Hello,

I was looking around at the local MINI dealer website at MINIs....hey I have an addiction I know . Anyhow I noticed that basically ALL used MINIs are CPO and have the extended warranty included with them. I looked at the main page for the dealer and it says...

"Every MINI NEXT vehicle is less than 5 years old and has less than 60,000 miles at the time of enrollment"

It made me wonder why my 2009 MINI Cooper Non-S with 8500 miles at the time didn't get certified. Is it possible there is something in the service history I don't know about that disqualified it as certified pre-owned? I'm not trying to be paranoid but I'm just curious. Or maybe they are certifying all the used MINIs now because it's easier to move them when they have the extended warranty?

Also...if I may attach a second part to this conversation. I'm curious about the experience other owners have had with third party extended warranties. The reason I ask is because I'm sitting on the fence about whether to get a warranty next year...err I guess this year now... as the warranty is up at the end of the year.

I'm hesitant about getting the dealer warranty because as someone else said...when you have a warranty they look for excuses not to find problems. However when you're a cash paying customer they treat you with the BEST customer service. Also the dealer warranty only adds an additional 2 years and 50k miles. I plan on keeping my car longer than that at this point in time.

USAA sells an extended warranty through Assurant solutions. It interests me because it's comprehensive coverage, pricing is several hundred cheaper than dealer, and there's no deductible.

*sigh* Deciding whether to buy an extended warranty is more stressful than buying the car itself.

Thanks for reading my post and I appreciate your constructive feedback

 

When Mini dealer sells CPO, they need to buy CPO warranty from Mini. This adds to cost of car.

 

That might explain why most of their CPOs are fairly pricey IMOP. If I was to buy a MINI now I would buy new since the used ones are almost the same price. Maybe that's the point of it all

 

"However when you're a cash paying customer they treat you with the BEST customer service."

But with a third-party warranty you won't be a cash paying customer to the dealer.

 

Basically how it would works is there is a contact at USAA that would cut a check to the shop for the work. If the shop doesn't accept this method then I believe USAA cuts the owner the check. That's what I got from reading the details. The difference is the dealership isn't dealing with someone at the shop to approve repairs...they deal with another party.

I think it would be a better arrangement that way. I'm just not satisfied with how they work things right now. For example, I'm losing coolant slowly over a 6 month period and they can't give me a good answer both times I went to get it checked out. However I don't believe they are testing thoroughly to find the leak. They just take a visual inspection and pressure test. I've been told that the car "consumes" coolant...nobody I know agrees with that. Also been told that maybe the coolant expands and goes out an overflow tube. None of those reasons make any sense.

I have a feeling that once the warranty is up things will change...issues will surface that weren't uncovered before.

Something I didn't add before is the USAA warranty is for 6yr (from purchase date)/100k miles and is zero deductible. The price for my car would be 2700. Like I said before there are VERY few exclusions just the normal wear/tear items. I can go to any licensed shop for the work. Includes roadside assist and rental car. That's another thing...MINI roadside assist will take you to the dealership but if you're like me and have aftermarket tires they will only replace with OEM tires. Having USAA I can go anywhere.

 

When my wife was looking for a used Mini in November 2011 we looked at the 9 Los Angeles area Mini dealers (plus 2 more in San Diego). Of the 100+ used Minis these dealers had, strangely only 1 was a CPO. The Mini dealer who we bought the car from told us a CPO Mini is almost the same price as a new Mini, which makes CPOs harder to sell. So dealers don't sell them as CPOs. He said Mini USA is trying to figure out a way to offer CPO Mini's at a competitive price.

 

MisterClean - this sounds like my Land Rover warranty. USAA is a good company, so perhaps this will work out.

 

I use USAA for a lot of stuff, including all of my banking, and they are top notch. I haven't heard much about Assurant, but I sure wouldn't hesitate to use any product USAA offers. I've looked into warranties from them as well; mine is up this coming October. My quote came in significantly less than $2700. In fact, it was almost half what the dealerships offer. How many miles do you have currently; for a comparison? My mileage is extremely low for an 09, which is likely why. I also talked to my local indie eruo-shop and they've not had any negative experiences to mention from them. I've got 10 months to decide to go this route, or trade in on an STi.