Engine failures, major problems any?

[bwimpee]

My brother purchased a new 2008 Mini Cooper S two weeks ago to use as a commuter car for work, we are both wind turbine techs for GE and drive 100 miles total to get to and from work everyday. We had logged about 1000 miles on his mini when all of a sudden we had the motor completely shut off!!
We tryed restarting the car and the starter spun but would not engage the motor. After having it sent back to the mini center of San Antonio, and about a week of waiting, they said all the rockers are broke and the motor is basically done. On top of this the motor failure is our fault and warranty is not going to cover this, they blamed us for the problems and said this was due to over rev and gear miss!! This I know is not the case.

Anyways I ordered a smart and should have it in about a month, I have been on the list since mid April so fingers crossed, has anyone yet had any kind of problems like this with any of the smart dealers, or the smart cars? If anyone is considering a mini you might want to read some of the reviews and complaints, we are now finding out this are very problimatic vehicles, some of them are even burning up in parking lots and in owners driveways when parked.

[smartcentersarasota]

we have been delivering smarts since late january, and have not had any problems yet. i have the upmost confidence that there shouldnt be any major mechanical issues. but, theres all ways that chance. fingers crossed!!!!!!

anthony
smart center sarasota

[CruisingAZ]

And unfortunantly someone will get that "friday" car, it just makes since with 20,000 cars this year and a few will have problems.

[Krodista]

sorry to hear about your issue with the mini...like anything a certain percent of vehicles are bound to have issues. I am sorry you happened upon a bad apple

[brian r]

Originally Posted by bwimpee

After having it sent back to the mini center of San Antonio, and about a week of waiting, they said all the rockers are broke and the motor is basically done. On top of this the motor failure is our fault and warranty is not going to cover this, they blamed us for the problems and said this was due to over rev and gear miss!! This I know is not the case.

Your brother should ask to see the ecu printout. This is what they used to determine that the failure was due to abuse. It will show the date, time, mileage, rpm attained, throttle position and fuel trim of each event used to make their determination. It will also show what they call a "hard launch". Lotus Cars will end a warranty based on excessive launch history.

Sorry to hear about his situation. Mini/BMW is particularly severe on this. If they can't show him the data download, they will be hard pressed to support their claim.