what the crap? That must be one serious anomaly.

On the brighter side, you are thouroughly enjoying the 07 S.
So your basically just playing the waiting game now.
Good Luck!

 

Sounds a lot like my car, Digital Power Sound Module shorts out every time it rains hard. Ordered on Sept. 13 2006, build date 9-20, delivered on Oct. 25. Car is going in to the shop for the tenth time, as soon as they can get me another loaner set-up. My Cooper has spent 11 weeks in the shop already!

 

So it’s now been 4 months without my car (Austin). I concluded at the beginning of January that this issue will probably never be fixed in my lifetime, so I contacted MINI to see what they could do. Judging by the state of affairs, they were (reluctantly) willing to agree with me, and have since been trying to put together a “package” of sorts to get me out of my current MINI and into a new one. So here lies my problem.

It’s been a month since they’ve initiated this package plan that they are putting together for me. I thought it would take a couple weeks – tops. Apparently, (the vibe I’m getting is) they don’t think I’m worth any sort of priority level since I purchased my car used at Carmax.

Granted, they need all sorts of appraisals, financing info, paperwork on the car, factory rep. approval, etc. But the thing that kinda irks me is that they keep telling me, “we should have the proposal ready in [(pick your favorite number from) 2-5] days.” They keep telling me this every [2-5] days. That wouldn’t be so bad, except they’ve been telling me they should have the car fixed in [2-5] days since the beginning of October last year (not including when it was in for service for half of August and half of June for the same issue)!

Now I’m no rocket scientist, but it seems to me that there’s a little customer service issue here, to which, by the way, I’ve tried contacting my customer service representative who’s been handling my case for the past 8 months, and they have not returned any of my phone calls for the past month! I know everyone is trying to do what they can on their respective ends, and I truly appreciate it, but it just seems like they’ve never dealt with an issue like this before, and the way they are handling it is less than par.

Anyone with similar experience? I’m determined to see this through to a happy ending, and would appreciate any tips on how to wrap this whole fiasco up. Sorry for the vent....

And, incidentally, Mini of San Antonio is also fed up with the car, but they're still trying to figure it out.

 

with all of the hours being spent on your car, the money it takes to pay those who are spending the time on your car, will out weigh the cost of them giving you a new one. They have given a supreme effort to fix it, but I think it may be time for them to bite the bullet.

 

I like to think so, and believe me, if the guys in San Antonio could, I'd like to think they'd take it out back and take ball bats to it (similar to what the guys in Office Space did to the fax machine).

 

Most likely

After they give you a new car,
Mini can just take it back to their engineers so they can fiddle with it to find what the problem was, just for peace of mind, and future reference.

 

wouldnt a state lemon law come into order here? I mean, as long as Austin has been in the shop?

 

Technically, it would, but in Texas, the lemon law states (from what I could tell) that if the car was purchased used (which mine was), the company (MINI) would only have to pay for all repairs to the vehicle pertaining to that issue. Since Austin was/is under a full factory warranty still, the lemon law angle is pretty irrelevant. If I had purchased the car new, though, that's another story....

But in an interesting turn of events, I got Austin back today....fully repaired (tentatively) and delivered to my home. I only say "tentatively" because only time will tell. That being said, it sure feels great to have my car back after 4 months!

Happy motoring!

 

...must come to an end. Austin broke down again (after 4 days). Same issue.

Hopefully I'll be trading into a new MINI this weekend. Cross your fingers.

 

Best of luck with the trade.

 

Sorry to hear about that but hopefully they will do you right on a trade and getting you into another MINI very soon!

 

EP code came to visit while sitting in traffic. Car seemed to run in high gear. I pulled off...shut off engine re-started and now the EP stays on, but otherwise runs normal. Dealer "has no idea what that means"...even though the manual says it's the transmission, so bring it in. Dealer wants $135 to diagnose!!

How do I re-set the EP code to see if it replicates? I tried disconnecting the battery, but still comes on.

 

any updates !? very curious on your out come. best of luck man!

 

Auto parts store used hand-held diagnostic device...reads something about...transmission diagnostic...only serviceable by dealer...

go figure. Wonder if I should keep pounding out the miles or just go to the dealer and say uncle.

 

$130 at the dealer for an hour of diagnostics...well, they out-did themselves and spent about four hours going through just about everything. They checked voltages and amps, pulled apart the wiring harness looking for crimps or chafing, and repacked everything back to Mini specs. They were able to tell from the on-board black box that there had only been one EP fault code since this vehicle was born in 2002. They just didn't know what caused it, so they reset it back to zero-hours in the program (the CVT then re-learns your driving habits) and said to "drive it hard". The service tech said that you need to use all positions of the transmission....don't just keep this unit in the standard "D" mode...switch over to sport drive and also use the M/S often, or else it will get sticky and require a rebuild. He said overall, my CVT performed within specification, which he said was great for a vehicle of this age...although it only has about 50,000 miles. Sooooo, on the road again....hopefully, the tale ends here!

 

Live long and prosper!

your CVT that is...