Hello all,
Im looking into getting a clubman and my pessimistic husband thinks it would take a long time for parts to come in if i should have an accident. Has anyone had to have their car fixed and if so did you have to wait along time for parts? I live in ohio and there is a dealership 1 hour away from my home.

 

I don't understand why he thinks you would have to wait longer than any other car...it's made by BWM, the parts are widely available.

Are you guys *that* accident-prone that that would really be an issue for you not buy a car??

 

Well yes and no. I have had a couple but mostly He is an insurance agent who looks at an insurance aspect of it. I am all for one and have been for years. I need a small car and would feel more comfortable in a mini and any other car out there. I just want to prove to my husband that it is not a problem

 

The dealerships have most parts in-stock. However it is a car manufactured outside of the US and there may be that rare circumstance whereas you have to wait a week or two for a part. I've NEVER had to wait for a part ever, and I'm on my second MINI. If you did have to wait you'd be in the same boat whether you had a VW, Honda, or Toyota if the part had to be shipped overseas. MINI is no worse from my experience.

 

It has been my experience that any parts can be had quickly. The dealer will not stock everything, no dealer can or does. If a part is needed fast it can be gotten fast, even overnight. The hard to get parts for a foreign car argument just doesn't hold water anymore.

Order your Clubman & welcome to MINI...

 

I agree w/ Crashton. European car companies have a completely different attitude regarding parts availability than American or Japanese companies, especially for older models, which will be nice for you once the Clubman is replaced.

In 2006, I had a 1972 Mercedes 250C and a 1972 Dodge Charger. I could get literally any part for the Mercedes through the dealer, either because they had it in stock, or could get it in a few days. I'm talking everything from an air filter to a power window motor to one of the screws that attaches the seatback to the seat. The parts guy at the dealership even told me about a customer that needed a gas tank for a 1959 190SL. A quick call to the warehouse in Germany confirmed that they had eight of them on the shelf. (And that's for a model that I believe was discontinued in 1961). Less than a week later, it was in the customer's hands.

If I had gone into a Dodge dealership in 2005-2006 looking for *anything* for the Charger, they would have looked at me like I had a horn growing out of my forehead.

 

I'm just re-reading the post and I guess the start of this sentence just got me and made me laugh. Maybe because it's a tad late and I'm tired. What, nobody else here has had their MINI serviced? Lol, you'd have a much harder time trying to convince your husband that MINIs don't ever need servicing over part availability. If you were able to pull off that incredible feat of persuasion, I'd ask you what your secret is.

Seriously though, you've already crossed the greatest hurdle of MINI ownership: having a dealership close by! Not all people are so fortunate. Now order one!

 

Speaking from personal experience, my 2000 Dodge Intrepid once had a brush with the side of a wall and shattered the right rearview mirror. I went to four Dodge/Mopar dealers and not a single one had a right side replacement mirror. When I finally checked out the mirror, I realized I could just remove the glass fragments and snap a new one on. The motor was still working so I saved some money. Nope! Wrong. Mopar forced me to part with $192! They made me buy the whole frickin' mirror (mounts, housing, motor and mirror). No matter how much I stomped and whined and begged, they totally refused to sell me the mirror alone and said it had to be with the whole thing. That was the last time I ever bought parts from them. American dealers are no better at parts availability so don't let the prospect of a European brand discourage you. Before that I had a Jeep Cherokee and it was also difficult to find parts for. I ditched the Jeep because I was sick of running around trying to find parts for the cooling system. Just to rub salt in my face, most of the parts I was lucky enough to find were imported from FRANCE! Heck, they had the words "Made in France" stamped on them. So much for my mom's demand that I buy American just for "parts availability"! I NEVER was able to find parts for my American brand vehicles easily. They were always sold out and I had to get my vehicle fixed within a day or two. I couldn't sit around or take another car because I didn't have a second car. Maybe the lack of parts for my "American-made vehicles" were why my mom didn't stomp and cuss when I told her I was going to get a MINI whether she liked it or not. I almost considered a Saturn but that's a whole different story.

 

Replacement parts for the Clubman have been extremely slow to come out of the pipeline. Just a couple of months ago the right rear barn door gas filled strut failed. The $30 replacement strut had to be ordered from Germany and took well over a month to get to the dealership. Last year another simple piece of trim took 2 months to get to the dealer.

So in my experience, getting ordered replacement parts for the Clubman has been a fairly frustrating experience.

 

Yes, but neither part kept the car out of service, did it?

I'd worry more about that than trim parts.

 

Neither did, true.

But I do worry about parts availability that can keep the car off the road for a long time

So far the car has been rock solid. Hope it stays that way.