Hello everyone, please bare with me and I apologize if I have posted in the wrong area. I'm a little frazzled at the moment! I have a few questions and I'm hoping one of you might have some answers. I purchased a 2013 mini cooper s two weeks ago. It is now in the shop at the dealership for the third time. The car has 400 miles on it. The same two things keep happening. 1. The service light keeps coming on (the yellow car symbol up on a jack)...they have reset it twice and said "hmmm, it's a new car this shouldn't be happening". 2. The boot will not stay closed. It pops open after being parked for a few hours. When I took it in they said the latch was broken and they replaced everything. Well a day after having it home it started again. It is now at the dealership again. Same issues, the engine light and the boot. They also say the key is registering a "fault for charging system discharging at stop".
I am so nervous after reading many not so happy posts about mini experiences. Has anyone else had such electrical issues with a brand new mini? Does anyone think that if these issues continue it would fall under a lemon law act??? I thank you all for your patience with my post and hope to hear your experiences and opinions! THANKS!

 

Give em a chance. Do you like the car otherwise? I know this is hard on confidence. We had a few probs like this with my wife's but dealer was great and fixed all. No problems for 6 months. Get it back and motor on!

 

Welcome aboard and good luck. Often there are a few rough spots with a vehicle and they're fine after that. Hope this is the case here!!

 

Document everything and don't put too many miles on it. We or should I say my wife bought one back in 2003 and it was in the dealer for warranty issues more than we could count. We fought tooth and nail to get Mini USA to help and we got lucky with an awesome exec over there. He couldn't get it under a lemon law as the issues were never the same thing, but it was clearly a car built during a bad day at the factory. When our Mini rep got the dealership to finally consider buying it back my wife had put too many miles on it for it to be a reasonable offer. Plus their offer was contingent on us buying another one so we walked and sold it to a cars for cash place. So it's been 10 years but we missed the car so I just got another one with a VERY documented service history!

 

Thanks so much for your replies. I am documenting everything but hope it will never come to the point I have to use it. I am in love with my car! A 2013 s pepper white with a black top. I traded in a 2006 BMW 325i with only 47,000 miles for the MINI. I just want to be able to trust it. The service department has been great and I'm hoping they will find the problem and we will be good to go. Thanks everyone

 

Gonna jump in here with a suggestion to the shop guys. Take a hard look at the battery and alternator system. Those symptoms, especially the key fault, sound an awful lot like a battery going bad in an older motor. There are many many threads/comments about wierd and or mysterious flashing warning lights, self unlocking, windows going up and down and etc. that all are a result of a dying battery. Hope it is something simple like that so you can get down to the business of serious motoring.

 

UPDATE! Mini just called and told me it is something called a "fuse block". They informed me that they have contacted and opened a case with MINI in Germany and are just waiting on word back from them. The technician said they will either tell them to replace or dig further. Anyway, I'm just glad they found the problem and hope to get my car back with no further problems. Thanks for your replies