Posted on 02/09/2015 6:05:02 AM PST by rickmichaels
An Ontario woman has decided to Go Public, as she fights to get Mini Canada, owned by BMW, to pay $10,200 to repair her Mini Cooper, after a blown engine that left her car unusable.
"When the car stopped dead, I could have been killed or killed someone," Yasmina Bursac told Go Public.
"I'm a relatively experienced driver, I've been on the road for a long time. It was frightening."
Bursac bought her used 2010 Mini Cooper S from a Volkswagen dealership in Mississauga, Ont., in July 2013 for $21,000 .
The vehicle was only three years old with 61,000 kilometres on the clock, and Bursac says the Volkswagen dealership she bought it from told her it was in good shape and safe to drive.
But just over a year later, on Sept. 26, 2014, Bursac says she was travelling at 70 km/h along a Mississauga road when her car suddenly stopped without warning.
She heard a hissing sound and couldn't restart it.
Bursac had the car towed to a nearby gas station where a mechanic looked at it.
"He told me … the engine had been completely damaged beyond repair and I needed a new engine. I was in disbelief because the engine only had 64,000 kilometres on it," she said.
Bursac wanted a second opinion, so she had the car towed to Budd's BMW/Mini dealership in Oakville, Ont.
She says the dealership confirmed the worst — a vacuum pump had failed, causing the timing chain to snap and doing irreparable damage to the engine.
Bursac says the dealership told her a refurbished engine would cost her just under $10,200. Bursac was shocked; she still had about $19,000 in car payments to make.
Bursac called Mini Cooper Canada to complain. How could a relatively new car with so few kilometres have such a massive mechanical failure?
After some negotiation, the company offered to pay 60 per cent of the $10,200 cost, if Bursac got the repairs done at its dealership.
But Bursac had done some research, and believed the initial estimate was inflated, so the offer to pay a large portion of the cost wasn't the deal it seemed to be, especially when the damage wasn't her fault.
"It was shocking, because online the price range for a refurbished engine was between $1,700 and $3,000."
Class action lawsuits involving certain Mini Cooper models have already been filed in the U.S.
One $85-million US lawsuit alleges BMW failed to notify consumers about a design defect that could cause water pumps to fail in thousands of 2007-13 Mini Coopers.
That class action is pending court approval and involves the water pump that wasn't recalled. BMW denies the allegations.
In November 2013, a big class action lawsuit was settled involving the 2002-06 Mini Hardtop and the 2005-08 Mini Convertible.
Plaintiffs alleged a design defect caused the continuously variable transmissions or CVTs in the vehicles to prematurely break down, which could lead to transmission failure while driving.
In that case, BMW denied the allegations but agreed to provide refunds to consumers.
Go Public could not find a record of any class action lawsuits in Canada, but that doesn't mean there are no unhappy Mini drivers.
George Iny, president of consumer advocacy for the Automobile Protection Association in Canada, says his organization hears a lot of complaints about the older Mini models — especially those manufactured between 2002 and 2008.
"A used Mini is a piece of junk. And the pity is, unlike other BMW products, it's sold to people who would otherwise be driving in a small Volkswagen or Toyota or something like that," he told Go Public.
"These are the people who don't necessarily have the BMW wallet to pay for BMW price repairs. It's both not reliable and very expensive to fix."
The problem, according to Iny, goes beyond Mini products. He says that across the country, provincial governments are failing when it comes to protecting car owners.
Iny says that under most provincial consumer laws, defective goods are subject to a refund or replacement, but the provinces seem to ignore that when it comes to defective vehicles.
He says car manufacturers know they won't be penalized or face fines if their cars are defective.
"Very few retailers would refuse to take back really defective goods. Car makers and car dealers do that every day," Iny says.
Iny wants to see so-called "lemon laws" in Canada, like the ones in the U.S.
Individual states have their own legislation that goes by different names, but they all give car buyers extra protection if their vehicles are defective — if they have bought a so-called "lemon."
"What you would need is some kind of 'lemon' protection for both new and used car buyers, because the car companies don't respect the implied warranty that you get. You need something clearer," said Iny.
In the case of the Mini, Iny says BMW could do a lot better by offering its customers extended warranties for problematic models or cheaper repair rates, just as other car makers have done in the past.
In Bursac's case, she tried to strike a deal with the BMW dealership, suggesting it fix the car and then sell it, subtracting the cost of the repairs, enabling her to pay off as much of her loan as possible.
But Bursac says the dealership refused, saying the best it could do is offer her $1,000 for the broken-down car.
Barb Pitblado, BMW Group Canada's director of corporate communications, says that because Bursac bought the car second-hand from a non-Mini dealership without an extended warranty, there is little Mini Canada can do.
Pitblado says the company offered to pick up 60 per cent of the cost of replacing the engine as "a gesture of goodwill and to make [Bursac] happy with her brand experience with Mini."
Pitblado offered to put Bursac back in touch with the BMW/Mini dealership.
Bursac declined that offer, saying the situation leaves her saddled with car payments for a vehicle without an engine, which she can't drive or sell.
"It was just a horrible experience and it's continued to be a horrible experience," she says.
Like I said, if I was comfortable in the Honda, I would have bought one.
I already had a Honda Dealer ready to sell it to me at MSRP the first week they came out. Unfortunately, he didn’t have one in stock.
I went to another Dealer and sat in the only one they had and I was disappointed I wasn’t 5’8”, 150 lbs.
LOL
Great car, has everything you need and nothing you don’t. I call the Miata an “Old Lady Car” because my Mom bought one the first year it came out and still has it at the age of 78. ;)
Those are nice, but they get scary money for them.
Vacuum .. is created by lifting the gas pedal as the engine starts to suck.
It was originally used as free energy to assist in shifting an automatic transmission.
Why a “vacuum pump” is needed for braking is beyond me. Power brakes as well as power steering came from “positive” energy.
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Yes you get vacuum when you lift or operate at part throttle... when you are at a “track day” event you may not be off the throttle long enough to build vacuum especially with a supercharged engine. If you are “two pedaling” the car (never letting off the gas and just using the brakes to settle the chassis entering a corner) you will not have vacuum.. or to put it into a “street” scenario ,, you’re charging up a mountain road where you never let off the gas and are in a positive boost scenario...
Engine vacuum was used as a trigger to shift automatic transmissions (the vacuum modulator) but the transmissions all worked off of HYDRAULIC pressure generated internally, engine vacuum was just an indicator of throttle position and engine load. The vacuum modulator operated a hydraulic valve back in the analog control days and altered preset shift points (determined by pressure) to match engine load ,, now we use sensors for RPM , throttle position and “map” sensors and such to operate electrical actuators within the transmissions.
Vacuum is vacuum no matter if it is a engine pumping against a partially closed throttle or it is a vane type air pump run off of a cam chain..
The new NSX is going to be a hybrid (v6+3 electrics) and about $150k...
They’re also talking about a “new” S2000 in a mid-engine configuration with a turbo and ~300 HP.
Hard to improve on the mine IMO, a non-turboin-line 2.2 liter 4 cylinder with 244 HP and a redline at 8K.
As a peon, I can only marvel at what it must cost to insure these mega $$ high perf vehicles.
I saw that the first Hellcat Dodge sold was totalled in less than an hour and was sold for 20 grand over sticker, of course that isn’t part of the coverage.
My S2000 costs the same as my 2006 Nissan Frontier 4x4 in terms of insurance.
Absolutely. The diesel has no combustion chamber other than the thickness of the head gasket. IOW...no room for both the piston and an open valve.
Better check when you last got a timing belt.
3 year old used car, she had it for a year, You pay your money and take your chances. She should have bought a Toyota, she would still be driving and happy.
No surprise there, it has to be at least 6 years old, right?
The last ones were built in 2009.
It’s a 2005. What’s funny is that they’re going up in price recently... I’ve seen similar ones with more mileage that are getting $4-5K more than I paid a while back.
Also, finding a used one that hasn’t been modified or thrashed is getting harder. Mine was one owner, and the only thing that wasn’t stock was a set of new Michelins. That translates to “old guy owner” cause a kid would have spent that money on rims or such.
"Boost" engines don't have usable vacuum.
Yes you get vacuum when you lift or operate at part throttle... when you are at a “track day” event you may not be off the throttle long enough to build vacuum especially with a supercharged engine. If you are “two pedaling” the car (never letting off the gas and just using the brakes to settle the chassis entering a corner) you will not have vacuum.. or to put it into a “street” scenario ,, you’re charging up a mountain road where you never let off the gas and are in a positive boost scenario..
It’s been some time since I had a vehicle that preformed the way I wanted running “full throttle”.
Two peddling is a given since you need to maintain RPMS while setting or shifting weight for cornering.
I’ve always used my left foot for braking and have no idea why kids are taught “not” to use their left foot.
There have been soo many cases where people thought they where stomping on the “Brake” when in fact they where on the gas. Sudden acceleration syndrome, it nearly bankrupted Audi and Toyota more recently.
Sadly, most people don’t understand “how” an automatic transmission works. There is that little thing called “Stall speed”.
At the end of the day I wish that automakers would move away from the complexity they have engineered into everything and get back to a few basics. It seems to me that they do this as to keep control over both maintenance and repair.
to build vacuum especially with a supercharged engine.
“Boost” engines don’t have usable vacuum.
Honest question that you “may” have just answered.
I’m pretty certain that it’s been proven that a “human” driver can not shift as fast as an automatic transmission.
IIRC, it was Nigel Mansel, driving for Ferrari at the time that destroyed the field with an automatic transmission.
Your statement makes sense if applied to “Drag racing”.
Your statement makes sense if applied to “Drag racing”
No, it applies to any supercharged or turbocharged engines. If they have positive manifold pressure (more air then the engine is naturally trying to pull in) then they can't have negative manifold pressure (vacuum).
IOW: Boost pressure is the opposite of vacuum.
It has nothing to do with transmissions.
So, why do drag racers still shift manually ?
I understand positive manifold pressure as well as the source of vacuum.
Aren’t drag cars supercharged ?
Forced air ?
Turbo charged is slightly different as it works more on the back end vs. the front end like superchargers.
Turbo works best at high rpms while a supercharger is always on.
I don’t think there are many “Turbos” on the drag racing circuit.
Manual transmissions are sometimes used in racing just to add a measure of driver skill (NASCAR, for example), or, in many racing classes, to help keep costs down for competitors.
10k is pricey for a lawn mower engine? Lol. I guess so when you can buy a 2011 Hyundai Sonata with 30k miles on it for 10k. Which is exctly what I paid.
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