[Spridgets] New Mini Cooper

[Dean Swanson]

The New MINI Cooper is indeed a product of BMW and is therefore a "premium
performance" small car (NOT an economy car) so the price of parts and
repairs reflect it. It has leading technologies (for better or worse) that
other premium performance cars have and increased maintenance cost like
tires and brakes every 30,000 miles or less depending on how sporty you
drive. They have direct fuel injection, so the fuel (with cleaning
additives) are injected directly into the cylinders, so it does NOT clean
the deposits out of the intake/off the back of the valves - leading to the
need to have the intake/head ports de-carbonized (other car manufactures'
with direct injection engines will have the same issue. I think some MINIs
have a dual-mass flywheel which leads to increased expenses when a clutch
replacement is necessary. There is a single computer controlling EVERYTHING
making for faster communication, but that means any problem and the car has
to go back to the dealer to be re-programmed - even adding factory fog
lights requires dealer programming (because of the "soft switches" used. If
I was looking to buy one (and wasn't set on wanted a new one) I would try to
find a "certified pre-owned" example with the extended warranty.

 

That being said, I purchased my 2010 MINI Cooper Clubman new in Feb, 2010 -
It has had some issues covered under warranty:

The brakes did not properly seat-in, so at 1500 miles it received all new
disks and pads under warranty.

Also around 25,000 miles the windows started to have a rubber squeak what
raised/lowered so it received new driver's and passenger side lifting
mechanisms free under warranty.

It now has 37,000 miles and is out of warranty (more than four years old),
so I'll see how it goes.

 

You can go here to find out all sorts of stuff:
http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/