My 2003 CVT died a couple of weeks ago at 88,000 miles. The CVT drive belt shredded itself, filling the transmission housing with metal.
The cheapest I found to fix it was $4,000 for a used CVT plus $1,500 labor. The shop didn't see any evidence of any sort of abuse, just a sudden failure. Neither the dealer no MINI USA would offer any sort of help, both saying the car was "too old". So apparently transmission failures at 88,000 miles or 7 years are within the design specs for MINI (may be why they only offer a 50,000 mile warranty).
At any rate, since I bought the car used, I still have two more years left to pay on it. I also can't afford dropping $6,000 cash into the car. So I now have the world's most expensive lawn planter at my house until I can pay the car down to the point where I can sell it for parts.
I'm disappointed that, while MINI has no legal obligation to fix CVT failures outside of the warranty period, they seem to be ignoring design flaws in those CVTs that are leading to early transmission failures. That's the last MINI I'll own. I just paid $1,500 cash for a 2001 Saturn with 190,000 miles on it that will likely be more reliable.
Anyway, just my MINI CVT experience. You can also find mine, and others, at this site:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/mini.html 
