Any one have any info on the CVT and how good it is? a friend
just blew his second tranny and was not beating it up. I believe
his build date was late 2002. Were significant changes made for
the 2005 models to the CVT? I need to have answers for the wife
who is now wondering if she is in for bad news down the road.....
she never learned to drive a stick.

thanks for any info

Rick

 

we have no complaints about our '04 CVT

 

We have a 4 and a half year old '02 MC CVT (bought brand new, August '02 build date) with nearly 42K miles and no problems to speak of. Car is a hard working daily driver. Will be replaced next year with a new '08 Clubman 6-speed automatic wagon.

The CVT has been a great car to us. To ensure maximum transmission reliability, have the dealer replace the transmission oil and filter between 25K-30K miles. We had it done and covered under the scheduled maintenance = $0

 

Do a search for CVT problems to get additional information.

 

If you do decide to get a CVT, you might want to seriously consider an extended warranty. While you may have a problem-free unit, the cost of replacement if the CVT fails after the factory warranty runs out is rather shocking.

 

I actually love driving my '05 MC with CVT.....the one in the pic
below. I had never driven anything like it other than my gokarts
with the centrifugal clutches, but that was many many years
ago in my youth.

My friend said that MINI told him it was $5,800.00 for the new
tranny alone and labor would be about $2,000.00 or so.

The service lady at MINI told me that changes had been made from
2002 to 2005, but she could not say exactly what, stating that it was
for the better.

I was just curious to know what the changes were and hoping that I
had nothing to worry about in the future. I firmly beleive in all the cool
technology that is built into these amazing little cars that we all love
so much.

I will buy another one without hesitation when the time comes, but until
that time, I will thoroughly enjoy "motoring" everywhere in my little blue
MINI.

Thanks for all of the great reports

Rick

 

We have had no problems with the CVT on our 2003 MC. Took Delivery of our MINI on 03/01/03. Love the Car.

2003 MC. PW/B. DSC. CVT. Premium Pkg. Fog Lamps. After Mkt Rear Spoiler & Center Arm Rest & Door Arm rests.

 

I had an '04 that I recently traded in with 83,400 trouble free miles. And I drove that MINI like I stole it! My MA and I were talking about the CVT, and he said that, frankly, originally he didn't think that the CVT felt that 'solid', but that they have seen relatively few CVT transmission failures come through service.

Having said that though, I did purchase an extended warranty at 50k miles due to the high cost of repairs, and the tendency for the CVT to just 'die' with little or no warning. (Do a search for CVT threads on NAM and check the CVT forum on MINI2.)


-Paul!

 

55,000 miles on my 03' CVT, runs great.