I had a 7 trouble free years with my R50, which is why I just bought a R58.

 

Let me expand my comment about MINI USA sucking. It doesn't have anything to do with problems I have had with the car in terms of mechanical issues, etc. It revolves around the fact that voice activation was discontinued on 2013 models without Connected yet the button remains on the steering wheel. I was told by my MA when I took delivery of that car that a fix was coming and MINI USA confirmed that it would happen sometime in the future. When this never happened, I contacted MINI USA and got a "tough luck, buddy, no fix is coming" kind of answer. The microphone quality also is very poor when using Bluetooth but I've never addressed this with MINI because I expect the same lack of response. I imagine the poor mic quality is at least one of the reasons the voice activation was discontinued. There are other threads here on these two issues so I am not the only person who has not received satisfaction.

 

Did you move the microphone to the drivers side of the car? Remember it is a British car, and the mic is positioned from the factory for a RIGHT hand drive car.

Moving the mic helps a lot.

And OBTW, why the heck does anybody really want or need voice activation? Every one from every brand I tried to use really is crap...

 

On the 2013 Roadster, the mic is on the steering column so it can't be moved. The real problem is that the background noise drowns out conversation at any speed over 30 or so. Evidently you can turn down the mic level if you have Connected and that works for some but I can't find out how to do it without Connected. I've tried several suggestions from NAMers to no avail.

OBTW, the voice activation on my wife's 2013 Cadillac SRX works fairly well. The issue with me was I was told it would have it, and there is actually a non-functioning button on my steering wheel for it. It's more a matter of principal than anything.

 

BT phone sound in cars sucks in general. My daughter just bought a new VW sedan and it sux in her car too.

 

To summarize:
1). You have a tiny noisy convertible and you are surprised that the ambient noise is greater than in a Caddy SUV.
2). Without optional Connected feature that you chose not to purchase, one button on the steering wheel doesn't do anything and that is MINI USA's fault.

If that's the worst complaints you have about your MINI, I think you've got yourself and awesome car. Ditch the cell phone conversation and enjoy the ride ! ...

a

 

Or get you a Jawbone and stick it in your ear!

 

The bluetooth cell phone connection works just fine in my MINI. It's clear as a bell.
I don't have MINI connected and I have a cheap not smart LG flip phone

Dave

 

Last winter, for several months, I had a Jeep Grand Cherokee as a work rental with every bell and whistle available (including hands free dialing). The interior on this thing was all leather and quite as a church and still the hands free dialing only worked 50% of the time. I have frustrating memories of driving down a NJ county road repeating my wife's name over and over only to have the car repeat another name back to me ("I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that") . Fortunately the SUV also had a large tough screen that made just choosing the person that I wanted to call very easy.

I could only imaging how badly hands free dialing would be in Cooper convertible!?!

Also, on the PSMINI forum there is a thread about the hands free button functionality in the non-connect 2013 Coopers. It seems as if there was some non/mis-communication between MINI USA and MINI dealers about the hands free dialing function being offered only with the MINI connect option on the 2013's. For awhile a software fix was available to those customers that complained loudly enough, but that seems to have changed.

http://www.psmini.org/forum/question...topic9500.html

I have a 2013 Cooper (the Mistress) with the disabled button and consider it a bonus that the thing doesn't work! (the bluetooth phone works just fine) Besides that little bit, MINI has been by far the best car company/dealership that I have ever worked with. They are almost (not quite) but almost too attentive in wanting to make me happy.

 

I think it is a matter of economics as much as everything else .

The 2002 mini product line was number one on JD powers List and coincidentally the smallest profit margin of ANY BMW product EVER produced .

The money spent on the car for the most part went into actually building the car .

It was only good business sense for BMW that they would strive to get more profit from subsequent editions after establishing the brand .

Could this be a reason for the rise in maintenance issues and the subsequent drop in most quality and reliability ratings ?

Randy

 

I use iPhone Siri through the Mini BT system with no problem. I wish the voice button activated Siri! We have a VW with the voice stuff and it is a PitA.

 

I have owned my 07 MCS for less than a year and I have had to get the timing chain components replaced, valve cover (good for about 50k-80k) thermostat housing which is a cheap fix. No other issues for the previous owners on my MCS and two days ago I got to see how healthy my engine really is, I performed a compression test on all four cylinders and all were plus or minus 3 psi.

Cylinders #1 155 psi, #2 151 psi, #3 151 psi and fourth was 153 psi, that's pretty damn good! A brand new engine I believe compression wise is 155-160 psi, not 100 percent on that figure though. That shows a healthy strong engine, I don't think it's a bad engine design but the PCV system/direct injected clearly is an issue with carbon build-up.

Another issue is having the first cat 6" inches away from the turbo, horrible! Oh yeah and the timing chains weakest link is a $15 part (tensioner) that cause the chain to sometimes destroy the engine which is probably the worst of all the issues.

 

I said from the beginning it was my opinion which I have a right to express as you have the right to express yours. And by the way I never said I didn't enjoy my MINI, I said the car is great, my dealer is great, and MINI USA sucks. Our opinions differ, but your approach to telling me mine is wrong is simply rude. If we were having a face to face conversation, I would tell you to bite me, but It would not be proper forum etiquette to do that here.

 

his point was that you're saying MINIUSA sucks, and the only reason you are giving is that one button on your steering wheel doesn't work. if you think MINIUSA sucks because of that, you are being ridiculous. if your dealer told you that you would have hands-free calling without connect and you don't, that's on your dealer and not on mini. they should have known what the car comes with before promising you something that you wouldn't have.

 

i'm going to post once more on this then leave it alone. Read the other threads and posts on this. MINI USA communicated to their dealer network that a fix was coming and the dealers passed that on to the customers. MINI USA even told me several times that a fix was coming then finally reneged on the promise. They then told me that nothing could be done and they didn't offer any sort of compensation or apology. Even a small promotional item offered as compensation would have satisfied me. The broken promise and "there is nothing we can do, you are out of luck" attitude is what irked me. The non-functional button on the steering wheel is just an example of the lack of planning or lack of commitment MINI put into their decision. My belief is that they thought a fix was on the way but when they couldn't make it work, they refused to own up to their mistake.

This is my final post on this.

 

I don't mean to pile on, but my own personal experience is that I have owned two Toyota's (Corolla and Sienna) prior to buying the R56 new in 2008. The Corolla ran trouble free for 175,000mi before my son crashed it. The Sienna has 245,000 miles on ii and runs as good as the day I bought it in 1999. The R56 has been a nightmare, spending more time in shop than in my driveway. It's sitting at the dealer now with $2000 in repairs needed. To say "all new cars have issues" is absurd. Sure, some individual cars are great, some are lemons, but on the whole, there are reasons why brands like Toyota and Honda have such strong reputations for quality, and why the R56 has such a poor reputation for quality

 

It will be interesting to see how many (% wise) Mini Cooper S's and none S's made it to 150k-175k and the maintenance done! I hope to be one of those hitting 150k, I'll do my best!

 

Peugeot is wrong with mini.

 

I love my 09 R56. It is one of the funnest cars that I have owned. However I am very unhappy that the timing chain rattles like crazy when I start it up on a cold day and it only has 28k miles on it. So I'm not likely to buy another one.

 

Please get it fixed ASAP (BTDT) or ditch the car.
Hopefully, your car is still under warranty, else budget ~$2K.

The rattle not only sounds bad, but shreds metal pieces into the engine. I ran a Blackstone oil analysis right after tensioner/chain replacement (last thing to be done under warranty) and found 10x the average amount of Iron, 3x Copper, 6x Manganese, etc.
All elements went back below normal 2 quick oil changes and 1000 miles later.

a

 

Factory warranty is expired, I'm going to fix it myself. I have other vehicles and haven't been driving it much since the weather turned colder. It's parked in the garage for the most part until I have time to work on it. It sounded fine when it was warm outside.

 

Does your Mini have the original cam chain tensioner? If it does, you should be able to have that timing chain problem fixed for free under the recall. That is the word used on my work order. As soon as the parts come in, they are going to replace the whole assembly in mine.

 

I'm assuming that it does but don't know for sure. I bought the upgraded tensioner and my first plan is to replace that. As you probably know, you can tell by sound if there is something wrong. My car has low miles so if it sounds tight on a cold day after swapping out the tensioner I will be confident in it for now. The nearest dealer is a few hours away so that isn't a good option for me. If I knew for sure they would replace all hardware I might go that route but many say that the dealers aren't fixing their problem and since I don't have a dealer locally I will just deal with it myself for now.

I have had some bad luck with vehicles. Years ago I had a '90 Toyota 4wd with the 22RE engine. It was supposed to be a 300k engine. When I hit 116k, the timing chain jumped and it destroyed all the intake valves. Come to find out, they changed the timing chain setup in the late 80's... To a plastic guide and spring loaded tensioner system..... Just like the Mini! It failed but lasted much longer than the mini. Same basic problem though. I pulled the head and oil pan and fixed it. Then I had a Suzuki 2004 GSXR 600 sport bike. They are supposed to be bulletproof also. I was cruising in traffic one day at about 50 mph. I downshifted and the engine took a complete dump and threw a rod threw the front of the motor. It only had 6600 miles on it and was not ridden very hard. Such is life I guess. **** happens, just tired of it happening to me. I take care of my stuff.

 

It's a 150 mile round trip for me to my closest dealer, but if there was a chance of them replacing the Cam Chain Cassette on their dime I would drive a lot farther. I took my car in for the heat shield and cam chain recall. They installed the heat shield, but did not do the cam chain because the parts were not in stock. They are rescheduling me for next week and supplying me with a loaner. All they did was look at the tensioner, and since it was the original one, they said they would just replace the whole thing. If they see a new style tensioner, they will stop right there because the bulletin tells them to. Replacing the tensioner yourself could end up costing you a couple grand down the road. Another problem with replacing that part yourself is the chain itself may have already been stretched out of tolerance and a new tensioner will not fix that.

 

No issues with the 3 I have had. However, I don't race them.