Mini Cooper Forums - Mini Cooper Enthusiast Forums

Quote:

Originally Posted by nomadic (Post 11219)

I'm very close to buying a 96 cooper S convertible. It has 13 months left on the maintenance, (oil, brakes etc...) but the warranty has expired and for 3K I can extend it for 36K - 3 years from my date of purchase.

I'm of two minds on the warranty for 3K.

It's good piece of mind and the dealership is right close to my wifes work.
I don't know of a good Mini repair shop near Leesburg, VA.
The car has been serviced at this dealership since 9K miles.
I've just read about breaking engines on this thread - YIKES!
I can roll it into the financing and while I'm paying more for it overall I don't have to come up with 2K if something does go wrong inside warranty period.

What is a likely catastrophic failure on a manual transmission 96 Cooper S that is supercharged and thus has no turbocharger?
If something catastrophic goes wrong we all know that dealerships are the most expensive places to get your car fixed so the dealer costs vs repair shop costs could be as much 3K vs 1500.
I've already got the maintenance agreement for the next 13 months so hopefully the dealer will see a catastrophic problem coming down the pike when they are performing routine maintenance. (Hopefully?)

Bought the car and bought the extended warranty for 3100. It's an additional 3yrs/36K miles. My thoughts on buying it were as follows. While I love my shade tree mechanic I'm not sure he's as capable as fixing my Mini as he was my Olds Bravada. I dont know another mechanic out here for Minis. I got a good feeling from the service manager at the dealer when I was discussing it with him. He said I'd be coming at 49K for some service that *will* be done and covered under warranty which costs $700. This is my first high-end type performance car. I've always driven American or Honda/Toyota so I want to keep it running in peak performance while it is running. I don't want this car dying a slow death.

It's convenient to my wife's work as I mentioned in my previous post.

I'll be one here weekly so all you who have posted great info in the past, please consider reposting again for newbies.

Thanks very much -- Be Well.