Hi I’m Gabe, and I have a rust problem.

I guess its no longer “mass hysteria” now that it has affected you…..

The sky IS falling for MINI if this is not dealt with…..I will sell my car before this becomes a well-known issue and re-sale drops like a rock….If the reputation gets out as these being rust buckets nobody will want them!

Pedro…please post pictures of your 8 inches……….Of un-painted sill/door. perhaps this is a paint process issue

Gabe,

Have you taken your MCS in to have service look at it yet? Did they do anything special to the rubber seal or replace it? I’m taking my ’05 MCS in for service next week and I wanted to see how your dealer handled it. Thanks.

Just checked my 05. Found a very small area on the drivers side, none on the passenger. I’m not to concerned at this point. I’ll let my Service Advisor know about it at my next service.

Just checked for this on my 04, and sure enough there was a little bit of rust starting under the seal. Thanks for the tip!

Unbelievable! Old world craftsmanship at its worst. Some things never change. Even Hyundai figured out how to keep its paper-thin sheetmetal from rusting for more than one year. BMW has a growing problem on its hands and they’d better make this right – fast. This has the potential to drop their high profit little darling into a deep and expensive hole. A rust problem on a new BMW designed car?! WOW!

The future of the MINI if BMW doesn’t fix this fast:

“Hi, I’m calling about the MINI you have for sale in the paper…is it all rusty?”

“Sorry, we can’t take a MINI trade-in. People think they rust and now we can’t give them away…”

While some have gone overboard on this issue without giving BMW a chance to respond, I must admit that this is in fact a big deal. Rust on a 1 year old car is a HUGE deal (totally unacceptable). Let’s not downplay the seriousness of the issue. At the same time, let’s not shout the world is ending from every corner either. Some valid points have been made, however. People considering the MINI who do their online research will find these posts and some may think twice while others will buy the car for the same reasons most of us own ours.

Let’s give BMW a chance to investigate and announce their findings/plan for correction. If we don’t hear anything within a month or so I would then suggest cranking up the heat a notch.

This past weekend after washing the car I pulled up the rubber door seals and found rust spots on both sides. Whipping out the warranty book and seeing the vehicle is warranted “against defects in materials or workmanship which will result in rust perforation of the vehicle body for a period of 6 years, without milage limitation” I called the dealship. They said they needed to see the car so I brought it in today. We pulled up the seals, he saw the rust spots and said that he needed to speak to the service manager. He came back saying I’d need to come back on later in the month when the regional Mini technician is there. He said this guy needs to see, and approve, any warranty claims against paint. I figured the dealership should have been able to make a determination, but I guess not. Anybody else have to go through this. Any warranty claims disapproved?

1. Never been in an accident, garage kept, yearly dealership inspections performed. Couldn’t believe the amount of moisture underneath the seal after just washing it. Previous posts seem to indicate dealers are agreeing it’s a warrantied fix whereas mine wants this additional Mini field rep to look at it to determine if it’s a covered fix. It’s crazy but I now know I’ll have to pull up the seal after every wash or after driving in the rain for the area to dry out to prevent future rust. Just wondering what response other owners wanting the rust repaired under warranty are getting from their dealerships. Thanks.

While some have gone overboard on this issue without giving BMW a chance to respond, I must admit that this is in fact a big deal. Rust on a 1 year old car is a HUGE deal (totally unacceptable). Let’s not downplay the seriousness of the issue. At the same time, let’s not shout the world is ending from every corner either. Some valid points have been made, however. People considering the MINI who do their online research will find these posts and some may think twice while others will buy the car for the same reasons most of us own ours.

Let’s give BMW a chance to investigate and announce their findings/plan for correction. If we don’t hear anything within a month or so I would then suggest cranking up the heat a notch.

Gang, if you are waiting for some announcement from BMW/MINI, you may be waiting for a long time. IMHO, the best we can hope for is a silent recall, i.e., the dealers getting the OK to repair rust on an as needed basis. Since this is not a safety issue, they aren’t going to announce this to all current owners worldwide – that’s just asking for expensive grief. Most owners have no clue about this (hidden) problem and BMW would have to be nuts to send everyone out to pull up their weatherstripping. It looks like most would find some degree of rust. This will be a fix on demand problem. (But, there is probably a team of engineers scrambling to fix this for ’07 and beyond.)

Hi All,

I’m in the UK and have an 05 convertible. The warranty here says 2 years for paint and 6 years for perforation by rust. That suggests the rust warranty wouldn’t apply unless it was holed. The paint warranty says “..against defects such as blistering, discoloration or staining of the visible surface of all painted body panels..” So, it seems they could argue their way out of that one too as it’s not usually visible.

Bottom line over here though is the 1979 Sale of Goods Act which says the item should be of “satisfactory quality”. This is regardless of any manufacturer warranty. It also covers things that might arise after the sale date that the purchaser could not be expected to check for at that time. On a car of this price rust would not be satisfactory imo but they still might argue it was not usually visible and make you wait to claim until it was. Problem then is that you should fix any problems as soon as they are known.

My exp is that car manu’s will shirk anything they can after they have your money so hit them with this NOW and don’t let them off ’til they commit themselves to a line of procedure you are happy with. These are expensive cars and we have a right in sales law to expect them to be better than cheaper cars. The residuals will soon dive if they become known as rust buckets and the maker does not support them. I have a rust issue with our 4 year old VW Passat at the moment. Check your household insurance to see if you have legal cover and give them a ring to see how to progress. Rich.

It’s been over three months since MINI learned about this issue. What’s been done to notify owners and repair their cars? The silence has been deafening. Looks like this is going to be one of those silent recall items. The vast majority of MINI owners will never find out about this issue.

Any update on this issue?