Hi everyone I am looking to purchase a mini countryman. I am still on my research phase and I wanted to see what real mini owners think of them. What how much does general maintenance cost. Area they really expensive to keep up? I'm comping from a VW CC and oil change mobile one was around 85$ every 4 months. The ignition coils tend to break every 5k miles after the third year around 45k miles bout 60$ each. I was able to do this myself I have read that you cant do much to minis as putting HID lighting or changing a batter has to be taken in to the dealership. Could anyone guide me in the right direction? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sorry as I cannot be of help on your questions but Welcome to Motoring Alliance the nicest MINI forum on the interweb !!
I can tell you from working on my own MINI, you can work on it yourself. I may need to get special tools from time to time, but you can do it. I worked at a VW dealership and the maintenance on those things is ridiculous. You'll be saving money switching to a Countryman for sure. That being said, MINI itself isn't a "low cost to own" vehicle. It'll take your money too, just not as much as VW.
I m.a former mini owner, and current VW owner.... Basically had a pretty smooth 10 year experience with the older versions (gen1) car....but know many were not so lucky... There are some good aftermarket shops that work on MINI's, often BMW shops due to similarities.... Generally I am against extended warranty, etc...but many suggest then for MINI's based on the cars history....but they say the same for VW, so you are in similar territory. One tip...I got about 200,000+ miles on OEM Toyota coils on the the 2nd family car....but when I tossed in "lifetime" coils and even ones from a local shop, no warrenty, they all failed within 5,000 -7000 miles....got OEM coils from denso, the OEM manufacturer, and All issues were gone....cheap Chinese junk vs Japanese quality....thinking your CC was having similar issues....even warrenty parts getting swapped out is a PAIN. after 3 replacements, the parts guy gave me my $$ back....and apologized. As too how much you can do on for repairs....just co.es down to skills and tools....sure,some things like swapping a battery ARE becoming harder....
Thanks for both of your replies I figured it wouldnt be too bad, yes my CC was having the same issues thats why I got rid of it. Took it to 4 different places and no one could fix it. I hope I dont jinx myself and get a bad mini lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk