[mmmini]

Personally I don't see what I'm experiencing as problems that effect the way I feel for my car. Sure she may not start first time, but how much effort is it to turn a key. My drivers seat may occasionally squeek and there is a bit of a creaking noise coming from the back of the car, but in no way does this detract from the pleasure of the car and the overall driving experience. I drive her fairly hard, as would most people who have an S, so would expect a bit of noise from the chassis every so often.

It seems most people in these forums are averaging fairly high km's on fairly demanding roads and are probably pushing their car more than they would push a more mundane car. Drive any new car hard for it's first 10000km's, and your bound to have similar issues to what people are finding with their MINI's.

I think the reason there are so many postings of these issues is that MINI drivers are more likely "car people", as opposed to general consumers who may drive a more sedate Toyota, Mazda, Nissan et al, so tend to pick-up on these little things.

Unfortunately when a car looks and goes as good as this, you can't help but feel that it needs to be perfect in every respect, so will always be picked at, no matter how well it's built.