[wlee013]

My friends 2 month old Mini with CVT was having stalling problems. After software upgrades the technicians were stumped and indicated that there is currently no fix for the problem. Well.. finally after a lot of frustration Mini USA did the right thing and purchased back the car. In addition to refunding her lease payments. The technician admitted that this was becoming a common problem and frustrating, and they did not expect a fix for another month. She is now going with her second choice a Toyota Corolla.

[sjbartnik]

Probably for the best all around. IMHO, anyone that would consider a Corolla an alternative to the MINI is probably not into the MINI for the "right" reasons if you know what I mean.

Now if you said she got out of the MINI and into an SVT Focus or something I'd have a different opinion

Too bad though -- I wish MINI would get the stalling/stumble fixes out already, though I'd rather they take their time and make it right over rushing out a half-assed solution.

[Zulu]

sjbartnik,

It was a CVT.

Does this mean they'll buy back all the Cooper Ss with similar problems?

I'll bet the only reason it was "bought" back by Mini is she refused to make any more lease payments - and rightly so.

I'll also put money on it that a Corolla could beat my Cooper S off the mark the way it hiccups.

[CooperS4us]

Quote: Originally Posted by sjbartnik

Probably for the best all around. IMHO, anyone that would consider a Corolla an alternative to the MINI is probably not into the MINI for the "right" reasons if you know what I mean.

Now if you said she got out of the MINI and into an SVT Focus or something I'd have a different opinion

Too bad though -- I wish MINI would get the stalling/stumble fixes out already, though I'd rather they take their time and make it right over rushing out a half-assed solution.

I agree 100%. Too bad her dealer got stuck in the "Software update" conundrum. What about replacing her engine wiring harness and the throttle body control module? Hello McFly???

Anyway, I guess her moving over to a (Gasp!) Toyota Corolla was her real intention all along. She and her dealer both gave up on the car too quickly.


I am rolling into 14K miles with my '02 Cooper CVT and still feels and drives like the finest Swiss watch machinery...no problems at all. Software update 33.2 really did solve 98% of the well known CVT issues.

[CooperS4us]

Quote: Originally Posted by Zulu

sjbartnik,

It was a CVT.

Does this mean they'll buy back all the Cooper Ss with similar problems?

I'll bet the only reason it was "bought" back by Mini is she refused to make any more lease payments - and rightly so.

I'll also put money on it that a Corolla could beat my Cooper S off the mark the way it hiccups.

Go over www.edmunds.com and look up the Toyota Corolla forums. These people are also having stalling and other quality control issues of their own. Remember that the Corolla/Vibe are being manufactured in a GM/Toyota joint venture plant (NUMMI) in Fremmont, California.


Well, if she stops sending her lease payments because of "problems" she is still breaching the terms of her leasing contract agreement. The bank will repo her car and badly damage her credit record in the process. Sounds like a win/lose situation to me. The bank doesn't care whether the car is reliable or not. They only care to get their money , what you agreed to pay back to them.

I am not defending MINIUSA or her dealer for the problems with the car, but I think that MINI seems more willing to do the "right thing" than any other automaker outthere. have you tried to get Ford, toyota, Nissan, etc to buy back a defective car from you without going thru lemon Law and hiring a lawyer???

[Technomage]

MINI USA bought back my CVT as well (lemon), if you look thru the forums you can see the hell I went thru, I loved the car but 43 days of service over 7 months is way to much.

So what did I do? I turned around and bought an MCS.

Still a MINI owner, and proud of it.

[MGB Boy]

Quote: Originally Posted by sjbartnik

Probably for the best all around. IMHO, anyone that would consider a Corolla an alternative to the MINI is probably not into the MINI for the "right" reasons if you know what I mean.

Now if you said she got out of the MINI and into an SVT Focus or something I'd have a different opinion

Sorry, but I have to comment on this one. No, I don't know what you mean. What are the "right" reasons for buying a MINI? Or more specifically, what are the "right" reasons for buying a CVT Cooper?

A person who buys a 115hp CVT Cooper is probably not going to have a 170hp 6 speed manual (i.e. the SVT Focus) as their second choice. Anyone looking for what the SVT offers wouldn't be looking at a CVT Cooper. The SVT Focus offers 0-60 times in the 7s vs 0-60 times over 10 seconds in the CVT Cooper, it offers a stick instead of a "slushbox", it offers harder suspension, it offers 17" rims and other such equipment as standard. If you want to compare the SVT to a MINI, compare it to a Cooper S, that's the sort of car it's meant to compete with, not a CVT.

Sorry if it seems like I'm blowing up a trivial thing, but I just got back from a long weekend and I'm cranky about being back at work. Plus I just get tired of the implication that whatever car someone buys instead of a MINI indicates that they were only interested in the MINI for image reasons or that they weren't real motoring enthusiasts if they "settled" for a Civic, Focus, Corolla, or whatever else. It's a sentiment I've seen many many times here and elsewhere, the whole "if you'd consider a Civic, you should get it, because the sort of person who could consider a Civic shouldn't get a MINI" line. Not everyone who buys a MINI is thinking "hmmm, it'll either be the MINI, the WRX, or the EVO". Not everyone who buys a MINI is concerned about how it corners near the limit. A good many people who buy MINIs (especially the "lower" models) are buying it not because they are an enthusiast who buys into the whole "motorer" ethos, but because they need decent transportation and the MINI fit their budget and needs, just as a Civic, Corolla, Impreza, Focus, etc. might. Those reasons are as "right" as any other. Just my two cents.

-Ricardo (who owns a Works S and wouldn't consider a Civic, Corolla, or Focus, even if it were the SVT...)

P.S. Technomage: Good on you for stepping up to the perfomance of the S. When does the Works kit go in

[Technomage]

Quote:

P.S. Technomage: Good on you for stepping up to the perfomance of the S. When does the Works kit go in

When I have the $5000 for it....

[CooperS4us]

Quote: Originally Posted by MGB Boy

. The SVT Focus offers 0-60 times in the 7s vs 0-60 times over 10 seconds in the CVT Cooper, it offers a stick instead of a "slushbox",

Ahem, sorry but the CVT is not a "Slushbox" I am afraid you have never driven a Cooper CVT to fully understand what the CVT technology is all about. Do you understand what and how a CVT Transmission works? Have you driven it at all?

[MGB Boy]

Quote: Originally Posted by CooperS4us

Ahem, sorry but the CVT is not a "Slushbox" I am afraid you have never driven a Cooper CVT to fully understand what the CVT technology is all about. Do you understand what and how a CVT Transmission works? Have you driven it at all?

(insert muffled sigh/groan here) Yeah yeah yeah, I know it's not truly a slushbox, I know the technical differences between a CVT and a traditional auto (and I also knew it when I posted it, and I suspected that someone would be unable to let that pass unnoted. I thought about posting a footnote saying "yeah yeah yeah, I know, it's not technically a slushbox", but sometimes I ignore the voices in my head so I didn't).

Don't bother with the "do you understand" business, yes I do, and yes I have driven one. I also know that the term "slushbox" is frequently used in the automotive press in a pejorative manner to refer to all automatics, even if they aren't technically a conventional slushbox, the reason being that two things that both CVT transmissions and conventional automatics have in common is that you don't have to know how to drive stick to use one and they both tend to be markedly slower in acceleration vs an identical car equipped with a manual tranny (the posted 0-62 time of the CVT Cooper is 10.4 seconds, the 0-60 time of a 5-speed Cooper is 8.5 seconds). While the technical differences between a conventional auto and a CVT may be interesting, the net results are the same. I also happen to be fond of the term "slushbox" because it doesn't just describe the transmission, but also because (in my humble opinion) it describes the way such a car accelerates (unless you can afford a Bentley or the like. I can't). So I call automatics slushboxes. Sue me. All of this carries me farther adrift from my trivial original point that an 115hp automatic, be it a CVT or a conventional auto, isn't in the same category as a 170hp 6-speed stick...

-Ricardo (who learned to drive on a stick and still stomps the floor looking for the clutch when he drives an automatic rental car)

[royboy]

I drive a CVT and have really grown to like it. I know it's got a tiny motor and you have to spin it up quite a bit but it works fine for me.
Unlike Ricardo we don't all live in Vermont. Try pushing that clutch all day long in city traffic, it sucks. I've had a lot of sticks and will keep the CVT. Unless of course I move to the sticks, I mean Vermont.

[nwmini]

mgb boy re post #7 - I cross-shopped the MCS with the WRX. No comparison. If I had faults and had my MCS bought back I would either do a JCW replacement or a 330. When I get into my slushbox Forester after a week in the MCS the first thing I do is drive my left foot into the dead pedal, looking for the clutch.

I'll push that clutch all day long in traffic. And yeah VT is the sticks - but if you live in the center of the universe, I mean NY, ANYHTING north of the Bronx, west of the Hudson, or east of Queens is the sticks.