[Deschodt]

We bought a used Mini cooper last week, seemed like a decent deal for a fun beater that we'd use both as a backup car and week end toy (cabrio). Things started to go wrong upon exiting the dealership parking lot, but that's not really the issue (modern cars, you know) I'm ranting about the design of the car and fleecing of customers....

The airbag light came on - turns out the sensor mat under the passenger seat (a US only addition) goes bad. No biggie right? Ha ! The sensor mat is glued to the seat bottom in a manner that requires replacement of the entire seat bottom, or in some cases the whole seat (at the rate dealers charge you can be better off swapping instead of disassembling) - $1600 to $2000 depending on dealers... (the selling dealer is covering this but I almost feel bad for them). It's recalled till 2005. Not after! ??? Same part is recalled on Bimmers for 06-08 I think, not Minis (same part, same manufacturer too).

Then the water pump supposedly leaks. OK fine, we can do this while the seat is on order (we got a lot of time). Get this: $1400 quote, with a straight face. For a water pump. As I recall my old Cayman S pump cost $800 to do. A Mini Cooper's is 1400? Apparently you must disassemble the entire car to get to it. Clever ! I declined and passed by an independent mechanic who quoted me $500 or so... How do those people stay in business with such blatant fleecing? And such poor design? The car is a riot, but that's gotta affect the used market, wouldn't ya think ? (not even, high resale values). I don't get it. Anyway that's my warning if you are considering one of these cars....