the other I cannot trust it either I wont even park it in the carport anymore as im afraid whatever is the source of the problem will finally go and cause a fire that could burn down the car, the wifes car and the house It wouldnt be the first time, My uncle lost 1/2 his house when his 6 week old cadillac burned in his garage he had taken it back to the dealer twice because of electrical gremlins, (turn signals, flashers and horn coming on all at once by themselves)
so poor "Coop" is sitting at the edge of the yard all by himself

Update: the right headlight refused to come on at all yesterday evening