Nah, there's no lynch mob, here.

I have to ask, however, will Mini's lawyers or the Arbiter treat him with such kid gloves?

Nope.

The other side of the coin is his car has only been into the shop 5 times over the last two years (I wish I could say the same) and it's been because he's absolutely flogged the car each time. They've repaired it, but now, it's out of warranty and he still wants them to cover the car. So he's suing them. That's the kind of **** that drives the cost of our cars up.

Based on what little info he's given us, I wouldn't put money on him "winning" anything.

My money's on he's hoping for a settlement from Mini before it actually makes it to arbitration.

 

Look at the first post. I thought it already went through arbitration so now it's only a matter of waiting for the ruling. That's why I posted about letting it play out. Honestly I don't know why this thread got you so worked up.

 

I'm still here. My point from the beginning was to help anyone else that found themselves this unenviable position - to do that, I need to stick around.

 

Its been in the shop more than 5 times in two years - I was only talking about issues with noises coming from the engine bay. It is still under warranty and never been flogged.

 

It appears that some folks in this thread need to review NAM's Site Guidelines, in particular, these:

You are more than welcome to debate your points but you need to do so in a civil manner.

 

Nobody's worked up. I just find it interesting that myminilaw signs up here, tells us about this lawsuit, then won't really discuss it while claiming he's here to help and wants to make it easier on those of us who want to pursue car manufacturers under the lemon law.

Unless, of course we're just expected to just chime in with a "+1" any time someone posts anything.

 

To really do that, we'd love to hear about your case.

 

shoot. I thought this thread was about the proposed "Hello Kitty" edition MINI for the Japanese market. My bad.

 

The wagon of making quality and customer satisfaction high priorities.

Toyota was very slow to acknowledge the problems. The complaints started years ago. They were in denial for quite some time. It was only when the media and US Government got involved in a major way that Toyota began taking it seriously.

 

I don't know as I'd count on MINI/BMW's lawyers being particularly agressive with their questioning. It sounds to me from the OP's post that he presented his info to the arbitrator and they presented very little to rebut.

I was tangentally involved in a lawsuit against Porsche on a 928 in the mid 80's. I felt from the information I knew about the car (it was worked on in our dealership) that Porsche had gone out of their way to please the owner and he just wasn't going to be happy no matter what. He found a good lawyer (a woman btw) who not only presented his case effectively, knew all the in's and outs of the laws pertaining not only to the car case, but the financial implications as well. The Porsche lawyer (an independent hired by Porsche to represent them, not someone on staff) OTOH was an arrogant *** who must have thought he was on television. His defense consisted of yelling and waving his arms around for emphasis. When he was done, he came over to me and smiled and asked me (I was a witness to testify about the lease on the car - but I was never called) how he did. I said I think you lost the case for us - he wasn't happy with my remarks.

The customer won.......BIG!

Stuff like this happens all the time, especially against big companies, hence I think a few members here have a jaded attitude about the OP and his intentions. (Just using his lawyerliness to achieve a nice big payday at MINI/BMW's expense)

I'm not suggesting that's the case, but it seems like a few people might be thinking that direction.....

I would like to point out yet again, that I don't believe the knocking the OP is complaining about has anything to do with a timing chain issue.
If he therefore has been asking MINI to fix his timing chain, there could be justification as to why they say they can't find a problem. It's NOT the timing chain that's making the noise........this could be a combination of misinformation by a non-mechanically inclined person and a dealership who either is not understanding what the problem is or just isn't hearing what the OP is complaining about, cause they're looking for the wrong thing.

 

MINIdave - MINI USA vigorously defended this case. They had an engineer from BMW NA and a master-tech from MINI Manhattan testify on their behalf. I have no problem with them defending their case, but I thought they crossed the line by: 1) refusing to accept that there have been many timing chain problems in R56s, and numerous updates to their procedures correct; and 2) stating that the car sounds fine.

 

As a point of reference, here's someone who sued and actually won: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...h-america.html
BMW didn't show up at the hearing!

 

I forgot to add something that literally caused me to start laughing at the hearing. During summation, MINI's Lawyer stated that I was partially to blame because my car is parked outside (it's in a gated lot), and not indoors in a garage.

My response: who was this vehicle designed for? Scrooge McDuck?

(this hearing was not pretty)

 

Can anyone tell me if there are any problems that can result from long term issues with a timing chain?

Had mine adjusted, replaced and replaced again over about 20K miles

I burn about a quart every 600 miles now --- I'm going back to the dealer tomorrow so they can check valve cover

thanks

 

If you actually said that out loud. OMFG.

And with comments like that I am not supprised that the dealer and MINI/BMW are not taking you seriously.

Now I can see why the hearing did not go well. And why you are venting here.

If you actually want someone to do something for you, you act like the nicest person in the world and never belittle or put them down and you should actually make them feel like they are the king. Then you can get what you want.

 

The "Scrooge McDuck" comment makes me wonder if this is even real.

Maybe that kind of stuff happens at arbitration at that level, but if you take it up a couple of notches, I guarantee that if I made a comment like that in any arbitrations I've been involved in, things would have not gone well.

You'll notice that nyminilaw is providing plenty of anecdote, but still hasn't answered the questions you and I asked.

 

Well, it was an absolutely ridiculous statement by the BMW/MINI folks too. The car has to be parked indoors to not have a timing chain or other engine problem? Gimme a break.......

 

Do you really think Mini/BMW engineers and master techs said that their cars have to be parked indoors?

Highly doubt it.



I've heard some stupid stuff from dealerships and service people, but nothing along those lines.

 

For some reason, I really wouldn't be surprised if they said that.

 

Sounds like they are grasping at straws here... is the MINI such a fragile automobile that it must be parked in the loving shade of a garage? You should just build a temperature controlled hyperbolic chamber for it. That would be ideal I guess.

But then again... if you did that they might say that you are partially to blame because the MINI needs a constant supply of fresh air, and it can't breathe properly unless you park it outside.

Good grief I hope you win this thing.

 

It's ALIVE!

To be fair, it was their lawyer, not their engineers that made that statement. I only wish I could have made a better come-back!

 

How come you aren't answering the basic questions asked multiple times in this thread?

As I said much earlier, something smells fishy with your entire rant here.

 

Tell me more. Is it a carbon fiber Hello Kitty?

 

He has stated (after multiple times of asking) that the car has been in more than 5 times for the "timing chain" issue. But still has not explained what each visit was for and the outcome of each visit. So there still is no real way of knowing how many times it has been in for the real timing chain issue.

Unfortunately only one of the videos that he posted (i think three in total) had any sound of a timing chain issue. Two of them were definitely not the timing chain issue and sounded more like the car was pinging badly. One of those two was a coughing type sound and that is usually caused by bad gas or lack of spark not the timing chain. And one was definitely the timing chain issue.

 

Bad gas what I was thinking from the start. For example, maybe he was using low octane gas from the get go, or maybe someone hates him and slipped some sugar in the tank. Maybe a bad/cheap fuel additive was put in the tank that he's not admitting to...who knows. But the lack of definitive answers from the start has this entire thread ringing of "shadiness" to me.