[petal]

I have had my mini cooper 4 months now, and to tell you the truth I am sick of the sight of it. It has been to the gagrge 7 times, adn mini rescue have been to it 3 times!

My problems started after the first fuel tank recall in october since then I have developed a first name relationship with all the service staff at the local BMW gargage!

A quick resume of my problems:
Fuel gauge not accurate: 2 attempts at fixing - still not right
Flat Battery: 2 attempts at fixing - I hold my breath!
Seat back very stiff: 2 attempts at fixing - still very stiff despite have new seat frames
Clips on fuel pipes replaced
Immobiliser Replaced
Central Locking opening itself - locks, door clips, and drive away locking all replaced
Passenger door not unlocking - awaiting repair
Drivers window not retacting properly when door opened - awaiting repair
Interior light not working - awaiting repair

I am the only one who thinks you should be able to expect a little more from a brand new car!

 

[kevgann]

Fed Up

Hi my wifes Mini 1 ( high spec) has just gone into dealers for 4th time as i speak .It failed to start over christmas(flat battery) and now the wipers do not turn off front and rear.I am just writing to BMW to complain and ask about the procedure for rejecting what is very poor product.
We love the car but after so many faults we are sick to death of it .
Faulty Keys,Fuel Gauge, Trip comp doesnt work, tank only takes 8 gallons,Faulty CD,Boot wouldnt close and finally the car pulls badly to the left

If only it had the build quality of my VW !!!!!!!!!

 

[mr.bill]

BMW screwed up, IMHO. If they want to fix the problems once and for all and make the MINI the reliable, fun to drive car it was intended to be, they should scrap that fatally flawed ECU system and go back to conventional electrical wiring. Trying to control every aspect of the car from a central computer is just asking for trouble. It is used on many BMW models too, and they have similar problems. But the MINI is more of a "driver's car" and will be driven harder than your average BMW, which is a yuppie status symbol. Will they change MINI? Probably not.

For years and years, Ford made trucks with a "twin I-beam" front suspension. It would tear up a set of tires in no time. A friend has one, had to rotate his tires every 1,000 miles and only gets 6,000-10,000 miles on a set. It was a nightmare to keep aligned. Hit a pothole and it would be out of whack, then to fix it, you had to heat the I-beams and bend them. Ford had complaints for years, but they stubbornly kept on building them that way until a few years ago, when they switched to a conventional front suspension.

 

[IndieBlueOne]

I am the only one who thinks you should be able to expect a little more from a brand new car!

Hi petal, and sorry to hear about your catalogue of problems. But you're not the only one to think you should be able to expect more from a brand new car, even if it may seem that way. The problem is, in this less than perfect world, it is both widely known and generally accepted that brand new cars (ie cars only just released) will often have teething problems and often be subject to recalls. That's just the way it is. It seems you got your MINI pretty early on, and so problems were perhaps predictable, if not excusable.

Sympathies also to kevgann. BMW should never have allowed things to get to the stage where you want to reject the car, and much of the problem seems to be dealer attitude and competence (or lack of). The faults listed by you and petal are generally well covered elsewhere in this forum, and there are supposedly recognised fixes re the fuel guage, fuel tank, CD radio / flat battery etc and a half-fix for the left pull. (And the interior light not working is, I think, something that might be easily fixed yourself - there have been tips elsewhere on this forum.)

The central locking gremlins seem to be the most worrying problem at the moment. I have heard of Audi TTs suffering similar antics. No excuse, though, and I really hope BMW sort it as my MINI One is going to be living on a central London street. It's worrying, but I will not subscribe to the

If only it had the build quality of my VW !!!!!!!!!

philosophy as it's just not realistic. You'll find plenty of dissatisfied VW owners out there. (If you can find a website like this for Bora owners...)

 

[R1]

Yeah. I'm fed up!

Fed up of cleaning encrusted salt off my MINI (bloody winter)

Fed up of it being to slippery and cold to give my Yamaha R1 motorbike a good thrashing (bloody winter)

Fed up of turkey!!

Fed up of feeling bloated!

Fed up of ....... oh!... sorry!... I seem to be missing the point of the posting.

Roll on summer

 

[Washy]

It is sad to note the number of people who are at the end of their teather with their MINIS and are faced with rejecting their cars. It is very disappointing that such a great little car seems to be compromised in this way. I hope that evryone gets sorted to thier satisfaction.

R1
I too would like to take my R6 out of the garage and it give it a good pasting, but all that salt and gunge.

Mr Bill
I have a 3 series BMW it has no problems with the ecu and I can assure you it is no poser mobile, 200bhp beutifully balanced and a pleasure to drive. In fact I am probably going to cancel my cooper S to buy an M3 (343bhp poser machine, 0-60 under 5 seconds...)!!!!

Neil

 

[mr.bill]

What did you pay for your Bimmer? Nearly twice what a MINI costs, I'll bet. If you pay a lot for something, you should expect it to be perfect. The MINI is a lot less expensive than a BMW and they had to cut costs somewhere. You get what you pay for. If the electrical system is "identical" on the MINI, then you should expect it to be perfect too. But it's not. It may be "similar," but apparently it is not "identical."

 

[Basil]

Yeah. I'm fed up!

Fed up of cleaning encrusted salt off my MINI (bloody winter)

Fed up of it being to slippery and cold to give my Yamaha R1 motorbike a good thrashing (bloody winter)

Fed up of turkey!!

Fed up of feeling bloated!

Fed up of ....... oh!... sorry!... I seem to be missing the point of the posting.

Roll on summer

I don't think you missed the point at all R1......

Oh, yea.

Dear Mr BMW.

Please do something public, and do something soon, because I'm sure i'm not alone in re-considering purchasing one of your gorgeous little cars. Also, all those owners that currently have one of your (suspect) MINI's will NEVER EVER buy another one, unless you start admitting publicaly that there is a problem. Perhaps I might suggest you sack your public relations people and swap them with your advertising people. I'm sure they could handle the matter much better.
I owned a re-badged Vauxhall/Opel Astra a little while ago, and it was a COMPLETE Lemon. After that epsiode i will NEVER EVER buy another HOLDEN/Vauxhall/Opel EVER Again. I have no intention of going down the same road with the MINI.

Thank you for your time

Sincerley

Andrew Fairweather (Basil)

 

[Washy]

Mr Bill
I think this is the root of a lot of the problems with the MINI. Originally BMW were planning a price point of around £15k upwards but they realised that no one would pay that sort of money for a small car and quite late on re-engineered parts of the car to cut costs, this is particuarily true of the interior which apparently had trim levels reduced (could explain the crappy seats!)to hit a lower price point.

 

[Marsh]

Hi,

I have wanted to own a MINI since its inception. In fact I have never desired a vehicle so much.Our dealers at Marble Arch, London have been efficient and very helpful. However we are almost certainly not going to order the vehicle now. Why?

1. Firstly the seats. I recently did a 90 mile test drive in a Cooper fitted with leather sports seats and coincidentally did the same journey in a rental Nissan Micra. The Micra is a horrible, blobby vehicle. However the seats are reasonably comfortable. I got out of the MINI with my back muscles screaming,feeling like Quasimoda. I might look like the hunchback of Notradame, but I can do without the backache the MINI seats and their crappy lumbar support leave you. We have leather sports seats in our Peugeot 306 which have done 46,000 miles. They are wonderfully supportive and they look like new. The saggy efforts on the MINI look awful after a few hundred miles.

2. Pulling to the left. Completely unacceptable, as is BMW's silence on the matter.

3. The haunted car electronics. Its hard enough, where we live, keeping people from nicking the car and its contents. I would rather not have a vehicle that makes it easier for the toe-rags, by opening its doors and windows at random.

4.The electronic management system appears to be flawed, battery drain etc.

I know that new cars tend to have faults. What I can't live with is the continuing silence by BMW, and their failure to be open about any glitches and to deal with them effectively.

In three months time, unless BMW get their act together and deal with the above problem, we will be choosing either a Pug 206, an Audi A3 or heaven help me, a Merc A class.

I am so disappointed I could scream.

Cheers
Marsh

 

[Basil]

Hi,

I have wanted to own a MINI since its inception. In fact I have never desired a vehicle so much.Our dealers at Marble Arch, London have been efficient and very helpful. However we are almost certainly not going to order the vehicle now. Why?

1. Firstly the seats. I recently did a 90 mile test drive in a Cooper fitted with leather sports seats and coincidentally did the same journey in a rental Nissan Micra. The Micra is a horrible, blobby vehicle. However the seats are reasonably comfortable. I got out of the MINI with my back muscles screaming,feeling like Quasimoda. I might look like the hunchback of Notradame, but I can do without the backache the MINI seats and their crappy lumbar support leave you. We have leather sports seats in our Peugeot 306 which have done 46,000 miles. They are wonderfully supportive and they look like new. The saggy efforts on the MINI look awful after a few hundred miles.

2. Pulling to the left. Completely unacceptable, as is BMW's silence on the matter.

3. The haunted car electronics. Its hard enough, where we live, keeping people from nicking the car and its contents. I would rather not have a vehicle that makes it easier for the toe-rags, by opening its doors and windows at random.

4.The electronic management system appears to be flawed, battery drain etc.

I know that new cars tend to have faults. What I can't live with is the continuing silence by BMW, and their failure to be open about any glitches and to deal with them effectively.

In three months time, unless BMW get their act together and deal with the above problem, we will be choosing either a Pug 206, an Audi A3 or heaven help me, a Merc A class.

I am so disappointed I could scream.

Cheers
Marsh

You put it so much more elequently than I ever could. You are not alone in that summation.

your statement should be framed and sent direct to BMW AG.