http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/report...20050322.shtml

Link Text:

"BMW Mini Cooper"

22 March 2005

Ian Palmer decided to buy his daughter, Roxanne, a second hand 2002 BMW Mini Cooper for her 17th birthday. He bought it from a flagship BMW dealer in Surrey. The car had just 22,000 miles on the clock and Ian was assured it was fully tested and every bit as good as a brand new vehicle. It ran well for three months, but then the gearbox failed. BMW took the car away and carried out repairs.

Six months later, Roxanne was driving home from a party with her friend Leone. They arrived home, parked the Mini on the drive and went inside. Just two minutes later there was an enormous bang. The mini, without any warning, had caught fire. When the Fire Brigade arrived, it took them two hours to put the blaze out. "My daughter could have died", says Sue Palmer, Roxanne's mum. "I'm so relieved that nobody was hurt. But when we actually got on to BMW, they just didn't want to know." It took BMW four days to return Ian's calls. When they finally got in touch, they refused to provide a replacement vehicle. "All they wanted to do was take the car away from our premises." says Ian, "And I refused."

Ian's insurers arranged to have the car forensically examined, in conjunction with BMW. The fire was so severe, they could not 100 per cent say what caused it. But it pointed to an electrical fault, possibly dating back to the gearbox work BMW carried out 3 months before. The only thing that was certain was that it had not been caused by human error. The Palmers were blameless.

Despite this, BMW refused to do anything, saying that because the report was inconclusive, there was nothing they could do. The Palmers were incensed. Ian told us, "I could not believe a major car manufacturer would not only try and wash their hands of it and admit no liability whatsoever, but there was no note of regret, nothing. But the implications of what happened to that vehicle are mind bogglingly frightening."

BMW have now agreed to re-examine the Palmer's Mini. They say they take such incidents seriously and asks any Mini owner with a similar experience to contact their dealer or Mini UK on 0870 50 50 125."

Watch out out there!!!

 

I believe another NAM member reported a similar incident on their MCS a month or so ago.

 

This sounds very similar to what happened to Donna/Mike's 2002 MCS, "Scooter," recently. I'm sure Donna will be interested to read this thread.


Clover

 

Thanks for thinking of us - we already had this information in our hot little hands....:smile: Looks as if we aren't alone in this....

One big difference - though - our forensic team HAS identifed the problem. I am awaiting the typed official documentation and then I'll post it.

Now we wait for MINI to come look at the car themselves....

Donna
02' CR/W MCS (gone to MINI heaven - burned up)
05' Cool Blue MCSC "Ariel"

 

I'm sad to say that I have second thoughts about parking my MINI inside until a resolution comes about regarding these 'spontaneous combustion' events, which have been appearing electrical in nature. It's not as if these cars have substandard electrical systems; in fact, I find the electrical system very well designed and protected, with at least double the amount of fuse-protected circuits than many cars. So far it seems as though these fires have involved either the ABS controller and the power steering pump. Both of these are high-current devices (50 amps for the ABS, 100 for the PS) controlled internally and switched by means of electronic circuitry. Perhaps a failure in another, lower-powered area of these devices is being fed current by the high-current feed and causing overheating without drawing enough current to take out the fuse.

I hope BMW owns up to what is becoming a pattern of electrical failures. Until then, in good weather, the MINI sits outside of the garage.

 

Geez, MINI hasn't resorted to using Lucas electrics, have they? How awful. And how shameless of BMW.


Best of luck to Ian, and Donna/Mike, too!

 

Hmm, both the incidents involve the early Coopers (from 2002). Is it exclusive to that year?

BMW's lack of interest on the issue deeply disturbs me.

 

I can't wait to hear the outcome. Glad they identified the problem.

Brad