Originally Posted by riquiscott

Not necessarily. Even though the warranty agreements are written and vetted by lawyers, there is some room for interpretation, because if they spell out every possibility, then the customer's copy wouldn't fit in the glove box!

A court may well decide that MINI is over-reaching by voiding the *entire* warranty based on competitive use. Take the examples I gave earlier - a broken radio or boot paint stain from the rear washer fluid leaking. A judge could easily rule that malfunctions that are obviously unrelated to the competitive use must still be repaired under warranty.

Likewise, what exactly are "competitive events"? Things like poker runs and ralleys are "competitions", but the driving you do during these events is indistinguishable from normal street driving. Hell, a "show-and-shine" can be a "competitive event". So can a car audio sound-off, but no one would deny a transmission claim if it happened at a sound-off while pulling into the judging lanes.

The reason I think MINI may be over-reaching is that warranties have to provide a certain amount of coverage, per state and national laws, and manufacturers cannot void them arbitrarily or capriciously. If they could, MINI could add a clause that says "if you've ever hit the rev limiter, even once, then you've 'abused' your car and the warranty is void". Believe me, they'd love such a clause, because it would give them an 'out' in a lot of warranty claims, but they know it would never fly.

And my personal favourite among over-reaching clauses-- You know those signs in stores saying "we reserve the right to inspect bags, backpacks, and briefcases"? Guess what -- they really can't. If you refuse, they can ask you to leave, but that's the limit of their authority. They can't take your bag from you and rummage through it, no matter what their sign says.

Likewise, if I'm in one of those stores that wants to check my receipt against my purchases as I leave the store, I just keep on walking without stopping. As soon as I paid for those items, they became my personal property, and they have no more right to inspect them than they do asking me to empty my pockets or take off my clothes. When they ask to see my receipt, I just smile and say "no thanks" as I walk by. The look they get on their faces is priceless. But that's as far as it goes, because the stores know they would get their butts sued off if they ever tried to detain a customer for refusing, in the absence of any evidence of theft.

Remember, just because a clause is in a contract doesn't always mean it's enforceable, even if lawyers wrote it.

Scott

Originally Posted by bmovierat

I was going to keep my distance from this thread until I heard something new. However, this is so over the top that I can’t allow this to stand unchallenged. If posting an experience with a dealership’s service department is considered “bashing” so be it. But, I thought this is precisely the reason why this forum exists. People can read my experience, pass it off as a fluke or sour grapes, or they can use it and make their decisions accordingly.

If my post convinces mini owners to avoid autoxing their cars, fine. If my post convinces people in Western Pa to avoid buying a MINI from MINI of Pittsburgh, fine. If my post convinces people to avoid MINIs in general, fine. I want to tell the truth, tell about my experience and let everything else fall where it may. People have to make their own decisions. But, if I am thinking about spending $25K on a new car, I want to have as much information as possible. Under this Web site’s old system, NAM used to have dealer reviews, which I found highly useful 2 1/2 years ago when I was in the market for a MINI. Since that no longer exists, I still think it’s beneficial to discuss one’s experiences with dealerships.

I hope this information can help better the community and I don’t think it’s constructive to be anything but honest about my experience. I’m not going to sugarcoat anything just for the sake of this dealer’s reputation. And, I’m not going to sugarcoat anything about what happened just for the sake of making me look better.

I could have just posted that the tranny exploded while on the road, not while autoxing. I would probably get a lot fewer people bashing me that way, but I’m a big girl; I can take it.

The dealer serviced this vehicle 4 months before this occurred. They misdiagnosed the symptoms of too much drivetrain play when accelerating/decelerating by claiming it was a worn clutch. The dealer could have investigated further, but they refused. They could have replaced this differential or the differential pin and avoid having to have the entire tranny replaced, but they did not.

Perhaps they will claim autoxing caused this part to wear prematurely. I don’t think so. I think the part was either defective or underengineered. If so, then perhaps experiences from future owners will prove this to be a known issue with 05 minis. It might be too late for me, but I hope it can be of some benefit to other people.

Perhaps MINI will use the “competitive driving” clause as reason for voiding the warranty. If it comes to that, I will suck it up, have the car towed to my house and my husband and I will replace the tranny. He is fully capable of doing that since he did a much harder auto tranny replacement and more recently, a complete drivetrain swap in a mid-engine car. Regardless, I think fellow autoxers and MINI owners would benefit from learning of my experience.

Oh, and I do appreciate everyone’s comments, even the negative ones. I like people to be candid, because I really want to know where I stand with this.

Originally Posted by bmovierat

I was going to keep my distance from this thread until I heard something new. However, this is so over the top that I can’t allow this to stand unchallenged. If posting an experience with a dealership’s service department is considered “bashing” so be it. But, I thought this is precisely the reason why this forum exists. People can read my experience, pass it off as a fluke or sour grapes, or they can use it and make their decisions accordingly.

If my post convinces mini owners to avoid autoxing their cars, fine. If my post convinces people in Western Pa to avoid buying a MINI from MINI of Pittsburgh, fine. If my post convinces people to avoid MINIs in general, fine. I want to tell the truth, tell about my experience and let everything else fall where it may. People have to make their own decisions. But, if I am thinking about spending $25K on a new car, I want to have as much information as possible. Under this Web site’s old system, NAM used to have dealer reviews, which I found highly useful 2 1/2 years ago when I was in the market for a MINI. Since that no longer exists, I still think it’s beneficial to discuss one’s experiences with dealerships.

I hope this information can help better the community and I don’t think it’s constructive to be anything but honest about my experience. I’m not going to sugarcoat anything just for the sake of this dealer’s reputation. And, I’m not going to sugarcoat anything about what happened just for the sake of making me look better.

I could have just posted that the tranny exploded while on the road, not while autoxing. I would probably get a lot fewer people bashing me that way, but I’m a big girl; I can take it.

The dealer serviced this vehicle 4 months before this occurred. They misdiagnosed the symptoms of too much drivetrain play when accelerating/decelerating by claiming it was a worn clutch. The dealer could have investigated further, but they refused. They could have replaced this differential or the differential pin and avoid having to have the entire tranny replaced, but they did not.

Perhaps they will claim autoxing caused this part to wear prematurely. I don’t think so. I think the part was either defective or underengineered. If so, then perhaps experiences from future owners will prove this to be a known issue with 05 minis. It might be too late for me, but I hope it can be of some benefit to other people.

Perhaps MINI will use the “competitive driving” clause as reason for voiding the warranty. If it comes to that, I will suck it up, have the car towed to my house and my husband and I will replace the tranny. He is fully capable of doing that since he did a much harder auto tranny replacement and more recently, a complete drivetrain swap in a mid-engine car. Regardless, I think fellow autoxers and MINI owners would benefit from learning of my experience.

Oh, and I do appreciate everyone’s comments, even the negative ones. I like people to be candid, because I really want to know where I stand with this.