I didn't want to post this thread with a title of "ARE MINI's THAT PROBLEMATIC?". Are they? I read alot of negative posts about this car. I read alot about how you people love your mini's but damn!!! People, getting lock in their cars, windows and sunroofs operating on their own, windshields constantly cracking and breaking? Whats the deal? I want to get a mini so bad that I dont want to believe all this. If I wanted a problematic car I might as well kepp my 16 something year old porsche!!! I dont know what to think. Normally, I dont buy anything thats new to the market because of the fact that they,... here and there have problems. I kinda forgot about that rule until I started reading about all the problems people are having. Can you guyz give me the low down? I know that there are alot og good things about the car so you can save your breath on that note. I just want to know whats going on with all the problems. Are people still having problems with the 2003 models? Is there any ay to get reinforced windshields? GEEZ.

Also,... you guyz can cheer me up by showing me or telling me where i can goo to see pictures of your mini's or any mini's of different colors and with different style rims. Thanks.

 

in the MINI brochure, it says something like: "think of miles on your odometer as an experience-o-meter" I think this can be transposed to the teething issues of the MINI's mechanical systems; look at each situation as experience, wisdom earned! Use that wisdom and create a happier life for yourself.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

This is the greatest car and the most enjoyable car I have ever owned. Not one sigle problem with it. Nothing but FUN!!!!! Either get one or just read the posts but please do not bad mouth the car. :evil:

 

I have had no problems with my mini. Over 7000 miles.

 

Nobull60, at what point did I BAD MOUTH THIS CAR!?!?!?!?!? Please, enlighten me?

 

well i cant speak for everyone but the only "problems" i've had with my car is the windshield cracks and that the car jerks when cold and going from park to drive. thats all. i have had other problems but they werent caused by faulty mechanics, it was dents and scratches caused by my dealership.. and they werent all that bad, i just had to keep going back to have them fixed.
i love my car, i went through a period recently where i hated the automatic tranny and the colors i chose, but im over it. just do yourself a favor though, dont get auto trans.

 

I shall quote your "badmouthing"

>> If I wanted a problematic car I might as well kepp my 16 something year old porsche!!!

I know that there are alot og good things about the car so you can save your breath on that note. I just want to know whats going on with all the problems.
<<

basically you're saying you only want to focus on the negative! That would be badmouthing. A less-loaded approach would be "tell me your experiences with your MINI" Ask logical questions that are not loaded, and you will recieve more accurate responses.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

there is no need for bickering back and forth.. the guy just wants to know about any problems we've had... dont get into another stupid "your bad mouthing my baby" argument..
just my 2 cents.....

 

It is without a doubt the most fun I've ever had from a car,including two Porsches I've owned in the past.Somewhere we should mention price.Performance like that of my mcs is only offered at several times the price;I think the fit and finish is incredible for a half priced car.
My one problem,I only have 2200 miles on the odo, is under full throttle acceleration the car seems to sometimes shut down shifting into second or third.I would be interested to hear if anyone else has had this problem.I'm certain my dealer will correct this thru the chip when I take it in next week to have my Quicksilver exhaust installed.

 

Sorry Akil. Some folks get their undies in a twist whenever anyone dares suggest the MINI isn't the greatest invention in the history of the world. Look around the site. Some of the most common problems I've seen: cold start, cracked windshields, coolant loss, rattles.
Nothing to panic over. It's a great car. Enjoy.

 

I also have heard of a lot of people having trouble with their mini's, but with mine i have had one very minor problem. This was the cold start problem. All that meant was that you have to turn the key two to three times before the car would start. I have gotten that fixed and it was very quick. my mini is a July of 2002 "S". I think that all of the new ones already have that fixed but I might be wrong. If they don't it only takes about an hour or two. Hope this helps.

 

AKIL

I'm only one of many owners here that love there MINI's and have zero problems. People post here to ask for advice and help. You will see many posts where people have problems for that very reason, but I don't think the MINI is over burdened with problems.

What should we do, start a daily thread "Another Marvelous MINI Motoring Morning with no Mishaps"?

 

AKIL,

Do you really want a MINI?
Do you really want info?
or do you just needs some prunes?

 

AKIL...

I think you should just read the post "Nice car but won't go far???" and you'll find umpteen explanations from MINI owners. I doubt there's anything new that could be said about this particular thread. I'd just advise that you keep an open mind. You're presently in a forum with many, many people who all own variations on the same car, you're going to hear about EVERYTHING--good and bad--and that's just because our friends and family members no longer acknowledge our statements regarding split seconds of seemingly ill-timed idle, random rattles, shudders and vibrations that may or may not be based solidly in reality. Please forgive my generalizations, but I'd say we love our cars, and as a result we pay REALLY CAREFUL attention to their every nuance. Extra care and attention + forum where people will listen respectfully and concernedly = banter about absolutely every aspect of ownership. We aren't dealers, we're owners and if you'd like to hear nothing but positive feedback about ANY car, a dealership would likely be your best bet.

Good luck.
~Kelley

 

>>
>>Also,... you guyz can cheer me up by showing me or telling me where i can goo to see pictures of your mini's or any mini's of different colors and with different style rims. Thanks.

Click the Member MINIs link in the Main Menu and you will see 100s of MINIs! This site has a wealth of information. You can spend days reading the items in the Main Menu - Features section. I've been a member several months and have yet to scratch the surface of the information documented here.

Oh, and some free advise, which is worth what you paid for it... I'm from Texas and down here, if you start a conversation fishing for a fight, someone will give you one and may just whoop your ****. So in starting this thread like you did, you can't be too shocked when you get the answers you were fishing for.

 

AKIL,

Dont expect to get much useful info on this car here. The second you ask about any problems on the board youll get flamed. Someone already said you bad mouthed the car. I didnt see anything in your post bad mouthing it but thats an example of what I mean. I understand where you are coming from. As someone wanting to spend a lot of money you would rather know if there are any problems with the car before making such a purchase. I know when i bought the car I wanted to hear about all that rather than everyone just saying "oh its a great car", because you want to make an educated purchase. There are many things that have gone wrong with these cars, and mine has had a lot of problems, including a bad tranny and a lot of stalling. I still love the car, but it can get very worrisome at times. Basically you have to realize this is a new car and its gunna have problems for awhile. Its not just me two other owners I know personally have had problems like mine. Again its a fun cool car, but yes there are problems here and there. If you want to know more I suggest you check out MINI2 forums as you will get much less biased answers there and also talk to your dealer in further detail about what you have read. Good luck in your decision.

 

AntsMini,
I don't think it is fair to say what you said. This other "should I get a MINI thread" seems to be reasonably balanced (after perhaps a bumpy start) ...
nice car ...

_________________
Ian C. Gloucester, MA
<A href="http://users.adelphia.net/~gbmini/bl...uot;</a>

CWFFC member finally collected Indi Blue / Lapis Blue MCS ... body color exterior trim, chrome grille, european shelf and rear fog switch
(MC gone)

 

Ok, well I am not bad mouthing this car at all. I don't even own one yet and I want it that bad. I have to go back to school soon and I need a dependable car but a fun one. Thats where the problem is. I do alot of traveling. I drive 45 minutes each way just to work and I will probably do the same when it's time for school. I LOVE TO DRIVE. I can't help it. If I got a mini I would blow right past the warrenty with the amount of mileage I would put on it. You guyz love your car juts as much as I love 944's. As OmToast said I pay alot of attension when driving my car. I very rarily play the radio seeing that I am looking out for any burps the ca may put out. I do that just incase something should happen I can say, "well the car made this noise just the other day". I understand. I heard ALOT of good things about this car. How the car has F40 like numbers on the autox coarse. I love it but if I am going to have alot of problems with the car, I think I'll wait until I am done with school to get one. I am hoping that in 2 years they resolve these problems. Maybe they will come out with a turbo charged model You never know. Right now I am stuck between a Jetta1.8T and the MCS. The Jetta works problem free but isn't as fun as the MCS is. The MCS is EXTREMELY FUN and corners like a bat out of hell but has alot of problems. They both cost about the same fully loaded. I don't now. If I get the MINI its gonna be a last minute change of mind. I dont know. I WANT A MINI SO BAD. Also, for those of you with problem free MINI's you guyz have like hardly any mileage on your cars. Id there anyone with a 2002 or 2003 mini with a considerable amount of mileage and is problem free?

 

I've heard of many problems with the Jetta, I have two friends that own them. One is definitely looking for another car and spits fire at the mention of his car. I guess my point is, any car can have problems.

I bought a MINI as my primary vehicle (after having a lot of problems with my last car). I took a chance and so far, I'm still in love. I've just had it less than two weeks but I feel sure that me and my MINI are in it for the long haul. Any problems will get resolved; and thanks to MCO, I'll find out any defects to be aware of.

Take a chance, it's the coolest car out there.

 

Ants said a few days ago that he wasn't going to post here anymore. Liar!

 

What kinda of problems with the Jetta? I'm sure there arent as many as the mini though, right? Everything that goes wrong witht he mini is covered by the warrenty right? What is the warrenty?

 

I did a Google search of the words "Jetta problem" and found pleanty .... you can search there and research anything you have a mind to. You can read articles for days about any make of car.

Instrument panel, power door locks, electrical where the inside lights dim and get brighter whenever they want, check engine light, ....

Here's a dealer's site :

Gurnee VW

and here's a site made for VW lemon owners, it gives legal sites to go to and it really blew my mind. I can't imagine a car having so many lemons that it's owners need a site to get advise on as to how to handle them. Perhaps I shouldn't have asked Google because a lemon site for a car DID shock me!!!

My VW Lemon Site


If you start researching a car close enough you will find both good and bad. Like anything, if you look too close you'll find flaws. Sometimes we are better off going by first impressions. We like what people we like, worts and all, and what cars we like because of their look or a color, etc...

 

AKIL, I can give you a lot of milage but I can't give you problem free. I have an early 2002 S. May of 2002 to be exact with over 15k on the odo. Mine has been free of major problems. So this car is dependable. I didn't get a crack in the windshield until I moved to the Denver area which is known for rocks and cracks in the windshields of any car. Everyone gets them here so it is not a MINI problem as far as I can tell (I put on 10k of this miles in California). I had the cold start problem in California but it was only two tries. Here it was six so I took it in and had the computer upgrade. I also had a latch problem for the back seat to lower forward but that is uncommon in all the threads I've seen. The more known problem was the latch for the front seats and they had a recall on that (which I didn't do). Considering all the MINI's now on the road and the common problems being fixed by MINI, I'd have to say this car is as dependable as any other that the parent company BMW makes. No one can promise a problem free car, I can't, I can only tell you my experience with my S.

Hope this helps, I am biased and would buy another one if my wife permitted it.

 

>>I didn't want to post this thread with a title of "ARE MINI's THAT PROBLEMATIC?". Are they? I read alot of negative posts about this car. I read alot about how you people love your mini's but damn!!! People, getting lock in their cars, windows and sunroofs operating on their own, windshields constantly cracking and breaking? Whats the deal? I want to get a mini so bad that I dont want to believe all this.

Does this look familiar? Doesn't seem like a positive quote of thread to me.... Relax man.

_________________

 

yeah thats exactly the way i feel, thats why i started that thread "nice car but wont go far"
I needed some more info on what people thought about it, because most of the stuff i read were
all negative. What i really can't understand is how can some people be on there 4 or 7 expansion tank and say we love our mini.??? to me that just doesn't sound right???
Looking more and more into the problems of this car, you kinda wonder how it even made it on the road?? i think alot of it had to do with the looks of it, but mechanically its just not all there. I can understand how badly people would want this car, because iam one of them, but i think you have to ask yourself.. at what cost??? because if it wasn't for this warranty i think alot of people would be broke. So i brought up the concern that if this is happening at an early milage, whats going to happen later on when the warranty ends??
no one has gotten there yet so its hard to say, but if its anything like the way the mini started i think were all going to have a big issue with mini. Of course this is just my thoughts on the subject and iam sure people are telling me to shut up already.
but hey i love the mini too and i think its a cool looking car, but the thoughs are still in my mind
"nice car but won't go far"