Well, I've been rummaging through some threads on here, and there's an awful lot of MINI owners (particularly of the R56 genre) reporting problems. While I don't discourage this - as this is one of the most important functions of forum such as this - it appears that it may be discouraging other prospective MINI owners from taking the plunge.

With that said, I'd like to report that I've had my R56 for several months and 3k miles now and have had no issues. No cold start chatter, no melting hood scoop, notta, zip, nothin' (except ride height, which was fixed by TSW ).

I welcome other R55/56/57 owners to post up for no problems (other than issues such as ride height) had to date!

 

No problems here either. Bought my car in February of this (09) year.

 

this is going to be the case for all forums of these natures. every board that i have been on, most ppl list their complaints and problems to see how widespread it is and if there are easy fixes.

it obviously does not affect resale values as those remain high. i just picked up a 09 MC the other week even though i did my research on a couple of forums, reading problems and all.

 

I've not had any major issues. Minor things are easily fixed and me being picky. So count me on the list of those completely satisfied

 

As they say in G.B Mine is absolutely brilliant. 6mos. 11,000miles avg 34.5mpg. on my 08MCS. Buy it, you'll like it!

 

i think even if you have the cold start problem, its not a big deal.. it still worth getting a mini.. the handling is great, everything is great about the car.. i has some issue but not a big deal.. get it fixed and motoring now

 

You know you just jinxed yourself right?
Glad to hear everything's going smoothly.

 

We have a 5 month old non s clubman with 10k miles and the only issues was the drives window seal was was defective from the factory. I just got a hardtop S and was a little scared by all the issues I read on the forum. I think the problems get over repersented in any forum. If the issues were as widespread as it would seem from what you read here I would think the media would not be so quick to recomend MINI and the cars would not have such great resale. At least that what I tell my self but it could be that the cars are so dam lovable you just over look the bad stuff. I asked my service advisor about any S issues when I was trying to deside on another non s or S and they had not heard about any melting hoods or cold start chatter. Don't know if that was them trying to get another sale at the dealership or they truely had not come accross the issue. I know I have looked at ever S I come accross on the road and have only seen one melted scoop. I check mine every day and so far so good but I have only had the car for 3 days and a little over 100 miles but I thought for sure I was going to watch it melt right in front of my eyes once I parked it after the drive home from the dealer.

 

Yep. Which is exactly why I started this thread! So that those of us who have been problem free get noted as well.

 

Yea people like to complain, and satisfied people will rarely post that. I have had the hood scoop issue but other than that the cars been perfect. 2008 MCSa 9K, cold NY winter.

 

I've only put a little under 500 miles on mine so far, but other than a few pesky interior piece vibrations at certain rpm's and having a valve stem cap fly off on the way home, I'm problem free I, too, was kinda scared after reading about all the issues people have been having with possessed windows and diesel-sounding motors, but you've gotta think .. all model-specific forums are loaded with people who have problems, that's what forums are for! I think the server would crash if everyone who owns a problem-free MINI would post here

 

LOL don't speak too soon, trust me. look what i wrote in this thread. i said i had no issues at all and that was 7 months ago. since then i have had:

- my alternator was replaced because of failure
- hood scoop melted and replaced
- license plate light burned out
- and my car is going in next week for 4 days to have the engine taken apart and the timing chain tensioner replaced. my car sounds like a diesel truck driving over 20 MPH!

yet 6 months ago i was also "trouble free". be careful what you say look what i wrote just 7 months ago:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ith-2009s.html

BTW this is my 3rd MINI. all had issues, but the car is just too fun to drive anything else. but when the warranty is up, im out!

 

Sept 2007 build MCSa, 16K miles currently. No problems whatsoever.

 

Let's keep it "clean," Flav! NO problems... here!!!

 

I got my 2009 JCW the end of October and so far with 3,000+ miles on it I can not find a single problem at all.
The more I drive this car, The more I like it.
Ronnie948

 

20000 km (about 12000 miles) since June 2008 (9+ months).

I have problems.

Financial... personal... marital... you name it.

BUT - -

Nothing MINI - related.

Reliable, solid, well built car so far.
And my last 2 cars were both Lexus, so my expectations for the MINI were pretty high.

Just did a road trip with my son. About 1500 km (900 miles) in a little more than 24 hours. MINI cruised @ 140 kph (85 mph) much of the way, very few stops. Surprised how comfy it is on a long haul. Great trip. 40mpg.

No regrets.
(about the MINI, anyway).

ps... (oh yeah... the dog came to. Slept most of the way. No problems for him, either.)


__________________________________________________ _

 

So far, so good (no problems!). Aug. '08 build / delivery and about 12,100 miles as of now.

 

I'd like to know where folks are selling their used MINIs for so much. I've had mine listed for a month without a nibble on ebay, NAM, craigslist, and cars.com. Listing below bluebook. Just doesn't seem like anyone wants to buy a premium car right now. If you have a suggestion, let me know. I think the only ones getting top dollar on pre-owned MINIs are the dealers.

(Sorry to hijack the thread.)

 

My Aug 07 built MCS has been trouble free. I am beginning to wonder why I got that extra service contract.... :(

Keith

 

Resale value (as a percentage of original price) takes a nosedive once you start adding on a bunch of options. It's worse with the MINI compared to most cars, because MINI has adopted the philosophy of having a low base price and a very long option list, compared to most cars that have a much higher MSRP and only a few options. When buyers see a bunch of $20k MINIs for sale, they can't understand why anyone would try to sell theirs for $25k, because they don't grasp just how much the MSRP of a MINI can vary depending on the options.

And for people worrying about problems they hear about here on NAM, remember that we're a statistically-insignificant portion of the entire MINI community. Compared to the millions of MINIs that have been sold, this forum only has about 12,500 members, the vast majority of whom only have a few dozen posts. Almost all of the posts that you read probably come from the 100 or 200 most-prolific posters. Half of the members have fewer than 45 posts, and a quarter of the members have fewer than 20 posts. In fact, only about a third of the members have posted *anything* in the last six months.

 

True, but KBB doesn't really take into account all the little bits that add up.

Having said that, my car has been a fantastic ride and essentially trouble free. The fixes have been few and attributable to the week 3 production of a first year car. The dealer has been great about taking care of it and putting me in a loaner. Which is why I am selling mine off so I can buy a (used) Clubman S.

 

A careful scouring of NAM will show lots of threads devoted to trouble free MINIs. My May '07 build Cooper has been a delight!!!! I am still quite impressed w/ the car as I approach 2 years of ownership w/ 19K miles.

 

well, i'm up in vancouver and at least here, first there are not that many used minis that i found and the ones that are (private and dealer), are quite high. not sure if ppl are actually getting the prices they post though. i bought new for mostly the reason that it was not that much cheaper to used.

 

Be careful when using the word (or root) "statistic" around me. As an experimental psychologist, stats are my game.

You're right though. But not a whole heck of a lot of people realize that. I wish they did.

 

I'm getting my Master's in Applied Physics in June, so I definitely have a better appreciation for statistics than I did a few years ago, but the misuse of statistics has always been one of my pet peeves, all the way back to high school. I even have one of the original hardback editions of Huff's "How to Lie With Statistics" on my shelf. It's still a very relevant and fun book, after you mentally convert all the monetary examples from 1954 dollars to present-day dollars.