I think the issue here is that the owner of the R56 feels that the gentleman called his car a lemon indirectly in his effort to give him legal advice.

 

OK, I could see that if the person who posted original was upset, but he is not the one upset.

 

so...any updates on the problem yet?

 

what?! a brand new r53 had problems?

 

R52 MCCa.

Some of you R56 newbies are so defensive about your cars, its funny, really.

 

And a lot of R53 owners have been very defensive with the R56 launch.

Being defensive is a tradition of the MINI ownership experience. Guys get defensive that MINI is perceived as cute, girly and gay, and everybody gets defensive when MINI doesn't come out on top in an automotive review comparison. Non-S Cooper owners or auto tranny drivers are already used to being defensive about their cars.

 

Here, here. I have not owned a Cooper yet and mine is on order (non S, but a 6 speed standard), but I am already building the barricades, setting the barb wire in place, and preparing for an all out onslaught from rumor mill about how I must have turned gay overnight and probably painted my barbeque pit pink, and threw out my guns as well!

Maybe if I mount a gun rack in the rear window, it will help to quell these out of control rumor-mongerers? Of course, it does not help when my own Wife is leading the charge with, "That's a girl's car!".

I figure anyone can have a boring life. It's those with the nuts enough to do something different who really have all the fun.

 

Flow in Winston-Salem always gave me a loaner, whether for a day or a week, including an MCS and MCC.

 

1. There is no "cooling off period" or law requiring a dealer to let you return your car. Just imagine the chaos of people returning cars after they used them for three days.

2. Lemon laws are designed to assist people with problem cars. Here are a couple of great sites:

http://www.lemonlawusa.com/

http://www.lemonlawamerica.com/

BTW, NC has one of the best lemon laws.

 

Was pretty upset (first 2007 R56 in the area). After 240 miles - engine light pops up. Panicked - was on my way out for vacation.

First I was told that there was no problem - some engine error code - and I can drive it - it just requires firmware upgrades.

Said no - and got a loaner. Went to my vacation with the loaner (put 1,300 miles on it - a 2006 MINI).

When I came home - I was told that they contacted MINI and it was just a (big) air bubble in the engine cooling system. They bleed the cooling system, de-areated it and drove the car a bit - and things were fine. That was almost 3 weeks ago. Drove another 300-350 miles - no problem since then.

Well - I do not know what to say. It was weird about the bubble (I wonder why it took 240 miles to show it on the error). On the other side - I had a loaner pretty easily and the dealer was polite about it.

Hope that helps, MMM

 

My car was the one in question to start the thread. The problem that accured was a very bad surge at idle, off idle the car seemed ok. What was happening was the variable valve timing acctuator was trying to switch the cam lobe configuration at idle when it's only supposed to do that at higher rpm's.
The only real problem I had was that the dealer said the only communication with miniusa was via e-mail. So they would try something email miniusa and wait a day for a response etc etc. I know e-mail is a great thing but in a situation like this getting on the phone is in my opinion is a better idea. I'm a mechanic and when you get on the phone with other mechanic's you can first of all explain what the car is doing better and secondly you can bounce ideas off of each other, which is hard to due with an email. good luck all!

 

No cooling off period in CA, once you sign the paperwork, you own the car, if you don't want it after that, you sell it privately, or have the dealership buy it back at whatever they feel like . There's about 300 notices in every car dealership out here. We're a very litigation happy state .