I'm not going to go off on a tangent here, in regards to all of the problems i've been having with my 2 week old MINI, BUT... i do want opinions/take a poll about this:

does your hood (err, bonnet) align properly?

basically.... do you have a gap, and if so, is it even on both sides, over the black lip/wheel fender?

when i purchased the car (which has the JCW aero kit on it), it sat in the showroom with a noticeably larger gap on the driver side, than on the passenger side. I was assured the hood could be adjusted so the alignment placed it flush, and even on both sides.
having spoke with my service rep yesterday he told me that "they adjusted it the best they could, and that no mini's hoods align perfectly to the fenders."

am i being bullshitted?

(check out the pics, if you can see what im talkin about)

 

Hmmm...I'll have to look at mine, but I think they line up right. But mine is also a dark color, so perhaps it doesn't stick out as much. But I'll try to give a peek when it's light out and get back to you.

 

All looks good on mine. WHY did you buy the car rather than telling them...FIX THIS CAR CORRECTLY AND I'LL BUY IT...then wait till they FIXED IT before purchasing. I guess you can chalk this up to a learning experience. As Billy Joe Shaver says, "Haste it makes for waste every time." And besides, you can't see that from the driver's seat and 99.9% of people won't either.

 

According to the MINI Technical Info System the bonnet can be adjusted both at the hinges and at the latchs.There's also a set standard gap width for all the body panels.For the bonnet/fender arch it should be 5mm with a deviation of not more than 1mm.

 

Looks pretty good from the pics.

 

I can't really tell from the pics.

Can you not park your car next to other MINIs at the dealer for comparison?

 

On my Clubman the hood / fender gap is about 1/4" at the top of each wheel arch, tapering evenly to less than 1/8" at either end. It appears that the radius of curvature of the hood and fender are slightly different, with the hood's radius being slightly less. I noticed this when I first picked up my Clubman, but a quick check of other MINIs on the lot revealed that none had a perfect hood / fender alignment, and my Clubman's fit was better than most. I don't see how any adjusting could fix this, unless there's a way to lower the hood at the wheel arch center, while raising it at either end. That would be a neat trick!
The plastic fender arch fit may be adjustable, but I don't see any obvious way to do that. The hood fit where it meets the front bumper and the side panels is fine, and everything's even from side-to-side. So, it may not be perfect, but at least it's consistent!

 

My bonnet is fine, but the front and especially the rear bumper on mine are a little misaligned. The rear one is really starting to bother me. When I look straight down at my exhaust, i can see 3/4" more of one tip than the other...

 

I've never seen any MINI with a perfectly aligned hood (either Gen 1 or Gen 2).

 

If they align that part of the bonnet then the top part where the chrome trim is won't be aligned. As you can see the top part with the chrome is perfect on both your sides... Leave it alone...

 

thats what the service guy said

yes, you are right i should have made them fix it before i drove it off the lot, but i didnt have cash for a deposit to hold the car, it was really a rushed process for me (which is a whole other uncomfortable story).

they admitted to the fact the driver side was off and it could be adjusted to be aligned (they gave me an IOU), it just irked me they told me that before they said 'theyre never lined up exactly'

i guess your stories/posts make me feel a bit better but.... why such difficulties for something that seems so simple?
(and why do they think its okay to blame everything on the JCW aero kit? ive trudged through many a post on this forum and have not seen/heard any other issues with it).

 

The MINI hood is a pretty complicated piece of sheet metal, and properly stamping and fitting it seems beyond the capability of the Oxford assembly plant.

On most cars, the hood alignment is fairly stightforward, as the sides of the hood meet the front fenders in a fairly straight line. The MINI (mis)alignment is very visable, and the alignment points are pretty complicated. MINI likes to boast that each MINI has its own personality, and that extends to the individualized gaps and flaws of the front hood fitment.

 

Swooper, just so you know... I don't see any variation between the two sides, but I'm not sure there's an angle you could take a photo from where I'd notice it. I'd have to actually walk around the car.

As far as the fuss that the dealership has given you... you will learn as soon as you hang out on this forum for a bit longer that MINI owners tend to be incredibly OCD and notice the most persnickety little things. This is okay, because you will see them too and we're all in the same boat together.

Just... imagine if you were the dealership catering to these insanely obsessive yahoos.

Probably 85% of the people they sell cars to would have looked at their attempt to adjust that bonnet and said, "Yeah! That's great!" and gone on about their day.

You are in that remaining 15% which ranks in at the enthusiast level. Dealerships hate us because we're more obsessed than the average MINI owner. We're the scary people that come back until they make it absolutely 100% perfect. We cost dealerships more money, time and agony than any other customer and what's truly sad is they know that we'll go back to them to buy our next car as long as they give us what we want.

Welcome to MINI ownership my friend. Glad to have you along for the motoring.

 

I agree that some of the smaller quirks are best just left alone, but I don't consider properly aligning body panels to be a small detail. The fit of the MINI hoods on most models I've seen is only fair to poor, and there's no excuse for that.

I don't expect a Lexus-quality perfectly even 2mm panel gap, but the MINI hood fit on the Gen2 models just isn't up to par. MINI can and should do a much better job. It's obvious that the quality-control inspectors at Oxford are being told to just roll 'em out, despite the poorly aligned body panels.

Another company that had this attitude was GM. I wonder how they're doing now?