Now that i think about it no...

Car History
2001-2003 Corvette '84
2004-2005 Mercury Tracer Wagon
2005-2007 Ford Focus SVT
07-09 MCS 07
09-??? MCS 09

I want to keep this one for at least 6 years and get my money out of it.

 

The value of the extended service plan to me depended on two things....

1) How long you keep the car

2) If you prefer to service your car at the dealership vs independent garage

I kept my previous Mini for 7 years and back then the extension was only to 4/50. The new 6/100 Service extension was the best option added to my new Mini. I plan to keep it well past 3/36 again. Brakes at the dealer alone are half the cost of the upgrade. Add Service I and an Oil Change and you are making money!!

 

Here are the local quotes for extended service (not maintenance but stuff the breaks and same as miniusa but approx. 15% less $):
60months/50Kw/$100 deductible=$2431
60months/60Kw/$100 deductible=$2462
all with $100 deductible:
60/75K=$2605
72/50K=$2442
72/60K=$2474
72/75K=$2668
72/100K=$3062
84/50K=$2538
84/60K=$2573
84/70K=$2610 (miniusa=$3140)
84/100K=$2875

 

My dealer said the. Mini XL coverage (warranty w/ $50 deductable) would cost $2500

 

If you are buying an extended service contract for the brake job...it is not a good deal.
You can purchase very good quality OEM brake pads for about $200.00-$250.00 (front and read). Replacing old with new is easy...get a savvy friend if you need help. It only takes a few minutes per axle. You don't need a big tool kit.
The thing that kills rotors (early) is wearing the brake pads down to metal. If you change the pads when they need replacement you shouldn't need rotors... unless you take the car to Mini for a brake job. Then you will very likely "need" rotors (if you catch my drift.)
It is important to understand what happens at a dealership service department. The Service Manager is a specialized salesman. His job is to write as much work as he can. That's how he makes a living. There may be honest Service Managers who only recommend things that actually need to be done...just as there may be car salespeople at that dealership who quote you a price for a new car that is just a few hundred dollars over the Invoice price. Nope...I'm just kidding...there are not any honest Service Managers.
N.B. By 'honest' I mean "not trying to make as much money off of you as possible." They are on commission. Just like the new cars sales people. They do not have your welfare at heart. The more they sell, the more they make.
Isn't any mechanic trying to do the same? Perhaps a really crooked one. For the most part, they aren't making their living from sales...the way the Service Manager is.

Caveat Emptor!

 

Sorta like they won't fix a runflat tire with a simple nail in it. Any other tire place will, not a Mini dealer. To say you need rotors with every brake job goes against common sense. It's like saying you need hoses with every radiator flush (maybe the dealers do that too).

 

My understanding was that MINI and BMW rotors are designed to be as light as possible, which doesn't provide enough thickness to allow them to be ground. MINI replaces pads and rotors under the maintenance program. Do you think they make enough profit on the rotors to offset the extra cost of providing them free during the maintenance program? I thought this was a performance issue (less unsprung weight) than a marketing issue. Whether they would need to be replaced would depend on the wear and scoring. I hear that the OEM pad are quite hard on rotors. One of the reasons I switched to Carbotech 1521 Bobcats.

 

Cor,

I seem to fall into that 0 to 14% group then. I am 56 years old and drive like my mother. (actually, I'm much better than her and I really don't recall her driving habits! :D ) I've pushed it hard several times, but not to the extent of autocross racing. I have driven nothing but sticks for the past 40 years. I've driven vehicles to over 200,000 and can't remember ever replacing a clutch.

Why then did my Mini S require a clutch change after only 39,500?

Then, when I get it back, I get all of these "creaking" sounds like a loose seat on acceleration, especially in 1st gear. Mini replaced a motor mount and transmission mount. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Either I am the anomaly, or unlucky.

 

Can someone explain to me how my clutch has "worn" out after 25K? Not to mention a replacement was put in at 30K ...I know you're thinking it must be my fault but I've driven nothing but manuals since I was 19 and NEVER had a clutch replaced on any of my cars (Jeep, Toyota, Saturn, Honda). I'm being quoted $2300!!!! to replace the clutch and some cylinder thing that's leaking. The car is a '06 S with 56K...yes I drive the car a lot but damn I can't afford a clutch every 25K. Anyone else had a problem with the clutch?

 

Same thing with me....my clutch was replace at around 30K and it needs to be replaced again 25K later. I too have driven nothing but manuals and NEVER had to have a clutch replaced....is there anyone we can "officially" complain to? I was quoted $2,300 ....the car isn't even 4 years old yet!

 

If your dealer is unable to help you can do one of the follwing

1. Contact MINIUSA to see what they say.
2. Buy aftermarket clutch and have it installed locally. Probably cost you about half of what the deal quoted you can you can pick your own parts. Just got to find a shop that can do the work and your are confortable with.

 

I got sucked into the Extended Service Contract at full price, if not higher. Mine is an October 2007, non-S that now has 69k miles on it. I thought it would be a good deal based on 3k mile oil changes like most normal cars, but I drive all freeway miles and because of that, get mine changed at about 18k miles per the OBC.

So far I've had a few oil changes, replaced wiper blades once (under protest) and replaced the brake fluid. I've taken it in a couple of other times for unknown reasons - "Just to be checked out."

I had to have the catalytic converter and an O2 sensor replaced around 20k under the Factory Warranty because of a "design flaw".

At 52k miles, the radiator sprung a leak - 2k miles out of warranty. That cost $850 out of my pocket for something that if on a Honda or Toyota, would never have broken. I put 310k of the 400k miles on my '89 Civic, which only required a new alternator, beyond regular maintenance.

One of the times I had the car in for service, they delivered my car to me when finished with a 1" long scratch/ding, down to metal right in the middle of the driver's door. After I pointed it out, they wanted to remove the door and paint the whole thing. I declined because I know how well that would have turned out. When I got the phone call asking for my 5-star rating, I told them about my experience only to hear "thank you for your time" and "sorry to bother you". I don't think I've had a service follow-up call since.

Still on the original brakes and clutch with no issues. I expect both of these to make it just passed the 100k mile marker, so I better start riding the clutch and braking hard to get my money's worth before then.


Besides that, I LOVE my car. (end of rant)

 

Hi everyone,

I just bought a 2010 Cooper S and did get the extended maintenance plan because the guy there said that MINIs brakes were specialized racing brakes that cost $2,000 to replace.

Was he telling an untruth? Is there any way to get my money back????

 

Trietta,
BMW and Mini brake jobs are incredibly expensive at the dealer, so if you (like me) want to service your vehicle at the dealer... you have made a great decision.

Obviously, Mini USA and the dealer would not be offering the extended service unless they were making money... but I feel it's a win-win. I get piece of mind with dealer-quality service (plus no out of pocket surprises) and Mini gets my money up front.

 

I bought it too for like 1500$ last summer "before prices go up" as the said to me. i felt like it was probably fair due to prices going up and wanting to just be able to have the work done and the piece of mind. even at 2000$ if you go to the dealer and not worry about the quality of an indy guy then great!

the other thing is i USE the brakes now. the service guy said they know people run the brakes harder than other cars due to the nature of the mini.

however if he actually said they were racing brakes with strait face i'd have laughed...with racing brakes you'd have a hard time stopping without some heat build up. i'd call them good brakes or maybe even sport but not even similar to race brakes.

 

The R56 MCS uses what were JCW brakes for the 1st Generation MCS. So, I guess you couldn't really call the "racing" a lie.

The parts could be around $1,000. Many dealers charge $150 per hour for labor. That would mean it would take them about six hours labor do replace the rotors and pads. Seems excessive to me, but perhaps they can pad it up to $2K.

 

Well, after talking to my regular mechanic, he told me that he does work on a few MINIs and that the brake job is only slightly more expensive than a regular brake job. He charges about $800 for front and back, pads and rotors.

Seeing that I plan on putting less than 12,000 miles on my car each year, I'll don't see myself needing too many brake jobs and oil changes in that additional 3 years. Especially with them charging me over $1,900, it didn't make financial sense. So, I am going down Saturday to get the sales contract redone without the extended maintenance plan (and get my bonnet stripes put on at the same time, whoo-hooo!).

Just telling me that a brake job is $2,000 'cuz they are special expensive brakes when an independent mechanic tells me completely different left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. But at least they are going to let me get my money back!

 

i looked for this at mini usa and could not find it. and when i called brecht mini the quoted me like 3500 for this! can you believe that! i was like does that include a happy ending? jk... where did you actually locate this pdf and price quote for this extended warranty?

 

I went to talk to my Service Advisor and he was able to print out another customers agreement, i cut off the top bit to protect his identity, scanned and posted.

 

this might be a dumb question but did your mini service advisor quote you at that price or was it an old invoice he showed you? if so i read from previous post how you could negotiate this. did you try?

 

The Mini "Extended Motorer Protection" , i.e., Mini's version of MBI for 84M/70K, in the XL version (sans GPS/CD protection) lists for around 3K (see post #28). The Mini extended "Mini Maintenance Program" is half the amount. Obviously, the phrase "extended warranty" is ambiguous between the two. As others suggest, distinguish the two when you call.
"WarrantyDirect.com" sold me an MBI 72M/90K policy for $1,500. When the policy arrived, it was issued by "Cardif Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Miami, FL" but administered by "Interstate National Dealer Services, Inc., Uniondale, NY." Well, a trip out to the "Cardif" "Administrative Office" in Miami revealed a typical "Industrial Park" boxy building with no names or identification of any kind on any office.
Suspicions aroused, I called the various numbers listed on the policy documents and, after an exciting game of phone-tag, told somebody that I was outside in the parking lot and wanted to come in and take a look. Before you say, 'Brother, what a jerk', have a look at the comments on ripoff.org, my3cents.com or complaintsboard.com about entities of this sort that sell MBI.
Here was my pitch, "Hi, I want to cancel my policy but doing so requires a special 'cancellation form' that was inadvertently left out of my policy documents. Since I'm outside your office right now, how 'bout I just come in and pick one up?" It was as if I had lobbed a grenade into the building. After a dizzying (not to mention incoherent and contradictory) onslaught of reasons and excuses why the request was impossible to satisfy, I said, "Oh, never mind, I'll just mail something in" (exactly where to mail, remains unclear). Curiosity satisfied, it looks like it will be THE Mini EMP for my partner's Mini. True, California has better consumer protection than many states (the
companies are regulated insurance companies, if memory serves) but Cardif didn't look all that well capitalized and consumer comments about multiple claims were scary -- given that this little '08, low mileage MCS, has had to endure a ton of work on BMW's nickel and it would be nice to keep it that way. For the EMP, see
[http://www.miniusa.com/sections/moto...torer_Protecti
on.pdf]

 

Tghe maintance program still has a MSRP of 1395. I just picked up my car from service and there was a form attached to the repair work for "available programs". There they had listed the 4 WARRANTY programs (2 different milage/time and XL/XXL). It also listed the 100k 5 year maint program for 1395. So i would imagin you could negotiate that price down.

 

this info is priceless... for everything else these's mastercard

 

I dont think this maintenance plan is worth it. I checked with a good mechanic in my area. All the plan includes is brakes and oil changes. An oil change is about 60.00 and the most you could expect would be about 5 of them from mini so that is 300.00 (cheaper if you do it yourself). A brake job including rotors is about 400.00 per axle (less if the rotors can be reused). The mechanic would use ceramic pads which last twice as long and pads would only be replace once every 40k or so. So that is 800.00 max for the life of the agreement. My dealer guoted me 1500.00 for the contract. Plus, I would have to drove 100 miles each way which costs money in wear and tear and gas. Simply put, not a good deal in the end as the dealer is quoting excessively high prices for standard work using inferior OEM parts.

 

The one good thing is that it does include a clutch when due to normal wear and tear....If a clutch will die within 100k miles is up for debate.