So, I've got a 2012 scheduled to start production in early February. My wife is dead set on this car and after reading some of y'all's posts on here I'm a little bit paranoid I may have "issues". I plan to change the oil every 5k miles with full synthetic like I do in all my cars. Have we made a good decision to purchase or will I regret it? BTW, I'm very mechanically inclined but with a new vehicle I shouldn't have to be IMO.

 

Welcome. I change mine ever 7500 using the OEM oil and filter. Should be no issues so long as you use the correct spec oil (only about 4 approved brands out there).

 

I am currently at 6550 miles and plan to change the oil every 7500 miles. I took mine in after the break in period and the dealer charged me $75. I think I could live with that price

 

I have a 2011 Cooper s r56 with 12k miles and it's been okay. Performed oil change every 5k miles and fuel additive every other oil change. Only difference i recommend is fuel additive every oil change (crud b gone).

 

Thanks guys. I know the oil changes are the easy part. The advice on fuel additive every 5K is a good one. IMO, that's cheap insurance just like changing the oil more frequent than the manufacturer says to. I keep my cars for a long time so I want to get started off on the right foot.

 

Stick with that 5K mile regiment and you'll do worlds better than those who only follow MINI's sub-par recommendations.
I'm very similar in the oil change frequency and my R55 is doing quite well!

- Erik

 

50Joe,

Congrats on your order. The waiting part is hard....

I took delivery of my Clubby last April. I have 9300 miles on it now. I changed my oil on the first 1000 miles. Then I changed it again around 8500 miles. Moving forward, I'm just going to change it at 15k, 20k, .... I don't add any additives. As for oil, I buy the Mobil-1 synthetic from Costco when they have the coupon. I bought 6 oil filters and the rings from Atlantic British when they were having a sale. Don't forget to get the (23mm?, can't remember right now) socket to remove the oil filter.

Just like you, I was a bit paranoid about the issues. Reading on this forum, you'll see a lot of people having common issues and there are some with a Mini that's always in and out of service. People always debate about the accuracy those car reliability studies. It's really up to the you whether you want to believe them or not.

Good luck!! And motor on!!

 

Welcome, I have a 08 purchased new Sept 08, outside of a few small problems that were all fixed under warranty and this is after almost 48000 miles. I have the oil (synthetic) changed at the dealer every 5000, cheap insurance to my way of thinking. My wife wasn't thrilled with me buying the Mini Clubman, her vehicle is an Lexus RX350, and she really didn't want me to get the 6-speed, but now I can't get her out of it!, In the past 3 years she has put about 2500 miles on her vehicle. Your going to love it.

 

We sold my wife's Beetle faster than anticipated so we were able to bump up the production start date by 2 weeks. It started production today. We should have it around the 1st week of March.

We're getting dark grey metallic with black roof, black wheels, black stripes, black jack on the roof and a some other goodies for the interior. I know we'll like the car. Now,the wait game begins......

 

Well, we sold my wife's Beetle faster than I thought we would so we called and got the production start date moved to today.

Delivery should be around the first week of March. We got a dark grey metallic body, black roof, black wheels, black stripes, black jack on the roof and some other goodies as well. Now the waiting game begins.

 

Great, congrats! Did you order from Century?

 

Yes we did. I worked with Javier and was extremely pleased with the experience. I guess owning the same breed of dog kind of broke the ice which allowed us to get to an equitable deal.

 

How did you "bump up the production date"? Once it's slotted, it's slotted. The dealer can't make MINI build it any faster or start it before the production date.

You're gonna love the car. I like EG a LOT more than I thought I would.

 

My sales guy at the dealer put an original start date of Feb 5th on the car since we thought we didn't want delivery until mid to late March. Then, when we sold my wife's Beetle faster than I thought we would he changed the start date as if we just ordrered the car that day. The difference was two weeks earlier. So, in reality we didn't change the production plan at the factory at all.

 

Ahhh, he was trying to find you an earlier open slot. Now I'm trackin'. You'll enjoy the hell out of it. I like this car SO much more than my GTI, even if the GTI was easier to work on.