Hello all!!

I just bought a slightly used 2009 Mini Cooper hardtop in September. I was so excited about my beautiful car until I started having issues with the battery dying a couple of weeks ago. I had to have Mini Roadside Assistance come and jump me 3 times in one week. I finally was able to get the car into the local San Francisco dealership for service last week.

I was shocked when the service manager explained that Minis MUST be driven a minimum of 500 miles per month in order to maintain the battery’s charge and to avoid battery damage. I drive 5 miles to and from work for a total of about 10 miles per work day. On the weekends I definitely utilize the car around town, but not typically for long drives. Conclusion: I will never be able to hit the 500 mile per month mark! The manager suggested the use of a trickle charger but there is no electrical outlet available where I park my car, so that is not an option.

My first question is: does this mean that unless I take the car out for meaningless drives for hours on the weekends (not to mention wasting expensive gas and putting unnecessary wear and tear on the car), that I am facing regular battery failure that will be very costly and extremely inconvenient to deal with? Do I have any other options?

My second question is: I’d like to write a letter to someone high up in Mini Customer Care. Does anyone know who that would be and how I can get their address?

Many thanks!
Sadie

 

This sounds totally bogus to me. I do not drive my car 500 miles a month, not even close. In fact, I parked it for 35 days while I was in Europe and it fired up just fine when I got home.

Maybe you have a battery issue? Someone more technically knowledgeable will hopefully be able to chime in here, but this 500 miles thing sounds like nonsense to me.

 

Your other option would be to not talk to this tech any more.

If not used your battery will slowly dissipate its charge. It is not good to let a battery run down to zero charge. Long periods of NO use is bad and if that were the case we would recommend a Battery Tender which is a small charger that can be left on for long periods.

But your regular commute of 10 miles a day is fine. Your battery will probably last 3-5 years. If you took it out for the meaningless drives it will still last probably 3-5 years. A new battery is $150 (I just replaced my Optima 34R yesterday) and takes 10 minutes to replace. So that is not a big deal.

But you have a Mini. Find some twisties. Tighten up your seat belt and go for a ride once a month. I'd say the road down to Monterey is perfect. Check your oil and tire pressure and top off the wiper fluid before you go. Maybe even a car wash. It's a good prescription for enhanced mental health.

Rich

 

About 500 miles per month (6000 miles per year) sounds reasonable for keeping the battery fully charged without the use of an external charger. In your case, the car has a cold start, drives 5 miles, sits for several hours, has another cold start, and drives another 5 miles. It may be a toss-up as to whether 5 miles of driving is enough to fully recharge after a cold start. If you spend much time sitting in traffic at idle, that's not helping the charge rate either. This doesn't rule out the possibility that you have a separate battery or charging problem, of course.

What's a meaningless drive?

 

You can send an email at www.miniusa.com

 

Even though your car is a 2009 you may need to have the battery replaced. It may be one bad cell in the battery that is giving you problems. "OR" should I say "It is very probable that you have a bad cell in you battery." 500 miles a month to keep the battery charged??? What kind of drugs does that idiot do????

The dealer should have checked for that if possable. I have not looked at my battery to see if it has removable caps. If not they can still check it with a load tester. A 2009 should still be under warrenty. If the dealer won't check it go to a good shop or sears/walmart/sams club and have them test it. If it is a bad cell you then call Mini USA and come unglued on them.