MINI Tops Segment in Owner Satisfaction

MINI Tops Segment in NEW Owner Satisfaction.

Talk to them 20k miles later and things may look a little different…

On my second MINI, 2003 MCS, with just over 49K miles and love it! Happily motoring since August, 2002.

I’ve got a combined 50k on two Mini’s and have been reasonably happy with reliability. I’m not saying that MINI quality is below average, just that it’s not superior. In other words, MINI is not going to top a list of used car “Best Bets.”

Let’s see…I’ve had a loose seat for 13 months, a bad power steering problem that receives the response ‘they all do that’ (bad shrieking noise and dropouts in assist), a bad undercar rattle that only happens at 3000rpm that they can’t fix, a door that makes tons of noise (constantly) and a bunch of other things. The car has been in 14 times for unscheduled service, it takes 3 or 4 times to get things fixed (when they are) and I don’t have enough space here to list all the things that have been problems. I LOVE this car, but am so fed up with the niggling problems and the terrible service (not to mention inconvenience) that I am going to be forced to loose money and dump it before the short warranty is done.

The car is so much fun…I love carving corners in it. That is, until the damned seat moves in mid corner and throws you off rythym.

I love it so much, but I’m done with it. For $28k, I expected quality similar (not on par with, mind you) to my last Audi A4, which cost around the same. Instead, it has worse quality than my friend’s Hyundai (no unscheduled service in the 94k miles he’s had it…and it’s STILL under warranty).

Disappointing. VERY disappointing.

Osmodious – you may want to find yourself another dealer if they can’t fix those issues.

I second Gabe.

I have an ’05 CR/B MCS with 35,000 miles and 35,000 smiles. The couple little problems I have had were handled by Motor City Mini (Go figger)with no hassle or delays. Would I buy another??? You betcha!! In fact I’m considering buying another, an ’06, just to get a late run before the design change in ’07. Would not consider buying any other vehicle for my personal ride.

My 05 MCS to date has been flawless. I have put 2,500 km on it in the 2 months I’ve owned the vehicle. Build quality is pretty solid and everything works. Speaking with other owners it would seem earlier models are prone to build quality issues. I’d really like to upgrade to a MCS JCW, but for now this is more fun than a cart load of monkeys.

I was very happy with my ’03 MCS. I had a few minor issues taken care of immediately and without any hassles at my local MINI dealer. I happily parted with it after 10K miles in 2 years (new car smell still prevalent in the car). Now I’m looking forward to getting my MCSc in early 2006.

Hi. I’ve had two MINIs. The 02 MCS I had for two years and 50k was a nightmare in mechanism and service. I couldn’t get a decent trade-in on it at any dealer but a MINI one, and i couldn’t sell the POS to another human being and still sleep at night. Keeping it past warranty was a financial death sentence -exhorbitant bills for work never done right the first or second time in addition to the same payments i’d been faced with prevously.

so i thought of all my luckier friends, who, like those above, had MINIs of fewer miles, and Trevor who had more. I bit the bullet and took another MINI. Souped it up with JCW and financed it through the teeth. First week it was towed from CT to back to the NJ dealer twice. The badly installed jcw rendered the first week of car ownership a nightmare. My attempts to reconciliate with the dealership wound up with their refusal to service me or allow me to their events. MINIUSA replied it is outside their jurisdiction. And i’ve been biting my nails with every little thing (and big) that happend to my new MINI Cooper S JCW, an MC40.

But hey. They’re great cars! And i really will buy another one. Servicing at another dealership now and they are notorious for crap work. I’ve always wanted to be able to say good things about my dealership service, and if i lower my expectations a bit here, I can!

Funny, Osmodius, I live in western CT. I bought my first from MINI of Fairfield County 45 min away), and got fed up with their service (or lack there-of) counterpart. MINIUSA offered to help me with a new dealer. It was made perfectly clear i could never expect a loaner again. A year and half later started driving an hour and a half to the reputed Prestige and their reknown head tech for service. I recieved good enough treatment to buy my next MINI there, then received the boot for posting my experience with them online. I’m back in CT now. Driving 1 1/2 hours to Hartford’s New Country. I’m happy there.

Now. Which CT dealer are you having problems with? And how close are you to it that you feel no other dealership exists for you?

Actually, that Prestige is the one….I work in Mahwah, NJ (and live in NJ), about 2 miles from the dealership, so it made sense to buy there, plus they seemed really cool during the sale (a couple of the ‘typical’ tricks, like trying to get me to use their financing, but nothing nasty or pushy…I really had a good sales experience, and then I picked up the car and it went downhill from there). The proximity to my office means I can drop the car off and they give me a ride to work…I’ve only received a loaner once, when they had to keep the car overnight (paint repair from them washing it…gouged the paint down to bare metal).

It’s really a bummer, not only because of the inconvenience of being without my car for over 14 days over the last year, but because everyone there is very nice and helpful…the service people just can’t seem to fix the car (and, when they do, they manage to damage something else in the process…dented doorsill, scratches in the paint, etc.). I would recommend the dealer to anybody…as a place to BUY your Mini, not to service it.

I should point out that a couple of people in my office have really had good experiences there…one bought his Mini elsewhere but brought it to them for service and had excellent service (even gave him a loaner). Another guy traded his MCS up to an MCS convertible and wouldn’t consider going to another dealer. I’m sure they think I’m a jerk, even though I’ve never lost my temper with them (which amazed everyone who knows me…although when I got my car back and it had gouges in the paint I had to stand outside for 10 minutes before going back in to tell them).

As to another dealership…there is one in Morristown, NJ, but it is in the opposite direction from my office and is inconvenient (not to mention that they are part of a BMW dealership and I would prefer a dealer where they concentrate on Mini). The only other one in NJ is in Princeton, which is way far away…not an option.

I’m not demanding or unreasonable…I just want the car to work right and, when it doesn’t, have it repaired (the first time, preferably). I don’t think a seat should move around. I don’t think a practically new car should rattle. I don’t think windows and sunroofs should shriek and groan when opened and closed. I don’t think the power steering pump should be louder than the engine AND stereo combined. And I don’t think that I should be told that any of these things are not a big problem with the car.

I’ll try making a formal complaint to Mini to try to get some of these things fixed, but I don’t have much hope (tried that route once before, got nowhere).

It’s funny, you’d think that they would realize that we are all ambassadors for this brand…I STILL get asked about my car at least twice a week (back a year ago, I’d get asked twice a DAY about it). I used to rave about it, even with some of the problems. Now I have to tell them about the multitude of quality issues while I rave. I’m tired of trying to explain to them and my friends/family why I still love a car that has been such a heart & headache…