Last night my wife drove her car and after she stopped at a stop sign she accelerated away and her transmission would not shift out of first. She let off the gas and looked down to make sure she wasn't in the manual shift mode, and then gave it some gas again and it finally shifted out of first gear. She said it shifted alright on the rest of the ride, but with these cars I'm always waiting for something new to go wrong. Does anyone have an idea what happened or what we need to posible fix in the future?

 

How many miles on your MINI? Have you ever had the transmission fluid changed. BMW/MINI says it's lifetime fluid, but that is BS.

 

It's got around 41,000 miles on it - I'm not sure if the transmission fluid was ever changed - we bought it as a lease return in 2012.

 

I would recommend changing it. At your mileage you won't be wasting your money on a change. We do the one in out clubman every 30K or so.

 

My brother owned mine before me. He had an issue at 6k.

Any fluid on the floor of your garage. He was leaking a combination of water and tranny fluid.