Hello, I was wondering if anyone who is familiar with the workings of the R52 and R57 tops had any opinion on whether the cable breaking problem has been addressed?

I saw talk on another thread about the R57 top being produced by a different company, but it sounds like the basic design is the same with the "sunroof" feature (that I doubt I will ever use) and all. I am no stranger to minis (I have an '02 R53 and my wife has an '08 R55) but have no experience with the convertibles.

I was looking at used R52s but was staggered to see the both the number of threads reporting this issue and the ludicrous repair costs.

I also have an '00 BMW MZ3 and the top has never given me one bit of trouble. Sounds like they took something simple and made it way too complicated (and expensive).

I doubt if we will know yet. Typically they seem to go after 4 and a half years for some reason. It did on ours. That hasn't put us off ordering a new one though. BMW have always played fair with repair costs even out of warranty, so I am reassured by that.