Cars.com has posted an interview with MINIUSA general manager Jack Pitney where he tackles the recent J.D. Power poll which the MINI didn't fare so well in:

Question: Why did Mini score 166 problems per 100 vehicles in the J.D. Power and Associates' initial quality study (IQS)? The industry average was 133.

Answer: Yes, we have had some quality issues with the first cars coming into the country, but the majority of the issues are actually what we consider concept and design issues, which means it has nothing to do with the way in which the factory built the cars.

I'll give you an example: Our No. 1 complaint in the survey was cupholders. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the cupholders, it's just actually the placement of the cupholders is such that you can't get a tall cup, a latte from Starbucks, in the cupholder. We sent every Mini customer, a month after they buy the car, a letter from me and they get this mug and it says, 'We screwed up.' We know you guys don't like our cupholders and this mug was custom-made for our cupholders and hopefully you can enjoy that latte.

The quality issue in the IQS report said we had a harsh ride. You know, we do. Beginning this month we changed the oil in the shock absorbers which has a dramatic effect on the compliance of the suspension system. We're real serious about quality and we're keeping an eye on it.

Mr. Ptiney goes on to talk about the servicing concerns that is the result of dealers being spread out sparsely across the nation:

Q: With only about 70 dealers, how do you handle sales and servicing?

A: It's not an easy thing right now. We're flatbedding cars to the nearest dealers, that's really expensive. Thankfully we don't have a lot of cars that we're flatbedding. This is something we're cognizant of and we need to address.