My wife is now on her 5th mini but thankfully this will be her last. She has a 64 plate Cooper S which was lovely to drive but unfortunately, like every other mini she has owned, it has a major design fault. This fault is well documented on the Internet.
Due to poor design, a common sight with Minis, a part of one of the wiring looms is exposed to windscreen washer fluid run-off from the windscreen. Over time the fluid slowly eats the insulation of the wires in the loom, making them swell and eventually fail.
This effects one of the ways different parts of the car communicat to each other. Failures include headlight vertical alignment, a pedestrian safety feature and even rear parking sensors.
The result is an unroadworthy car as the headlight issue alone is an MOT failure. The fix is to replace the loom which involves removing most of the interior. In the UK the parts are approx £600 plus VAT but the labour is approximately 22 hours of work.
Even if your car is properly fixed, there is no guarantee that it will not happen again. Additionally since half of the car’s interior had to be removed and re-fitted, the chances of other issues along with rattles are high.
We dealt with Mini UK to make a complaint and it is clear their complaints process is designed to be as frustrating and difficult as possible. It took nearly 2 weeks for answer plus atleast 10 lengthy phone calls. Having seen identical cases on the internet it is common for Mini to cover 100% parts and 80% of the labour. My wife and I considered this to be a fair outcome should we get to that point.
In my wife’s case Mini UKs internal management (who you can’t speak to as they’re not customer facing) decided that her case didn’t qualify for any goodwill from mini UK for the following four reasons:
- Too old – Yep, mini think that by the time their cars get to 10 years old, whether they are looked after or not, they have reached the end of their life. This is surely a worrying admission by Mini UK regarding 2nd hand sales.
- Too many miles – Another worrying admission from Mini UK. They appear to be saying that it’s normal for major failures to happen after 58,000 miles.
- VIN number is not on Mini UK’s list of affected cars – This is interesting as Mini UK are admitting that the problem is a know issue but they are saying that the problem can’t be present on this particular car.
- Out of Network – My wife bought the car when it was 4 years but from a private dealer. Mini are saying here that if you don’t buy second hand from a Mini main dealer then they will refuse to fix major design defects. I wonder if they try and apply this to recalls too?
So to summarise all of this, Mini UK seem only interested in people who buy a brand new Mini, from them and replace it after 4 years or 55,000 miles. Anything else and you only have yourself to blame if something major goes wrong.
Please Note: Any views stated here are those of myself and may not accurately reflect those of Mini UK, BMW UK, BMW Group or any other subsidiary.