first week in mini one, usual faults

[nanker]

Picked up my MINI one last week and have put nearly 1200 miles on already, great fun car but a couple of familier problems have reared their ugly heads. Firstly, the car does pull to the left and steering wheel not quite centered.Not a severe pull, but noticable.Service dept. say they are aware of problem but have not seen it on any cars they have sold. New front suspension springs is the current "fix" from B.M.W. My passenger seat has also locked solid. The salesman was at pains to show me how to operate correctly,when i picked it up,as he said another customer had jammed hers up by not doing so. It jammed the first time it was used, although my passenger insists they did as marked (clearly) on lever. i managed to free it ok then tried a few times myself with no problems. Next time someone tries it - jammed solid! Again they insist it was as instructed. This seems a serious design fault as it is either plain faulty or there is just no tolerence at all on the mechanism for mistakes, and you can't train everyone who may get into your car how to do it absolutely correctly all the time! Couple of scratches/ chips on interior too.

[An_S_4_Me]

My work colleague picked his cooper up a couple of months ago, it pulled to the left, the steering wheel was scratched and there was a chip in the door, he took it into the dealer, they replaced the steering wheel, did the suspension fix and resprayed the door for him, so you aren't alone with these problems, but I would get it sorted before they can say that you did the scratches and chips!

Andy

[nanker]

Yup, goes in next week for 2 days. i shall get them to demonstrate the mechanism say 10 times on both seats to see if it is likely to lock up again.