Aye... this will be my first and last Mini. The direct injection is a nice design idea but until they find a way to fix the other inherent problems it's a no-sale for me. $800 every 40-50k miles as a regular service? On a modern daily driver? No thanks. Never again.

How is it my hand-built English car has cost me $7 or so for a turn signal bulb (not counting gas/tires) in 75,000 miles but the '07 Mini has cost me $7k in only 14k miles that I have owned it (now at the same 75k) (how many others have had the timing system self-destruct on them? About 3 in 7 from what I've been reading and no help at all from BMW for their design flaw). It still isn't running right and their answer? "well, could be one of 4 sensors ranging from $250-500 each. Just throw more money at it and it MIGHT fix the problem."

Really? that's the best you can do with all the high-tech hardware?