This one of the many heat shield products that I have found: http://www.motorarmor.com/pricing.htm It might help

 

BMW technology. MINI in name

 

My car is an 07 with only 11000ish miles on it and I already have had a whole new transmisson replaced and as of right now I have an oil leak and the car is sitting at the dealer.

 

All this kinda makes you wonder if Chevys are really that bad...

 

this thread is very discouraging to in-the-near-future buyers. Should i be worried?

 

I'm not worried about the hood scoop, I bought a non-S. However, people with problems will be much vocal than people without problems. People don't make posts going "Still no problems!" So the people with issues stand out a lot more.

 

AH! so true, man i totally forgot about that! that's one issue about auto forums.

-slap on head- Duh good point good point

 

I've been on enough forums in the last 6 years, foreign, domestic, cars, trucks, motorcycles.

My consensus is that there is no one vehicle made where someone won't have a problem. Machines designed by humans, built by humans, owned and driven by humans. I am fortunate in that I really haven't had any of the major issues that other owners have for the cars, trucks and motorcycles I've owned in the last 10 years, except for the battery drain problem I had on my 2005 Corvette, which was eventually fixed with an update of the computer.

I would also say that having owned both foreign and domestics in the last 10 years that the domestics are every bit as good as the foreign cars. I would put up a Cadillac CTS or STS against a BMW any day, especially the new CTS-V, that thing is a killer.

My favorite cars are still Audi's though. Having lived in North Dakota and Minnesota all my life, these are still the best AWD cars on the road, and I've driven and owned alot of them. I have owned an '84 Quattro coupe and an '86 5000 turbo quattro, both cars very much ahead of their time in the 80's and absolutely phenomenal in snow. Both cars had two stage locking differentials, something you don't see on them anymore as it has all been replaced by electronics and stability control systems.

 

Get a Cooper w/o a sunroof and the problems mentioned will be non issues. I know there are bad cars here and there, but every MINI I or my friends have had has been superb.

 

Some people want more power than a Cooper has and they truly enjoy their sunroofs and wouldn't buy a car that didn't have one. I'd be more concerned about the cold start engine clacking noise and melting hood scoops - **** poor engineering.

 

:D

I've noticed the same thing... The vast majority of problems people have with their MINI's are with things that my MINI doesn't have... like the MCS engine/turbo, sunroof, etc.

 

Melting hood scoops = the You-ification of a Mini. See, the melting pattern is unique to each Mini, kind of like our fingerprints.

Design problem? No, design feature!

 

Cold start issues= your minis voice LOL

 

HAHAHAHA LOVE IT!!

 

As one of my friends put it, "Hey, it's a German designed car, with a French engine, built in England... what could go wrong!?"

(Disclaimer: I'm a happy R56 owner)

 

1. Whole Transmisson Replaced
2. Sun Roof That Doesn't Open When Warm
3. Leaking Oil From Crank Seal

But I still love this damn car and would still recommend it to anyone.

 

No, I don't think so.

What you have to remember is that most folks just enjoy there MINI's & motor along contentedly. You don't hear much from them here. Well you do, but sometimes the folks with an issue or two are here yelling about their terrible car & drown out the voices of the contented masses.

I can understand their unhappiness, but I think a lot of them are blowing the issues out of proportion. I've had a few issues with my 2006 R53. None has made me want to buy another car or complain about it on NAM. Heck if I did dump it to buy another it would be a MINI. My car is so much fun & gives me so much enjoyment. A small problem or two won't change those feelings. All cars have some problems. If I wanted a car that was as reliable as an appliance I'd buy a Maytag, I mean a Toyota or a Honda, but I know it would not give me much enjoyment. Hard to love an appliance you know.

My advice would be to buy your MINI & join the club. You will be a happy camper.

Edit... I wish all of you folks having any issues get your MINI's fixed to your satisfaction so you may once again feel the MINI love.

 

Some perspective here....

I have owned a total of 4 MINIs..... First one brought brand new in August of 2002. Kept that car for 6 years and almost 50K miles ('02 R50 CVT). Only few minor annoyances that affected first year models of the previous generation MINI. Otherwise the car was a solid daily driver. Never left us stranded anywhere. I sold the car here to another fellow NAMer that has been enjoying it since February and now lives in California.

I have also owned a 2004 R53 MCS that I kept for 17K troublefree miles. After that I got a 2005 R53 MCS hardtop 6-speed, which I still have, and drives and feels LIKE NEW. I have a hair over 50K troublefree miles on it. I take care of my cars but I don't baby them excessively. They are family cars, vacation cars, works cars, you name it. My '05 still ticks like the finest piece of Swiss watch machinery.

MINI #4 is a 2008 Clubman S that we took home this past February. Almost 7K miles and not a single problem. No melted hoodscoop, no failures of any kind. Solid reliable car that gets USED day and day out. No garage/detail queen there either.

So in all and all, we have had nearly 100K total miles combined under of belts for the past 7 years. I can say with confidence (and this goes to prospect buyers) that these are very well made, high quality vehicles. Indeed there are bad apples, but this is true of every other mass produced car manufacturer in the world. If you think the grass is greener in Japan, inc (I owned nothing but Hondas and Acuras for 12 years and well over $100K worth of their products on my driveway), think again. If you go and read Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Lexus boards...Guess what? They all have their own problems too. In fact, if you read too much into internet message boards, you will come to the conclusion that no car in the market today is 100% guaranteed to perform problem free during its service life.

Unhappy/disgruntled owners tend to be more vocal in internet message boards and they have all their right to be. But like a hospital ward, you only here about problems and complaints. How many troublefree MINI owners come here and post that their car worked just fine today, yesterday, the day before and last month?

It is good to educate yourself in potential problem areas of a car, but that doesn't mean IT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU!

When you buy a MINI make sure you are purchasing from a dealer with a decent reputation to stand behind the product and address issues effectively and timely when these arise. If you marry yourself into a lousy dealer, you will eventually grow to HATE the car because minor problems become big problems when dealing with an incompetent and uncaring service department. Make a top priority to find out how the service dept deals with problems before buying. This will save you many headaches down the road.

I hope owners of troubled MINIs can have their issues solved of move onto something else.

For the rest of us..

 

Amen to this post!

 

Just a clarification. I love my mini. I'm unhappy with the defects that are seem to be common with many of them.

I'm not expecting a car or any car to be perfect. The difference to me is how the problem is handled once it's confirmed that it's not an isolated case.

When a problem is recurring with as many people that are having the exact same problem, I think Mini should be making an effort to fixing the problem.

The problems are annoying and I'm dissatisfied with the attempt (or lack thereof) that Mini has tried to fix these problems.

Having said that, the problems are enough to make me whine but not enough to sell the car.

Just whining....

Mark

PS. Obviously I love the car, I chose to drive it for 11 hours last night with my wife and two girls from NC to FL. I could have taken one of our larger, more comfortable vehicles but like I said, I still love my mini.

 

Yeah, I think some of these issues are isolated but are damn fustrating to the owners to whom they occur. I own an '05 MCS and the only real problems I've had are a broken driver side window motor(covered under warranty) and the strut mount rupturing that is so common in these vehicles. I got my front axle replaced under warranty early on because I started to hear knocking sounds when I was turning from a standstill so that was cool. But other than these three major issues, my car has been trouble free. It just sucks to hear that some people get 'lemons' and I'm glad that so far I've been able to escape the horror story crowd.

 

I agree. Though I have all 3 issues, I don't consider my car a lemon, I just hate it when a manufacturer comes up with a "fix" like an "adjustment and lube". That's obviously not a fix for the sunroof, there's a larger problem.

The annoying part is this is the 3rd model year with these issues. Mini has had ample time and complaints to get the fix corrected. It would be totally different if this was the first year the R56 came out.

Like I said, I still love my car, I'm just disgusted with Mini's handling of these defective items.

Mark

 

I know mine is not an R56, but my 06 MCS JCW with 18k miles on it has had the flywheel and clutch replaced and an engine mount replaced. Other than that, it's been trouble free.

 

I think part of it depends on what some people consider 'tolerable' issues. I think many would consider your three major problems to be lemon-worthy (well, two major anyway... the axle and ruptured strut mount are pretty major... the window motor would just be annoying). I wouldn't, but for comparison, my previous car was a 2002 Toyota Corolla. In six years of ownership I had absolutely nothing go wrong with the car. Seriously. By comparison, my 2007 MCS is just over a year old and I have had the throttle valve need to be replaced because it became stuck open (probably iced up during the winter, which is an issue others have reported), and the sunroof stopped opening altogether and needed to be replaced. I also have the cold start rattle that seems to be an engine design issue, but (according to MINI) does not damage the car in any way, though they are working on a fix.

I still love my MINI, and don't consider it a lemon. My point is that problems that I find minor (like the occasional dashboard rattle, or the sunroof needing to be replaced), others seem to find unforgivable.

 

Yeah, I guess you are right. I'm with you, I haven't seen any of these as major problems but that was probably because aside from the strut mounts, the other two were covered under warranty repairs and thus didn't really hurt my pocket. The strut mounts actually, my MA said that my insurance could cover it and it eventually turned out it did. So I've been financially spared the burden of those failures.