[daro911]

RELIABLE FAULT FREE MINI's with some mileage
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Has anyone out there in the great beyond got a MINI that has been perfectly reliable from day one. I don't mean you guys who have just collected your cars but I mean owners with say at least 6 months and 6000 trouble free miles behind them.....

As a guideline to what I mean take the following examples of our current fleet we are running....

Very early Yaris SRi now nearly 3 years old and 20,000 trouble free miles done & dusted No Warranty Claims. Toyota Corolla latest model again very early production car used by a rep with 15000 totally trouble free miles behind her No Warranty Claims. New shape Jeep Cherokee nearly 8 months old and one of the first UK cars to be delivered has now completed 6000 100% trouble free miles No Warranty Claims.

Even a very early Chrysler PT Cruiser has proven to be an extremely reliable niche car with 30,000 miles and one warranty claim to date that being a New Clutch.

None of the above vehicles, naughty PT Cruiser included, are suffering from any squeaks, rattles or trim related problems what so ever!

So it would appear that BMW-MINI have cornered the market with those particular features which I even understand have been eradicated from the latest Lotus Elise's

These are just 4 examples of what I would like to know can any current MINI owner match? And I through in the Chrysler PT Cruiser to give any high mileage one fault only MINI owners a fighting chance.

I am beginning to wonder if BMW have decided a niche car like a MINI can sell even if it is going to fall apart from day one!

So come on all you MINI owners who have 100% fault free cars lets here from ya

[zoooooom]

My car had some Minor faults and they are all fixed.
I have now done 13000miles and the car is just fantastic
no complaints here

[cmt]

I just sold my MINI which was fantastic. only 'fault' was the left pull which was fixed a couple of weeks ago. The MINI had 6500 miles on it.

[Peter S]

Our Cooper is now 2 months old and has done around 3,000 miles. No faults ...however it is coming back from the garage today after having been there for repairs following an incident involving a fox (and around £1,000 of damage to the car Can't really blame the car for that though, and the fox did come off worse.

Also, for reference, our previous second car was a Saxo, which managed 3 years/50,000 miles with no faults/rattles. Quality of materials was dire though. My previous company car (A4 Avant) also did 80,000 miles in 2 years with no faults or rattles. The BMW 318 that replaced it for a while (whilst waiting for another Audi) rattled constantly however, despite having done fewer miles (60,000/2 years). It also had dodgy electrics and a duff clutch, though that may have been down to its driver

IMO (and experience) BMW interiors are not that solid, despite reasonable quality materials, so I await the next few thousand miles on the MINI with interest...

[Neil Curtis]

My MINI ONE was registered in september 2001 and has done just over 9000 miles. We have not had a single problem with the car at all from day one. It will be going in for it's first service next week but that will be the first time it has been to the dealer (other than when I tested the S) since i bought it.

Very impressed, but I feel sorry for all of you who have experienced problems.

BTW, it does have a very slight left pull but nothing more than any other car I have or have had in the past. I must have been a lucky one.

[Jumpy]

I had a Yaris SRi as well; marvellous car and I did about 48000 miles in it in three years. During that time I had no trouble whatsoever (apart from a self induced one) and enjoyed every minute of it. The problem was, that I didn't realise at the time how lucky I was. I began to accept the reliability and service I got from Toyota as the norm and assumed all modern cars would be the same. How wrong could I be!

My MINI, March 02 build, was in and out of the dealer more times than a fiddlers elbow in the first couple of months. And it's still got a faulty outside temperature display that needs fixing. God! I had a Metro, an 'M' reg Metro, which was more reliable! The MINI is the most unreliable car I have ever owned, at least with the old mini, sorry, the classic mini, you could fix it with a can of WD40.

Well what can I say; I've had to re-educate myself over the last few months that not all cars are as reliable as the Toyota. Now I've come to terms with the fact that the MINI isn't reliable, at least I can live with it and of course I still think it's the funkiest car ever.

Final word? Don't buy a Toyota, you will be spoilt rotten!

[Peter S]

I'd have to disagree slightly on the comments re Toyota. I'm using a Toyota Altezza (Lexus IS200 in Europe) out here in Japan. It's 5 months old and has done almost 6,000 kms. Whils it is great fun to drive (front engine, rear wheel drive, straight six engine) the quality of the materials used for the interior is nowhere near that used by Audi, BMW, MINI etc. Some of them would look out of place in a Saxo... In addition, it rattles. The interior of the MINI is a far better place to be, and, based on my limited experience of MINI and Toyota, better built.

Reliabilty? Well, apart from a reluctance to start when its hot (bit of a problem in a country where temperatures reach well over 30 degrees in the summer) nothing has dropped off yet... This is the first Japanese car I've driven/'owned', and I can't see what all the fuss is about. It seems distinctly average to me. No way is this car a competitor for a BMW/Audi/Merc. It'd struggle against a Mundano (sorry, Mondeo) Cheap though...

Long term reliabilty is a different issue though - I think the record of most Japanese manufacturers shames that of the Germans

[Neil Curtis]

Quote:

[i]

Long term reliabilty is a different issue though - I think the record of most Japanese manufacturers shames that of the Germans [/b]

I agree, you only have to look at the JDPower surveys for the last few years, they are always in the top five. Germans build them very well but the Japanese build them to last.