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.
It seems to me that when you put additional burdens on a system you are just asking for trouble.
They can do any number of stress tests and engineer something that “Should” be OK, but unless they put the money in the quality of those parts, it’s likely to fail.
Personally, I prefer simplicity over complexity.
I can “Hot wire” almost any car on the road today, but that is getting more and more challenging as our cars ignition systems are more integrated with so many other aspects of its operation.
We had a Toyota Sienna van with sludge. That engine was notorious for it. If you missed the oil change interval by one mile, you invalidated the warranty.
The buyers took it to the dealer for service and then called us complaining that the transmission wasn’t original. We bought it new — never did figure out the transmission issue.
Toyota? Never again for this family!
LOL!
They should be using a quality double roller chain and include a feature in the vacuum pump such as a pin that can break if the unit locks up... or run the vacuum pump off of the undriven end of a camshaft...or both..
Simple is MUCH better ,, these cars are very crowded underhood and there is quite a bit of heat to get rid of... personally I’d go without brake boost it’s not needed on this car.
I changed the Bendix drive on the starter of our ‘66 Bonneville without changing out the entire starter. But that was a different era. Now the entire starter is probably throw-away for a $5 solenoid.
Go to TDIclub.com. They have “Trusted mechanics” that should be able to do your service work reliably and cheaper than a dealer. Forums are good also.
I will, I just couldn’t resist...
CarFax is notoriously unreliable. We use it, but also be careful as it doesn’t uncover anything. I wouldn’t call her “stupid.”
My daughter bought a Ford Escape. Clean Carfax except for cosmetic damage on the rear lift gate. AAA did a thorough inspection (I followed the guy around the car and under it) and there were zero signs of any damage. Looks like the lift gate might have been lightly tapped backing up, but no misalignments anywhere and no sigh of slipped bolted joints.
A couple weeks ago, the transmission interlock to steering started acting up intermittently. Ford claims a soft drink was spilled on the console causing the problem, so not covered by warranty. My daughter doesn’t drink anything with sugar and hasn’t spilled anything in the car. Here we go, battling the after market warranty company. Aaarrrghhh!
Isn’t that a Honda engine that they use?
I had a Toyota fail in a similar manner, but after almost 200,000 miles. Big difference.
Mini uses a Japanese engine.
Vacuum in and of itself 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.
As I consider this, it seems that any device that is driven directly from the drive train is not a true vacuum device.
It may be that it is labeled as such, but it seems to be more complexity than needed.
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>> “Lost a timing chain (actually a belt) on my old Ford Escort. Ping, ping, ping then the engine stopped. Had it towed to my mechanic and he installed a new belt, no damage.” <<
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Had the exact same experience with that same engine (2300) in a Ford Ranger with high miles. Its a German designed engine first used in German Ford imports. Excellent durability.
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A lot of Minis have French-built (PSA) engines, which may be the problem right there. Even a lot of the engines labeled UK are actually French.
The revived Mini didn’t have a Cooper engine.
Cooper engines were well established as solid racing engines.
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Being almost 6'3” and long waisted, I don't do well in them or Mazda Miata’s.
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Did it damage the muffler bearings?
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Had a Honda inline air cooled four that was absolute trash.
The two center cylinders didn’t get enough cooling if you drove over 75 MPH.
Went through two engines early in the warranty period.
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Odd, because it actually has plenty of headroom.
It wasn’t the Headroom.
I actually fit in the 2014 Corvette used to own, even though it was pretty tight.
In the Honda, my Head was above the back of the seat and I felt like I crammed in there. It was like sitting in my B-I-L’s old Cobra Kit Car.
That Honda was the bang for the buck when it came out.
Yes, I can see that. They’re a fun flying machine.
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