A fellow MINI owner asked to use my torque wrench to check the wheel fasteners on his vehicle. To his surprise the locking bolt on all four wheels was only finger tight and the other fasteners were no where near the correct tightness.His vehicle is new with only 800 miles, i don't know if the dealer checks before delivery. You may want to check to be sure you don't have the same problem.

 

I am waiting for my first MINI which is currently scheduled for production. I have to admit that I was a little concerned about the quality issues I have read about. For that reason, I leased the MINI and it is the first car I have ever leased. My thinking was that it would be covered by the warranty and maintenance plan for the whole time I owned the car so I wouldn't have to worry about the quality issues. I know this amounts to heresy on this board, but that was my plan. My only regret about leasing is that I am very limited in the mods I can do to the car since whatever I do has to be reversed at the end of the lease.

 

Its certainly possible that the torque wasn't checked by the dealer.
It is also common for new wheels to loosen up after the first 200 to 300 miles. Every time I have had new wheels mounted, I have been told to bring the car back between 200 and 300 miles to have the bolts re-torqued.
I have also purchased 4 new MINIs since 2003 and all 4 have had the bolts loosen up in the first few hundred miles. They always seem to stay tight after the re-torque.
I have now made it a habit to recheck the torque after a few days driving anytime a wheel is removed/replaced.