Wow did Car & Driver have a lemon of a MINI as a long termer. That was our first thought in reading the one year (and 28,000 mile) wrap up. Dissecting the issues it’s clear to us that there are two categories: meaningless and meaningful.

Let’s start with the meaningless. Why CD is complaining about the placement of the light switch for example is beyond is. It smacks of the type critic a auto writer would have who is constantly shuffling from car to car. Exactly the type of critic an actual owner of the car (who would be familiar with said placement by the second drive) would’nt have. And that’s not to mention that the automatic lights on CD’s test car mean you basically don’t ever have to reach for it.

While there was a number of easily solves issues similar to the above (CD – the armrest is actually adjustable), there were some fairly meaningful faults that even the most forgiving MINI fan would have been up in arms about.

The front suspension in particular was a constant issue with the car. And the dealership was often without the proper replacement parts making wait times fairly long. Then there was an oil issue and numerous small broken pieces here and there.

In our minds there’s no question that CD had a handful of face-palm complaints in their wrap-up. But you can’t deny that the Cooper S they were lent by MINI USA was a full of faults over 28,000 miles.

Having had over seven MINIs personally over the past 15 years I can say that this experience seems to be fairly uncommon. We’ve had issues here and there with our own cars as well as press cars. But they’d all be filed under minor easily taken care of my dealers. And our 2014 Cooper S we tested last year had no major issues whatsoever. It was for all intents and purposes the most trouble free MINI we’ve ever tested.

So we turn to you, MF readers. Was CD too harsh in their wrap-up? Has anyone else had similar issues with their F56 Cooper our Cooper S? Sound off below.