Hi all,

I have a 2008 Convertible S JCW.

At 30 months old, the check engine light came on. Dutifully, I took it into the dealership. They looked it, reset the codes, told me that there was no problem and gave me back the card. I took it home.

The next day, I drove it for two blocks and the check engine light comes on again. Ok, no problem. I take it in again.

I then get a call from the service manager. Oh no, something is seriously wrong. They will have to replace the cylinder head. Ouch. And the head needs to come from England. And because it's JCW, it will need to be machined. All in all, I end up in the shop for five weeks.

In the meantime, the dealership does give me a loaner. A clubman. Automatic. No S. The exact other end of the product line.

I get the car back with the new head and all new valves, but MINI is only willing to give me the standard 24 months parts-only warranty on the work.

I nicely called MINI and asked them to extend the warranty on the head and cylinders to the full 48 months that I originally paid for, or to compensate me for 5 weeks of driving their underperforming block of lard, but no dice.

If the head goes again, in another 30 months, I'm totally on the hook. MINI seems to not understand that without the warranty, I've lost resale value and am sitting on a potentially long term lemon. Grrr...

Caveat Emptor

 

If you have more than 24 months left on the factory warranty, then the head/valve work is warranted for the duration of the factory warranty (both parts and labor).

If you have fewer than 24 months left on the factory warranty, then the head/valve work will be warranted for 24 months from now, but after the factory warranty expires, the head/valves will be warranted "parts only".

 

Sounds like with them getting you a loaner, a mini noless, you should be happy! Some/many even most dealers have non mini loaners, especially for extented use....how would you have liked a chevy!!
It does suck, but it sounds like they stood behind their warrenty, fixed you car, and took care of you...and from everything I read, it seems like the warrenty on the head will last longer (24 months) than the remaing warrenty on the car?! Why would you get 4 years on a new part? The fact the warrenty is for beyond your cars warrenty means you came out of this better than you went in...
And you put 5 weeks of miles on somebodys elses car for free, and have a motor with a newer head! That is not a loss in value, but an increase...the head is the part of any motor most likely fail due to wear/heat/poor fuel. To add to it you got a new head-gasket, another common part that fails and costs $$ to replace....consider it an inconvience what happened, but it sounds like you came out ahead!!

 

I agree with Zippy, It seems like a win win for you. Heck, the clubman probably saved you some gas money on the long run as well.

 

+1, sounds like you got treated well by your dealer not abused.

 

Yeah this sounds like pretty reasonable treatment to me. Was the loaner free? I know my local BMW/MINI dealership charges a daily fee for a loaner, which I think is just a Cooper. Of course the loaner is an auto.. can you imagine the beating a standard turbo loaner would take? Not to mention they probably have plenty of clients who can't drive stick.

When I had my thermostat fail, I took it to the Toyota lot I bought it at. They wanted to keep it for a few days to look at it and give me a Toyota Matrix auto as a loaner. I opted to take my MINI to a MINI dealership

 

exactly.