Only because he is whining and complaining about it. What could happen is that MINI will cover it and eventually that cost will be passed back on to us, the consumer. As I said, I certainly hope that MINI stands firm as I am tired of people whining their way into freebies.

 

And folks wonder why it costs $800-1000 more for a clutch job at a dealer or $100 more for a simple oil change.......
The op stars his post with "mini does not need to cover this" or something to that effect....it sucks to spend $$ on a car, but if you are adverse to spending money on mx and repair, buy a warrenty...they typically, on most cwrs, spend just 30% or so on repairs....the rest is profit, overhead, and commissions....but your expenses do become predictable.....kinda explains why health ins is so $$ doesn't.

 

(Tugs at his collar, Rodney Dangerfield style. "They told me it was going to be a tough crowd tonight, but I didn't expect 'notin like 'dis")

Non-wear items probably should last forever or close to it. Electrical connections like this simply do not wear out. These connections were identified by MINI as having been improperly assembled. They should fix the problem as they did not assemble the car properly the first time.

I am a TV station satellite truck operator and maintenance technician. I perform circuit board level repairs and build wiring and assemble electrical connectors of all types as part of my job. I am well familiar with what should last virtually forever once assembled, and what is a wear item that will need eventual repair or replacement.

What was your in-service date? It might not be too late for you to get this fixed under warranty if it's the same problem.

1- We're a two MINI family but bought both of our cars out of state. MINI prices are outrageous here in Washington State. Together we probably got our two MINIs for less than the price of a new one. I am a frequent visitor to the parts counter. I am a local club member in good standing and the club has a very good relationship with the dealer.

2- MINIs don't store the date of the fault.

3- This is how the problem was eventually resolved.

4- My reaction was being stunned. I did not rant and rave, kick stuff around or swear at anybody or anything. My reaction was more disbelief than anything.

The 2007-2008 S models were an entirely new model, a "first model year" car as you put it. I suppose those owners should just suck it up and live with the possibility of an engine fire, or should MINI have fixed the faulty circuit board in the turbo? I thought so.

Which is exactly why this should have been a recall.

Exactly- like I said above, some things just shouldn't disintegrate.

Another frequent problem that should be under a recall.

Our local MINI dealer (Seattle MINI) did step up and fix the problem. I doubt that much of the cost will be passed on to anybody, since the Service Manager assured me that dealers have resources set aside, either by them or MINI USA in order to take care of problems like this. Recall that I did pay a $137 diagnostic fee already. I can get some part numbers and prices later but what they replaced/repaired was two under seat electrical connectors. The parts cost for this repair was virtually nothing and the technician would be on duty anyway. In the end, this was probably an easy decision for them, based on the cost vs. bad publicity.

Thanks again to Seattle MINI for repairing my car.

Val

 

In this day and age, I doubt any auto manufacturer is going to issue a recall for a problem unless it is causing a safety issue. This particular problem does not, which is why no recall was done. Instead, MINI opted to extend the warranty.

Either the dealer or MINI USA has had to charge higher prices at some point to be able to "set aside" resources to handle cases like this. So yes, the cost was passed on to every other MINI owner.

 

I'm so glad that MINI is doing the right thing.
Good customer service and support leads to success in business.
The product alone, no matter how well loved, won't do it.
If MINI can't afford to fix a problem that they know is due to a faulty part, then their business model is in serious trouble.

Stories like this keep me loyal to the brand.
My MINI is the most expensive car I've ever owned and I hope to keep it a very long time.
When it's time to replace it I hope to buy another new MINI.
I understand that MINIs have "issues" but I can live with that as long as they stand behind their product.

Well done Seattle MINI!

 

I'm glad you got it fixed, but yes, it will get passed back to the consumer as there is no way in hell a business is going to eat the cost, that is simple business and economics. Parts and labor are not free even if a tech is on duty (he could have been working on a paying customer) so please don't try to hogwash it. You have a 10 year old car and parts do disintegrate (I have an electronics background as well) but the key point is that you KNEW it was out of warranty so how could you be shocked when they tell you that you have to pay? Moving forward, I think you need to realize that you have an old car and it is out of warranty so prepare to pay for your own repairs.

 

You're changing the subject because you can't argue the point I made. It is well known that 2002 MINIs are...pardon my language....complete pieces of ****. You bought one, and you have to face the consequences. The 2007-8 S has it's share of problems, but that vehicle has held up vastly better.

 

Val, good to hear your situation was taken care of. A lot of politics goes into the decision to goodwill. It sounded as if your issue took place before your warranty expired and that you had also contacted the dealer before your warranty expired, so I could definitely see how if you were in good standing as far as customer loyalty goes, that an agreement or goodwill would be reached.

However, when you say, "The technician would be on duty anyway" that really means nothing. I totally agree, the parts prices are likely under $30 (most airbag connectors are gold plated, so they typically do carry a steep price for being a small connector).

Technicians though, are not salaried or hourly. They are labor commission workers. If they do a brake job, they will get paid a certain number of hours, say 2hrs, whether it takes them 30 minutes or all day. In the case of warranty work, the labor 'paid' to the tech is almost always less than what it actually takes the technician to perform the job. If this job would've been paid for by you, the customer, then its safe to assume that the tech would have broke even or profited from his labor. However, since the repair was goodwilled, he would have gotten paid warranty time (or worse, possibly did it for free as per Service manager). Therefore, take the time to thank not only your service manager for his generosity for covering your repair, but also the technician who lost money performing the repair for you.

As for the debate on who will be ''paying'' for this later, this is exactly why parts prices and labor times differ greatly between customer pay and warranty claims. Typically customer pay jobs carry 1.5X the labor time that warranty would pay for a job. Similarly parts prices can carry anywhere from a 30-60% markup on a customer's price compared to a warranty claim. Warranty typically will pay the dealer's cost for a part that is replaced under warranty. As far as labor times go for a warranty claim, the tech almost always loses $$ on warranty jobs. This may sound like we as customers get ripped off but this is the case of any business. Every business must mark up the prices of their labor service or items that they sell in order to remain profitable and in business...