I've not been around much the past few weeks, so apolgies for that.

I'm actually still in the process of producing a few reports on my S and also the Cooper I loaned a few weeks back, but as I'm on here for the Cooper D and new One details I thought I'd post a brief update.

My car is currently at Wollaston MINI in Northampton, list of little problems (and not so little) I have are:


Wheel arch trim broken off. Somewhere on the journey to/from my little boy's Nursery School, noticed it when I got home, passenger side only, exactly the same as the MINI press Cooper S I had. This concerns me a great deal just now, it seems the MINI may not be suitable to drive on the very same country lanes that got me hooked on Minis/MINIs in the first place. :(
Interference/crackling/distortion from the front passenger side speaker(s), car has the MINI HiFi Speaker upgrade.
MINI Badge is coming loose, or was never attached properly on the tailgate
MINI Cooper S sill strip on passenger side is bulging
The car lets in water, a lot of it, in the gap between the roof and the tailgate. Driving away at the wrong angle when it's wet leads to a downpour onto the parcel shelf and rear seats
Steering wheel creaks/makes a sort of "coiled spring" noise when turning at any speed.
Like everyone else it seems, no ashtray/coin holder as part of the smokers pack.:(

Oh that doesn't sound good :( I hope you get it all fixed up soon - and properly!!!

just a few little bugs then oh well it wouldnt be a mini without them :p hope it gets sorted asap...

Thats not good, hope Woolastons sort them out quickly. :)

One of my sill strips is also bulging / coming unstuck :(

I'm concerened my gearbox/transmission is a little noisier than it should be. At low revs pulling away it's very "growly" sounds old and worn - anyone else found this?

My hi-fi upgrade is the same!!!!!!

Paul

That's really unfortunate. You must be the one guy that Mini should have got everything right for.

Having said that, mine arrived with some defective paintwork but the dealer spotted it before I took delivery. Its been sorted and Mini have made a contibution to my ipod connector by way of apology. So I am happy and after 1500 miles have no other problems.

Sounds like they have been having a few teething problems with early production.

Mine is also back at the dealer today because:

- the drivers inside door panel was not attached - I could see behind it
- the viper stripes are scatched a lot on the leading edge on the bonnet
- the car wasn't clean enough in my opinion e.g. the door seals were covered in mud and dust inside the doors and there were polish marks all over the place
- I paid for a FULL tank of petrol not half a tank

- Also missing the ash tray although I won't cry about that too much

Hmpf.

Hmmm.. My door sill strip isn't stuck down properly either, I have a couple of paint problems, and the elusive ashtray... but I don't think anything has fallen off yet...

That's really unfortunate. You must be the one guy that Mini should have got everything right for.
Why?

Are there different levels of importance when it comes to car buyers?

:(
Oh no! Doesnt sound a healthy MINI! Hope it gets sorted quickly and properly :)

Well, I think it is unfortunate both for Paul, and for Mini.

I am inclined to believe that manufacturers take extra care with the cars they provide to journalists and other who will publish their impressions. Paul's role is akin to that of a journalist in that he writes reports for this site.

I do not believe that this implies that everyone else has to put up with quality failings but simply that if I was managing Mini I would be particularly careful to make sure that important influencers have a good experience of my product. I therefore think these failings are also unfortunate for Mini.

These problems are worrying, and I hope MINI addresses them soon.

A bit off topic, I was in a friends Volvo C30 earlier, one of the first models off the line. The whole thing felt incredibly solid and well put together, and there wasn't a hint of a rattle or imperfection throughout. It was a FAR cry from the R56 I test drove recently :(

sorry to hear of your problems Paul, I'm sure they will all get fixed up for you :) Sounds like early production niggles but what cheeses me off with BMW is they never seem to fix all the problems throughout the cars life and which I hope will improve with the latest model. I'm finding it hard to believe that owners of the new model are experiencing interior rattes :( This is very poor. I never did change my 03 S as it took 4 visits to the dealer to cure all interior rattles and has been perfect for over 3 years now, I didn't have the stomach to change to a newer model and go back to square one. I remember when I first bought my MINI I was embarrased to give friends a lift as when I went in their Focus or Corsa, totally quiet and rattle free....grrrrrrrr :(

These problems are worrying, and I hope MINI addresses them soon.

A bit off topic, I was in a friends Volvo C30 earlier, one of the first models off the line. The whole thing felt incredibly solid and well put together, and there wasn't a hint of a rattle or imperfection throughout. It was a FAR cry from the R56 I test drove recently :(

The comment on the C30 is nice to hear, as I'm waiting for one to be delivered in February. Where did your friend gets his from ?

With regards to the R56 problems, I better take a large notepad with me to check out all these niggly problems :rolleyes:

Delivery is tomorrow, which is great :biggrin: .. but also a bit worrying, with all the problems others have had :eek:

I've not been around much the past few weeks, so apolgies for that.

I'm actually still in the process of producing a few reports on my S and also the Cooper I loaned a few weeks back, but as I'm on here for the Cooper D and new One details I thought I'd post a brief update.

My car is currently at Wollaston MINI in Northampton, list of little problems (and not so little) I have are:


Wheel arch trim broken off. Somewhere on the journey to/from my little boy's Nursery School, noticed it when I got home, passenger side only, exactly the same as the MINI press Cooper S I had. This concerns me a great deal just now, it seems the MINI may not be suitable to drive on the very same country lanes that got me hooked on Minis/MINIs in the first place. :(
Interference/crackling/distortion from the front passenger side speaker(s), car has the MINI HiFi Speaker upgrade.
MINI Badge is coming loose, or was never attached properly on the tailgate
MINI Cooper S sill strip on passenger side is bulging
The car lets in water, a lot of it, in the gap between the roof and the tailgate. Driving away at the wrong angle when it's wet leads to a downpour onto the parcel shelf and rear seats
Steering wheel creaks/makes a sort of "coiled spring" noise when turning at any speed.
Like everyone else it seems, no ashtray/coin holder as part of the smokers pack.:(

Thats not so good :( ...

I am surprised by mini, my other half picked up her 118d new in October and not a single fault in 6,000 miles, BMW can do it yet Mini does seem to struggle with new introductions... wonder why that is ?

MINI Cooper S sill strip on passenger side is bulging
The car lets in water, a lot of it, in the gap between the roof and the tailgate. Driving away at the wrong angle when it's wet leads to a downpour onto the parcel shelf and rear seatsI had the first one on my Cooper, and it was the passenger side one too ! Scotthall took 1.5 hours to correct the problem.

2nd one is interesting, I sometimes get condensation on the inside of my windscreen (tho it has not happened in the last 3 days). Do you get condensation on the inside in the mornings too ? And when I say condensation, I mean a considerable amount of water on the windscreen ?

Wheel arch trim broken off. Somewhere on the journey to/from my little boy's Nursery School, noticed it when I got home, passenger side only, exactly the same as the MINI press Cooper S I had. This concerns me a great deal just now, it seems the MINI may not be suitable to drive on the very same country lanes that got me hooked on Minis/MINIs in the first place. :(
Interference/crackling/distortion from the front passenger side speaker(s), car has the MINI HiFi Speaker upgrade.
MINI Badge is coming loose, or was never attached properly on the tailgate
MINI Cooper S sill strip on passenger side is bulging
The car lets in water, a lot of it, in the gap between the roof and the tailgate. Driving away at the wrong angle when it's wet leads to a downpour onto the parcel shelf and rear seats
Steering wheel creaks/makes a sort of "coiled spring" noise when turning at any speed.
Like everyone else it seems, no ashtray/coin holder as part of the smokers pack.:(
When we collected the other week paul I made sure I checked some of the things that you had pointed out to me, seems that our late Dec build has had a lot of these points addressed.

Namely the rear roof gap that is causing you a serious amount of water entering the car, the gap is much tighter now than as I recall it looking on yours, so finger crossed they can get that sorted if they can on production;)

Also lucky that it doesn't have the steering creek that I've seen on a demo car I had for a day, wondering if this is related to the fix that dealers had to do?

But we did have the ashtray missing and have been told that a warranty claim needs to be made to get us one ordered, so are in the process of seeing how long to get one:o

[quote=Interference/crackling/distortion from the front passenger side speaker(s), car has the MINI HiFi Speaker upgrade.

:([/quote]

Have the same problem, will be interesting to see if they change the offending speaker.

Picked my car up yesterday and it has an ashtray. My mobile fits in it lovely.

Glad you've posted about the hifi problem as we have an r56 in tomorrow that has hifi but wants it improving. I will listen for the crackle as I dont want to modifiy it then if there is a crackle the dealer blame me - you know what they're like

Which of the 3 front passenger side speakers is it ?

Anyone know ?

The comment on the C30 is nice to hear, as I'm waiting for one to be delivered in February. Where did your friend gets his from ?


It was delivered from somewhere down south (reg no begins FJ - company car). I'm sure you'll be very happy with it - the diesel I was in was very refined and lovely to drive. Clutch was perhaps a little stiffer than I was used to, but then again it was probably just down to the solid quality feeling!

My point was though that if Volvo can get it right first time on a brand new model, then there's no excuse for Mini making such **** ups. Water leaking into a £20k car - inexcusable :angry:

Which of the 3 front passenger side speakers is it ?

Anyone know ?

Passenger side top speaker the one on the window column. (on mine anyway)

Glad you've posted about the hifi problem as we have an r56 in tomorrow that has hifi but wants it improving. I will listen for the crackle as I dont want to modifiy it then if there is a crackle the dealer blame me - you know what they're like

Let us know what improvements can be made and the cost, will be interested.

Just picked mine up again - they have polished out the scratches on the stripes but only half fixed the door panel - it is still not attached correctly at the top (I can get my finger behind it). Not great.

Paul,

Hopefully the wheel arch trim problem is easily fixed. I drive some of the worst country roads in Bucks each day which currently have lots of flooding, and touch-wood the trims and liners are still in place so far.

Good luck with getting the problems corrected.

Paul

Paul

That's really unfortunate. You must be the one guy that Mini should have got everything right for.

Sounds like they have been having a few teething problems with early production.

Maybe they did and this is a "well screwed together example" :D

Having suffered an original MCS followed by a much improved mid life MCS early teething problems were to be expected if history was to repeat itself :mad:

My R56 is being created W/C 22nd January which is a good month earlier than I would have liked as I am not taking delivery until March 1st :puzzled: On the other hand as BMW are pretty slow to fix minor niggles a Jan or Feb build may have meant same sh*t different month :biggrin:

One of my sill strips is also bulging / coming unstuck :(

I'm concerened my gearbox/transmission is a little noisier than it should be. At low revs pulling away it's very "growly" sounds old and worn - anyone else found this?

I feel mine suffers with something similar to this. It's even worse on a cold morning when I start the car. I was wondering if it's something to do with the turbo. Really does sound like an engine fault, similar to a tractor or an old diesel!

Got the car back last Friday, and not had much time to drive it since. However I need to call the dealers again because...
.
The boot/spoiler now looks "set in" compared to the roofline, it drops almost a cm down, although it's much tighter (water tight even) then before.

The steering is still creaking.

The boot keeps randomly popping open when I get in the car! That, in particular, has driven me nuts, even though I've only made a few short journeys! Not funny when you've got in and out of the car five or six times. You also feel like an idiot jumping in and out of the car to shut the boot.

:(