J

 

The current engine is made in Brazil. It is a joint venture between BMW and Chrysler (before the Daimler merger).

 

It's a compleatly different engine from the one in your 95 RS, and hopefully much more reliable! The MINI I believe is the first car it has been used in. I heard it was also intended for export Neons for europe and elsewhere(other than North America)

 

Unfortunately it is a Chyrsler engine which I have heard BMW is already regretting , if you ever drove the PT Cruiser 150 hp base you would wonder why BMW would ever consider using Chrysler as a supplier, must have been to keep the price down.....surprised they didn't go to Toyota, at least they could have gotten reliability with much better performance....did hear they were talking to Puegot to develop a better performing engine for the mini without having to go to a BMW design... to keep the cost down so they don't overlap into the marketing of the low end bimmers....always tough to get a car perfect out of the box, it takes a few years, look at all the upgrades Porsche had to do to get the Boxter finally right....

 

Saying it's outright a Chrysler engine is a bit misleading. It's not as if BMW picked an existing Chrysler engine and contracted to use it in the car.

The engine in the MINI was developed as a joint venture between BMW and Chrysler, meaning BMW and Chrysler shared the design and production. It is manufactured at a factory in Brazil. BMW uses it in the MINI and Chrysler uses it in non-U.S. versions of the Neon.

 

I actually have been pretty impressed with this engine (1.6 supercharged, 3000+ miles).

This coming from a person who has never bought anything American when it comes to cars.

It definitely is not a technological wonder but it seems very solid in operation and feel. Hopefully, there was enough German input to keep this engine performing for years to come. I think so.

_________________
Chili Red/white Cooper S

 

MOPAR

Welcome all!
I think your'e gonna like it.

 

T

 

Be careful your Honda may be from Ohio and your Toyota from Indiana.

 

Yeah, but VTEC did not come from the brillant minds of Ohio or Indiana, they are just hired hands.

 

>>Yeah, but VTEC did not come from the brillant minds of Ohio or Indiana, they are just hired hands. Sold her a year later right before the tranny went. I got a call a year after that from Salt Lake City, Utah Sheriff's Dept. seems she got messed up with the wrong crowd and I was the last registered owner they called me, I opted not to go get her after they told me she was in pretty bad shape and had what seemed to a bullet hole in her side. I get misty just thinking about it

 

>>Unfortunately it is a Chyrsler engine which I have heard BMW is already regretting...

This is just a rumor, there are no facts to back this up. Unfortunately there are a lot of rumors out there that just aren't true. The original posters of these rumors should think twice before posting, or maybe they meaningly don't as they get joy off of it?

 

Right now I have a '90 chevy cavalier, and lemme tell you, the engine is the most solid part of the car... the engine rattles like hell, and it can still kick the crap out of most of these little disposable cars out there now... ir runs like crap now, but that's because everything else is failing on the car.. (And she just hasn't been right after the radiator blew..)... so if there's probally one thing that a US auto mfg can do right, i'd probally pick an engine. But yes, according to some news reports, you probally won't be seing the pentagon engine in a MINI for too much longer, due to the fact that after the dal/chrysler merger (err, buyout), BMW is now sleeping with the enemy w/this engine.... and personally, i really don't know too much about pugeots, but I just don't think 'Car Engines' when i think about the french...

Rocketboy_X

 

M

 

Don't discount how much importance it is in regards to who builds your car. For example, I have a samsung syncmaster 755df monitor. Made in mexico. If you look around the internet, you will see that it's a very well built monitor, unless you get the model made in mexico. And true to what I read, 3 months after purchase, i had to take it back to the service center. So the moral of this story is, is that even if the design and the parts are top notch, if the assembly is flawed, so is the object....

And the only car that I ever had to replace the tranny on was a Toyota with 200k miles on it... it's the electrical system and the body that's really gone to pot on my cav...

Rocketboy_X

 

>>>>Unfortunately it is a Chyrsler engine which I have heard BMW is already regretting...
>>
>>This is just a rumor, there are no facts to back this up.

Well, it IS a Chrystler designed engine, designed specifically for the MINI, and to BMW specs. It will be used by future neons and PTs, but it was designed for the MINI.

And yes, BMW is regretting it. Why? Not least of all becasue they signed a contract with Chrystler until 2007, and that was signed BEFORE Chrystler was bought by Daimler-Benz. Az Mercedes and BMW are arch rivals, it's easy to see why this is now an uncomfortable arrangement. Also, why else would they be working so hard to develope a new engine ALREADY with Citroen?

 

American trannys go with regularity, it seams, but check this out:

THE TEAM THAT DESIGNED THE MINI PENTAGON ENGINE WAS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENGINE IN THE DODGE VIPER.

So I'm not worried. I mean, the tranny is german (well, on the S at least)

 

The best bit of advice is to not buy small american cars. We do midsized and large cars ok but the Domestic automakers just never figured out how to make small cars. They don't turn much of a profit on them so there is not much incentive to spend a lot of money on quality designs or marketing/demographic studies.

Of course if they spend a little more money on the design maybe they could turn out a better product that would sell better.


I think this is just another example of how some american companies have a hard time seeing the long view. All the corporate acounting/fraud/theft is another example of it. A lot of upper management seems to be putting short term gain ahead of long term gains/growth. It didn't always used to be this way and I hope it stops soon.


What company wants to spend money on a little compact car that will make 1000 dollars profit tops when a truck that costs 6000 dollars to make will sell for 25,000.

 

>>>>>>Unfortunately it is a Chyrsler engine which I have heard BMW is already regretting...
>>>>
>>>>This is just a rumor, there are no facts to back this up.
>>
>>Well, it IS a Chrystler designed engine, designed specifically for the MINI, and to BMW specs. It will be used by future neons and PTs, but it was designed for the MINI.
>>
>>And yes, BMW is regretting it. Why? Not least of all becasue they signed a contract with Chrystler until 2007, and that was signed BEFORE Chrystler was bought by Daimler-Benz. Az Mercedes and BMW are arch rivals, it's easy to see why this is now an uncomfortable arrangement. Also, why else would they be working so hard to develope a new engine ALREADY with Citroen?

Still confused on where the facts are on this RUMOR? It is not a solely built/designed engine. It was a joint venture between Chrysler and BMW.

Still, where do you get they are regretting it? Because they are seeking to redesign it down the road? That is normal to plan ahead? Plus now they are Daimler owned, its a conflict of interest... and that's the most likely reason they are redesigning it in the future. There has never been an issue with engine quality or anything like that... there has been no gripes or anything in regards to that.

An uncomfortable arrangement is not cause for regrets... but it seems to be a cause of RUMORS. Don't get me wrong... I'm not pissed at you, just at the premise. Why do others post things that a rumor or inuendo? This will just cause people to think there is something wrong with the engine in the MINI, when there is nothing wrong with it at all. It would be like me commenting why my neighbor sold his Honda to buy a Toyota... do I really know? Of course not. I only have my guesses which are totally unfounded and based upon my own opinion.

 

HighAnxiety,
Check this Link.....
This is where I found the news bit from...
You are correct in the fact that it could be rumors.... but there is a very strong case for this to be true.

Hope this helps.
SW

 

>>HighAnxiety,
>>Check this Link.....
>>This is where I found the news bit from...
>>You are correct in the fact that it could be rumors.... but there is a very strong case for this to be true.
>>
>>Hope this helps.
>>SW

Exactly though... I've read that... but somehow people are reading that and getting a quality issue out of it. That really confuses me. It is pretty clear cut that the deal is a conflict of interest and nothing more. If you read the postings though, people are reading much much farther into it and coming up with quality and realiability concerns.

It's like that game you play in elementary school... you know... where you whisper something into someone's ear and each person passes it down the line. At the end of the line of people, it has changed form suddenly. I see this here too... it has gone from a conflict of interest.... to Chrysler/American engines in general are not as good??

 

This reminds me when D. Benz bought (merged) with Chrysler. I was on the Turbo Diesel Forums. The rumors started flying about how Dodge was going to cram a MB Diesel motor in the Dodge trucks. Well, Cummins is still in the Dodge. Why mess with a good thing?

 

Chrysler engines have always been okay(atleast 99% of the time) it was always the stuff tacked onto the engine that sucked...the tranny, the electrics, the fuel injection. The engines themself have been fine. The few exceptions I've heard have been Mistubishi engines. So were is the problem? Sometimes people just love to slag a brand(I'm guilty of this too). So if the engine is Chrysler and the rest of the car is BMW(ie. the electrics ect.) I say great. What a good marrage!

 

This all started with Nolan. He seems to "have issues" with this car, and seems to be turning into a Troll. Go find a 350Z board please.

 

Exactly though... I've read that... but somehow people are reading that and getting a quality issue out of it. That really confuses me. It is pretty clear cut that the deal is a conflict of interest and nothing more. If you read the postings though, people are reading much much farther into it and coming up with quality and realiability concerns.

Of course BMW doesn't like that Benz is involved in an engine they use...conflict of interest probably...

quality issue....not at all, that is never mentioned in any article relating to BMW looking elsewhere...the engine probably is reliable and may last forever....if you read the articles correctly, BMW's regret and concern is with performance, not quality, particularly the standard cooper.....with the emphasis today on subcompacts with terrific perfomance from Subaru, VW, Honda, Focus, etc.....many are asking the question why an underwhelming Chyrsler engine when BMW cars are so well engineered regarding engine performance....that's how I have read the articles...nothing to do with quality.....the issue is performance....I don't think you will see any chrysler engines in Benz's, even the low end coupe...Mercedes is probably the one laughing and BMW doesn't like it, laugh .One of the main reasons BMW wants the mini is for the high gas milage, which they can use against their poor milage M3's and 7 series to bring down the overall milage for BMW to meet future US requirements....that's why initially they weren't concerned about performance till the reviews starting to come in....but at least they are willing to change which is a good sign...cheers....