Hello. I am considering a new Mini, but I am looking at long term. I don't want to hear from someone who has had it less than a month. My dealer will be about 1.5 hours away, I don't want to buy a lemon and I'd like to know my chances of getting one. It will be my only car & I don't want to get screwed. I realize every type of car will have some lemons, but upon doing research on my current car (2005 Nissan Sentra) I could not find anyone with major problems, let alone any lemons. This came to a surprise to me when looking up the Mini Cooper as I saw lemon, lemon, lemon.

I've been reading about transmission troubles and electrical problems. Is there anyone who has had their Mini for 3+ years with little to no problems? If little problems, what were they? Also I have read of people going to their dealer with problems several times and not had the problems fixed.

Thank you for any help!

 

I have same problem Im moving to North Carolina and have a 07 MCS the dealer will be 80 miles away. Im wondering if i should keep it. I love the car .


John

 

I have the same concerns. Add to your list the lack of repair parts. I challenged MINI-USA on this and they finally got me connected with Richie Shaffer of Nashville MINI. Per Richie, the problems we're reading about are from the 2002-2006 era and were caused by BMW trying to transition from multiple small companies that provided parts to its own system. Also, he said that the new R56 model (2007 and 2008) is a full redesign that uses mucho BMW technology and has BMW manufacturing oversight (qual control).

If Richie is right, R56 marks the culmination of BMW's consolidation of MINI. I don't know of any boards with R56 complaints of the type I've seen for the earlier models.

Let me know if any of this squares with your research.

RC

 

About three years here between a Cooper and a Cooper S which both saw a lot of miles and I've never had a single problem.

 

I am new here as well, and am happy I found this topic. I am considering a Mini Cooper S for my next car, but it might not be fro another year. Still, I love car shopping, and it never hurts to research early.

I currently drive a 2002 Dodge Stratus Sedan, R/T, with some minor mods I've done myself. Bought it new in 02 - I have a few peeves about that car in particular (although I like my car), and I'd hate for history to repeat itself. I'll explain later...

Like the topic starter, my main concern is the Cooper's reliability over time. According to the JD Power and Associates ratings I've looked at, the 2007 Mini Cooper S was average in Initial Quality overall (better in some areas, below average in others like interior design quality, powertrain design quality, etc). Appeal ratings are sky high (lots of folks love the Mini).

What concerns me is the Dependability Ratings (after 3+ years of owning). Here, the Cooper S is just below average for Overall. However, to get those ratings, we're looking at 2003 and 2004 Coopers (owned 3 years), so this might not reflect the reliability of, say, a 2007 model.

By way of comparison, my Stratus scored slightly higher than the Cooper overall in dependability - but only slightly. I'd like more than that from the Cooper.

Anyway, I'll be watching this thread for input from folks, and really appreciate the honest feedback. I'm not trying to knock the Mini here, as I'm sure most forum members love theirs! Just looking for solid feedback.

I'll list my Stratus peeves (in another post here) to let you know about the type of stuff I'd like to avoid. This post is getting too long as it is by me.

Thanks all!

 

Irritating things about my Stratus - these are the types of things I'd like to avoid with my next car. Not necessarily these exact things, but you get my meaning:

~2.7L engine on Stratus is known to have sludging issues, and failure. I never hit this, but use synthetic oil religiously to help, and am paranoid about it. On the Strat forum I go to, a few folks have had the engine fail due to this.

~Stock brake discs are soft, needed to replace incredibly early in the car's life. Stock brake pads are very hard , wear slowly, and rattle after being worn about 1/3 in rear. Poor quality, I swapped those out too.

~Stock tires on the R/T ($200 each Michelins) were overly expensive, with mediocre performance from TireRack.com reviews I've read. When worn down, I replaced with Kumho Ecsta ASX's for 1/2 the cost, and superior performance.

~Unhappy experiences with Dodge dealerships / repair shops. I'm always even keeled and fair, but firm when talking with them if I have to. But I've really run into some issues with folks at my nearby dealer, so much that I swore never to buy a Dodge for quite a long time.


So anyway, please feel free to list your annoyances with the Cooper (if any). I really don't want to buy a car, and then dump more time and money into "necessary upgrades" because the stock brakes suck, etc. I'd rather do some minor upgrades for fun when time permits.

 

Well, first off, the 07 is the first year the new car is being made. It's been amazingly reliable compared to other makes/model's first year offerings but you may run into things that the 08's+ won't have.

Things like brakes and stuff on the MINI are going to be great. Remember, it's a poor man's sports car. Dealers are also usually pretty good about stuff as long as you're under warranty. I've gone in for minor things a couple times and they've never given me a hard time even though everything important on my car isn't stock anymore.[8D]

 

Good to hear. BMW reliability isn't necessarily up to snuff either (performance is, of course, but the Germans aren't known for their reliability)...but since the 2007+ Minis are different/new, there is hope that they hold up better over time.

I hope they do - this car hits a sweet spot for me on performance/price/MPG. It would be my daily driver, would need to haul one of my kids around (1 or 3 yrs) on occasion, but not much more than that. The reliability is really my only concern as of now.

Quick question - my wife still thinks that the Cooper is more of a "girly" car. Before anyone starts throwing things, how do you see it? Are the vast majority of Mini owners female? It wouldn't prevent me from getting one (my ego / machismo can handle it), just curious.

It seems that nowadays, the overly "masculine" cars look cool, and you can get gobs of HP, but they're huge and get like 19 MPG highway, and cost an arm and a leg. Ouch.

 

I only know a handful of girls that own MINIs and countless guys.

Girly?...

 

Oh and PS. That car right there is about 430whp (its' not mine though.) Even my MINI is lucky to get 20mpg average though.