Went to look at my PW/PW MCCS prior to pick up next week and, like Little Bean's post, it was missing the Anthracite headliner (though it was spec'ed and showed on the window tag). My MA said (and showed me the email) that MINI had sent out a bulletin on 9/30 to dealers IDing at least 30 cars delivered to East Coast dealerships with a similar problem. MINI was asking the dealerships not to deliver the cars to customers and to wait for further instruction. (Yeah, right. My dealership had already delivered two of the mis-built cars.)

This is a major bummer as it raises quality control red flags that I've never had to consider coming off of years of Honda and Acura (yawn, oh, excuse me) products. Hopefully nothing more serious was left out.

 

Hmm... very interesting.

 

better check for a transmission. Heard of a few missing..

Does suck it wasn't according to spec but stuff sometimes happens. Sounds like they are on top of getting it fixed.

 

I'm sorry for you - and Mr. Bean and others. I've never heard about this sort of thing before, though I assume it has happened...and I've just not read about it in my MINI years.

 

Thats what happens after the plant goes on Holiday.

 

Oxford is 24/7/365 ... just pray your car was not built during futbol playoff's

but on a more serious note, there are a lot of mistakes I am hearing about lately. they must be pushed to the limits there.
but in the end the people to be blamed are the end of the line QC team who should not let these go out to begin with.

 

Honda et. Al. would solve this by not giving you the choice in the first place.

 

Add a Clubman in the Midwest to that list! Mine, too, came without the anthracite headliner, despite it being listed on the original order form, the Vehicle Inquiry Report, the OL, and the window sticker. My dealer put in an order for a replacement; I'll get an update tomorrow.

 

So are the pillars, etc. correct, and it's just the headliner? Or is none of it correct?

 

If you're asking me, everything else is correct. You'd better believe I double checked that!! As I don't have a sunroof, I think (hope) the replacement will be easier, but still a chore.

Srahaim posted after I left for the dealer, so I had no idea that this was an epidemic.

 

Our Clubman is due into Charleston Harbor tomorrow, going to Nashville. I went to the Owner's Lounge to review the order and the Anthracite headliner has disappeared! It used to be there and it's on my Vehicle Inquiry Report. I e-mailed the MA and asked what they're going to do about it. He said he hadn't heard anything about any of this, but would check on it.

 

I'm actually surprised how rare mistakes happen in production. With the logistics involved with building vehicles, it's amazing that they get them correct.
I toured the Silverado plant last year and was blown away how they can build every vehicle different. That plant (before the gas price deal) was putting out 1 truck every minute and was running 23 hours a day, just to keep up with demand.
I would imagine the Mini factory works much the same way, but probably has even more color/option combinations which would make it more complicated.
Perhaps the headliner manufacture messed up and noted standard headliners as Anthracite, which assembly may have overlooked.

If you ever get a chance to tour an assembly plant, do it. No matter who the manufacture it is (Chevy, Ford, Mercedez, etc), it's amazing.

 

I'm interested to hear how others resolve this. On mine the headliner and all the pilars (interior) were the standard light grey. A fix would involve the headliner and all the plastic bits and sunroof trim. Little leery of allowing the dealer to try the fix. It's not like they have much experience doing it. I may just keep the std headliner.

The grey isn't awful but I'm bummed that the car isn't perfect.

 

I just emailed my MA, and she let me know that if it wasn't for my email, they would have never had known about issue as Mini HQ hasn't told them! She has 4 other cars that are missing the anthracite headliner. Anybody who hasn't taken delivery yet should probably get in touch with their MA if they thing they may be impacted.

 

Wonder if they ran out at the factory and didn't want to stop production?

 

My MA said it will take a couple of weeks or so for the replacement headliner to come in, as it must come from Germany. Is it just Clubmen being affected by this? I haven't seen any similar reports from the R56 folks.

 

Yup. I went to pick up my clubman today and also had no anthracite headliner. My MA said a bulletin was issued today which said that a number of vehicles have been delivered without anthracite because the factory ran out.

He said I could either have my $250 back or re-order the entire car. I told him I had heard that other dealers offered to replace the headliner without rebuilding the entire car, he checked with his manager and then said yes, they could do that but he didn't know how long it would be until the part would become available. That's OK by me. I'd rather have the Clubman now and wait till whenever for the right headliner. He said their corporate would eat the cost of the part replacement.

Should I really worry about the dealer doing the headliner replacement? I don't have a sunroof so it shouldn't be that difficult for them should it???

 

I've had my first MINI for all of one day, so I'm anything but an expert on such matters. But I'm thinking that this should be doable. Nobody at my dealership balked at the thought of replacing it. They were taken aback that the mis-build happened, but there was no moment of "can we do that?"

MINI service departments probably do have some experience replacing headliners. It's not the most common job by any means, but there must be situations in which, say, a sunroof leaks and causes irreparable water damage, or a roof gets crunched, but the car is not totaled.

The irony in my situation is that I decided on the anthracite headliner option over a couple of other features. As I told my MA, those would be easy to add any time, but the headliner would be a bear to install after delivery. Best to get that done in the factory! Or not.

So if the factory ran out of Clubman-sized anthracite headliners, why didn't they just, I dunno, like, set those cars aside and wait until they got a fresh supply??? It might have made sense to somebody at the moment, but in the long run, correcting this will cost MINI a bundle.

 

As the head liner is not the last item to go into the car they can not just stop production to take the car out of the line. That would shut the plant down for hours and that would cost them 1000 times more than having it done at the VDC or Dealer.

It is probably a situation of they could not get them or someone put the wrong part in the picking bin.

The real frustrating part i see is that some dealers were notified and others seem not to have been notified. That is not a good situation. ALL Dealers world wide should have been notified at the same time.

as others have said the final quality control should have picked up on this and then it should have also been picked up at the VDC quality check And then the dealer should also have checked the correctness of the order. So after three completely different quality checks this was still not picked up.

Where is the real problem on this. Training. There definately needs to be better training on Mini's part.

As for replacement of the headliner, it also includes the pillar covers and the roof mounted switch console, so any one getting it changed at the dealer should make sure that ALL the parts are ordered at the same time and replaced at the same time.

The change of the headliner should probably take about 2-1/2 to three hours. With out actually having taken out the headliner, I have taken all the trim pieces (pillar covers, switch console, sunroof trim, center light out and that tool about 20 minutes. The hardest part of the job will be getting the new liner in without creasing it when bending it to actually get it into the car.

To those that have the dealer replace it good luck. it is really not that hard just time consuming.

 

Wow, now you guys have me curious. I ordered the Anthracite HL too and my car has been at the VDC since Monday. My dealer expected delivery to them by Thursday so I could pick it up today but it got delayed at the VDC and won't get to the dealer until Monday. I am wondering if the VDC is catching some of these and making the swap there, and if so, will I be informed of that? Things that make ya go Hmmmm......

 

Yay! After talking things over with my MA, I'm going to take delivery of my Clubman tomorrow (with the incorrect non-antracite headliner), and return in about a month or so when the parts have arrived from Germany to have the antracite headliner installed. She wasn't exactly sure how long it would take, but thought a day at the most.

My guess would be they ran out of the part at the factory, made a decision to install the regular headliner, and Mini USA dropped the ball notifying dealers.

If you're comfortable having your dealer install the headliner, I'd say that's the way to go. My dealer's service department didn't seem daunted by the installation at all, they were mostly nervous about how long it would take the parts to arrive.

 

Do we know what build weeks were effected by this?

 

Just picked mine up. Decided to take the HCMCCS as my wife / interior designer said she thought the lighter color was better and just not worth the hassle to have the liner replaced. As read above, the dealers do not know how long it will take it will take to replace. My MA apologized, the SM apologized and even the finance guy. They took off the 250 for the headliner and mini is sending me a check for $250 for my troubles. It's not exact but my Little Bean is still perfect in my eyes. Hell, my I still love my daughter and she has blond hair and I wanted brown.

 

LordRybo, it looks like mostly Weeks 36 and 37 affected by this. Any others?

Joshpuetz, congrats in advance on your Clubman! What color, BTW? Your dealer sounds as matter-of-fact about the replacement as mine. I just hope there isn't a huge run on replacement headliners, lest we have to wait too long.

And Little Bean, congrats to you, too! HC is such a lovely color. Glad it all worked out for you in the end.

 

picked up my Clubman today...no headliner...it was on all the paperwork...just not in the car. Dealer is ordering the parts and will install later...as others are saying, it is more than just the headliner.