UPDATE:

Monday March 9, 2009 1 p.m. EST

The dealer and I spoke this morning and I explained how I felt their warranty denial was not correct. They contacted a Mini USA rep and agreed to do a one-time goodwill warranty replacement of the battery and labor, which I believe is the right thing to do.
So all apparently is ending well.
Their one condition is that my aunt buy and use a battery tender trickle charger to keep the battery healthier because the car is not driven too much. I said that was fine.
Thank you, MINI, for doing the right thing and taking care of this.




Hi all,
I'm writing to ask for your thoughts about my aunt's 2006 Mini. She bought it brand new in August 2006 from Orlando Mini in Florida. She uses it daily, for trips around the neighborhood and at least once a week on the highway, but it has only 8,000 miles on the car.
Last week, it wouldn't start. It would crank over ever so slowly, but wouldn't start.
In to the dealership it went after a jumpstart. The dealer said it needed a new battery and that it wouldn't warranty it because my aunt doesn't drive the car enough. They told her she needs to drive it a minimum of 800 miles a month and that it says that in the warranty.
HOGWASH I say.
She has never had any starting problems before this incident and has been driving the car the same way since she has owned it.
I believe that with all the millions of batteries that are made, the OEM battery in the car obviously was defective and should have been replaced under warranty. The car has a 4 year/50K mile warranty!
The dealer told her that it says in the "fine print" that driving the car as little as she drives it caused the problem and wouldn't be covered under warranty.
I have worked in car and motorcycle dealerships before and believe me, that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard. If this had happened within a month or two of her buying the car, then happened on other occasions since, it would be at least possible, in my opinion. But for this to happen now and never have happened before, they are just trying to get out of replacing the car under warranty.
Orlando Mini charged her $322 for a new battery and labor.
Ridiculous.
They'll be hearing from me in the morning.
And they'll be apologizing to her by the afternoon.
What do you think?
Have you had similar problems with your dealer or battery?
Thanks for listening to my venting.
Yours,
Trwhouse

 

All current cars draw power when parked , unfortunately for you when they sit for extended periods they can pull too much power and weaken the battery over time ...
Motorcycles do the same , I bought a solar powered trickle charger and that has prevented troubles...
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=41144

If the car is parked outside you could mount this in the rear sunroof and wire it in

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=42292
Even this will work well I wired it in a neighbors to a cigerette plug to plug into the boot

 

I guess I was fortunate. I had my '03 Cooper in for service for an unrelated item. When I picked the car up, the service adviser said that the technician found a couple of bad cells in the battery, so they replaced it - at no charge. The car was about two years old at the time. My dealer goes above and beyond the call.