On october 7th, 2014 the key would not come out of the key slot. the key is not required to be inserted to start the car but simply with you. however, my daughter had borrowed the car and inserted the key so i have no way of knowing if this failure occurred on the date mentioned or earlier. it was in for service on august 25th, 2014 so sometime between the two dates the failure occurred. i took it to our local dealer, mini of des moines, and they also could not remove the key. they noticed that without the car running and the brake pedal not depressed the automatic transmission shifter could be moved to any position. they did not know if this would occur with the car running, i.e. inadvertently hitting the shifter into reverse or park while driving. they also did not know if the car was actually in park when indicated so. i left the car, was given a loaner, and when they called me the diagnosis was that liquid had spilled in a cup holder and leaked through the unsealed screw in the bottom onto an electrical component causing the problem. i am well aware of liquid spilling into the cup holder as this happened a couple of times when i first got the car due to the spring loaded holders in the side of the cup holder that i then removed . they are engineered incorrectly and although the manual states to use "lightweight, non-breakable containers" these spring retainers will poke a hole in styrofoam cups and will compress a paper cup, like starbucks, enough that liquid will expel through the top vent hole and drinking slot. in addition, while one would assume that liquid would occasionally be spilled in a cup holder, an additional engineering error was made when no sealing washer was used on the retaining screw in the bottom and any liquid the would leak on to another unsealed component and cause this failure. a $1,100.00 repair cost for bmw's inept engineering???
With just over 16000 miles on my 2011 mini cooper s countryman, my clutch is burned out! having it towed to the closest mini dealership at 70 miles away, they are saying the failure is due to abuse and is not covered by mini usa warrantee. i have been driver for over 40 years with most of my cars being manual transmissions and have never had to replace a clutch. after some research online, the clutch seems to be an issue with the 2011 & 2012 countryman models and now have said...'as part of the continual refinement and optimization of mini vehicles' they were modifying the clutch on their 2013 models! i am still in negotiations with mini usa on who will pay for the repairs on what i see as defective parts that should have a recall on them.
At 18xxx miles the clutch is gone. transfer case found defective. the clutch has been failing on the all4 models all across the country and dealers are blaming user error, even as fast as 1500 miles. $2500 for a new clutch on a brand new vehicle is absurd. *tr