Mini One Convertible issues... Where do we stand?

[Lagerstar]

Hi everyone, not sure if anyone can be of any help, buy here goes... any advice welcome!

On 8th August this year my girlfriend and I purchased a black 05 plate Mini One Convertible with chrome pack, pepper pack, and 5 spoke Cooper S alloys for £8995. Within 3 weekd I reported the following issues to the garage, took the car in and waited for an update.

issues;
clutch judder (issue there from day 1 but got progressively worse)
gearbox whining
fuel flap locking mechanism broken (from day 1)
front wheel alignment slightly out
2 tyres keep deflating (sealing issue)
exhaust noisy (pointed out at point of sale, dismissed but getting worse)
1 of key fobs not working.

After nearly a week, the garage offered us a full refund, despite there being a 3 monyh warranty, saying it was an uneconomical repair for the garage, buy admitting issues with clutch and gearbox. we asked to think about it, as we bought the car because we really wanted it, and wanted to seek advice in regards to the warranty...

[Lagerstar]

The next day, my girlfriends dad spoke to the garage owner and they withdrew the offer of the refund and offered everthing to be fixed except the gearbox replacement, and to give us an unspecified amount of money to towards it.
I then rang the gaage the next day to query this further, to which i was told thr gearbox has to come out anyway to do the clutch, so i may as well get it all done myself, and the garage would give me £1000 to go towards the work. by the way, this is a non mini dealer. we rang mini and were quoted £1040 to do clutch, tyres and fuel flap. i rang garage asking for more money, and enough to pay for at least 1 year mini warranty. they refused and took offer off table.

as it stands we have no offer on the table, they have the car and we have a rubbish y reg micra for a courtesy car. trading standards are now involved but the garage are now trying to charge us daily for the mini being on their property. can they do that? also where should we stand on repair? thanks

[Lagerstar]

...

[Lagerstar]

All sorted now, garage has given us a full refund and taken the car back.

cheers

Ian

[rellik666]

Blimey.....good luck with the MINI search.....

[Co-pilot]

buy from dealer! get extended warranty!

[John_D]

Quote:

buy from dealer! get extended warranty!

I entirely agree. I got the extended Mini Warranty for £300 with £300 excess, as my 06 MINI 'vert has done 65k miles. But you will need to get a car which already has a Mini Warranty as you cannot get such if the car has had a break in the warranty. (I didn't put that very well did I? Anyway the Mini Warranty has to be continuous. but it certainly give peace of mind.