thumper34
Feb 25th, 2010, 07:07 PM
I just bought my used 2003 Mini Cooper 13 months ago. I had it serviced at the local BMW dealership for oil changes and regular wear and tear. I took very good care of this car as I felt it was an extension of my personality and was my dream car.
Feb 18th, 2010
I was driving my normal route to work and stopped at red light. When the light turned green I pressed on the gas to get going and terrified of the noise it made. The engine revved to the red-line and jerked HARD. After the jerk I could feel the transmission grinding and could hear it. I drove another minute to my work's parking lot where I got out and inspected the car. These was no visible signs anything was wrong but I could smell warm coolant. There was no warning, no lights, no vibrations in the wheel or pedals and it seemed to be shifting fine before that.
I immediately called the BMW dealership I usually had it serviced at and took it up there. Within a couple hours they told me it was low on fluid and was leaking around the transmission. They said it would need to be flat-bedded to the nearest Mini dealership due to the fact that everything on Mini's require "special tools".
I had it flat-bedded to the Towne Mini dealership in Buffalo, NY on Saturday Feb 20th, 2010. I walked into the service center and told the service rep that I was there to drop off my 2003 Mini Cooper for its appointment. He asked me what was wrong and I said "there is a problem with my automatic CVT transmission". As soon as I said that the rep jumped into a rant about how I shouldn't read online forums because they only replace 2 automatic transmissions a year at Towne Mini.
They told me a technician would "take a ride with me" which I responded that it wasn't a good idea but they were the technicians so of course we ended up going. We got in the car and it started up fine like it had a thousand times before but you could hear and feel the transmission under your feet stressing and eating away at itself. The technician popped it into drive slowly and lightly pressed on the gas. The car immediately red-lined and jerked forward into gear. We made it maybe 100 feet to the parking lot's stop sign. When we went to pull out onto the main driveway the car jerked again but this time there was nothing on the other end. The car simply revved and would not go into gear. We coasted for a second and then the technician applied the brakes. The technician giggled and said "well... its the tranny". Which we already knew was the problem. So the tech put my car in reverse and backed all the way to the spot I had initially had the car. I got out and was told they would call me Monday with a status report on what exactly was broken.
Sunday Feb 22nd, 2010
With the dealership closed, I decided to research the Automatic CVT transmissions myself and found a staggering number of posts related to the faulty transmission. There was even posts from Mini owners that hadn't even gone over 35,000 miles on their new car because the transmission needed to be totally replaced. I also found that Mini knows about this problem so the automatic CVT transmission is no longer available with the new Mini Coopers and Mini currently has a lawsuit against the transmission in Canada. I researched for over 5 hours and printed out over a hundred pages of research on the faulty transmission.
Monday Feb 22nd, 2010
I called the dealership around noon to be told that my Mini was in need of a new transmission. I asked how much the transmission would cost and the service rep told me "usually around $6800 for just the transmission". I immediately felt my heart drop. I had nowhere near that amount of money. The Service Rep said he would give me a call back around 5 to tell me actual prices so I patiently waited.
Around 5pm I received a call to tell me that the transmission was going to be $6,825 and with installation it was going to be $9,380. Knowing that Mini has had troubles with the transmissions I asked Towne Mini for the Mini-USA number and gave them a call. After telling the customer service representative about everything she told me that she would try to get "Mini Goodwill" to pay for the repairs. She said it would take 3-5 days to figure out whether or not it would be covered.
Thursday February 25th, 2010
After a couple calls and a trip up to get my owners manual out of my Mini Cooper. Mini USA decided it would not uphold its obligation to its customers and offered me no support. Which leaves me to pay almost $10,000 dollars for a transmission that is faulty. I'm at the point where I do not want them to replace the transmission. I want a full refund for what I paid on the car from Mini.
I will contact my lawyer today to get the paper work going on the lawsuit but does anyone know of any research that might help me further my case?
Feb 18th, 2010
I was driving my normal route to work and stopped at red light. When the light turned green I pressed on the gas to get going and terrified of the noise it made. The engine revved to the red-line and jerked HARD. After the jerk I could feel the transmission grinding and could hear it. I drove another minute to my work's parking lot where I got out and inspected the car. These was no visible signs anything was wrong but I could smell warm coolant. There was no warning, no lights, no vibrations in the wheel or pedals and it seemed to be shifting fine before that.
I immediately called the BMW dealership I usually had it serviced at and took it up there. Within a couple hours they told me it was low on fluid and was leaking around the transmission. They said it would need to be flat-bedded to the nearest Mini dealership due to the fact that everything on Mini's require "special tools".
I had it flat-bedded to the Towne Mini dealership in Buffalo, NY on Saturday Feb 20th, 2010. I walked into the service center and told the service rep that I was there to drop off my 2003 Mini Cooper for its appointment. He asked me what was wrong and I said "there is a problem with my automatic CVT transmission". As soon as I said that the rep jumped into a rant about how I shouldn't read online forums because they only replace 2 automatic transmissions a year at Towne Mini.
They told me a technician would "take a ride with me" which I responded that it wasn't a good idea but they were the technicians so of course we ended up going. We got in the car and it started up fine like it had a thousand times before but you could hear and feel the transmission under your feet stressing and eating away at itself. The technician popped it into drive slowly and lightly pressed on the gas. The car immediately red-lined and jerked forward into gear. We made it maybe 100 feet to the parking lot's stop sign. When we went to pull out onto the main driveway the car jerked again but this time there was nothing on the other end. The car simply revved and would not go into gear. We coasted for a second and then the technician applied the brakes. The technician giggled and said "well... its the tranny". Which we already knew was the problem. So the tech put my car in reverse and backed all the way to the spot I had initially had the car. I got out and was told they would call me Monday with a status report on what exactly was broken.
Sunday Feb 22nd, 2010
With the dealership closed, I decided to research the Automatic CVT transmissions myself and found a staggering number of posts related to the faulty transmission. There was even posts from Mini owners that hadn't even gone over 35,000 miles on their new car because the transmission needed to be totally replaced. I also found that Mini knows about this problem so the automatic CVT transmission is no longer available with the new Mini Coopers and Mini currently has a lawsuit against the transmission in Canada. I researched for over 5 hours and printed out over a hundred pages of research on the faulty transmission.
Monday Feb 22nd, 2010
I called the dealership around noon to be told that my Mini was in need of a new transmission. I asked how much the transmission would cost and the service rep told me "usually around $6800 for just the transmission". I immediately felt my heart drop. I had nowhere near that amount of money. The Service Rep said he would give me a call back around 5 to tell me actual prices so I patiently waited.
Around 5pm I received a call to tell me that the transmission was going to be $6,825 and with installation it was going to be $9,380. Knowing that Mini has had troubles with the transmissions I asked Towne Mini for the Mini-USA number and gave them a call. After telling the customer service representative about everything she told me that she would try to get "Mini Goodwill" to pay for the repairs. She said it would take 3-5 days to figure out whether or not it would be covered.
Thursday February 25th, 2010
After a couple calls and a trip up to get my owners manual out of my Mini Cooper. Mini USA decided it would not uphold its obligation to its customers and offered me no support. Which leaves me to pay almost $10,000 dollars for a transmission that is faulty. I'm at the point where I do not want them to replace the transmission. I want a full refund for what I paid on the car from Mini.
I will contact my lawyer today to get the paper work going on the lawsuit but does anyone know of any research that might help me further my case?