2nd Gen R60 Countryman Extended Maintenance?

:cornut: Two ways that people around here think about it. Me, I bought my brand new MINI Margi (08 R56 BRG MCS/JCWm) in Jan of 08. The R56 was a brand new model that came out in 07. Instead of the very reliable Pentagon/Tritec/Chrysler/ Brazilian super charged engine(R53) they had the new Peugeot/Prince/ French turbo charged engine(R56). By 09-10 the bugs had been worked out but my Margi was a 'garage queen' for the 1st 50kmi. When purchasing her my little voice said ," you better get the 50kmi warranty and not the 36kmi warranty." I am so happy that I did as so many expensive things went wrong that MINI must have lost thousands on my Margi. Now my extended warranty was cheaper than yours will be as it was purchased when the car was new. Your car not being in the 07-09 year range won't be as plagued as Margi was with breakage. So most people here would tell you to keep $2-$3k 'just in case money' in the bank especially since $175 x 12mos. is roughly $2k . I hope that this makes sense to you.

ALSO: 1st post, welcome to MA.

 

hmmmm, it sounds like there are two different things being discussed on these two posts.

the OP mentions the 3/36k service. That is for regular maintenance items(including clutches, rotors, pads, oil chages, etc), which can be extended to 6/100k for about $1,800(on a newly built Mini, not sure what it costs on a pre-owned).

Then there is the warranty which is currently 4/50k, which can be extended out to 8/100k and that covers all the break-fix items. For 2013 Mini's,I have talked to many dealers and the price is about the same: ~$3800.

From all the posts I have read here and on NAM, it seems to be that a lot of the longevity of the mechanicals has to do with proper break-in and ensuring proper oil levels/changing oil regularly.

We bought both of our Minis new with just a couple of miles on them and broke them in exactly per the manual regarding brakes, clutch and motor.

Since the OP bought theirs used, they don't know how the car was broken in, whether oil levels were kept consistent, etc. I can see where they would be looking at both options: getting an extended warranty of the current car or building a new one from scratch so they control how it is broken in and maintained.

Not sure what year CM the OP has, but I think the clutch problems were resolved around November of 2012 or so?

We bought the extended service plan on both cars(NOT the extended warranty), because we drive both Minis the way they were meant to be driven, so I'm pretty sure we are going to go through numerous sets of rotors/pads and those are very expensive items through Mini.

We have set aside a "mini repair fund" and put money into it every month. when the warranties run out on our two Minis, we will have funds to cover a good number of repairs, and if we don't spend it on the Minis, then that's money in our pocket...to us the Mini extended warranty costs past the factory 4/50k is really, really expensive.

 

^^^ Excellent plan....

 

With so few miles on the car in the OP, I'm guessing this is an R56 or something in that vintage. Without knowing what it actually is, I'm reserving opinion on retain or replace... Maybe some more info will be shared so we can offer additional input to the owner.

 

^^^ It's posted in the 2nd Gen forum so it's most likely a R56....

 

Buy the warranty.... JMHO.

 

If you plan on keeping the car for awhile ( 3-5 yrs ) ....get the warranty.
If you dont think you will keep it for more than a year or 2 ...skip it

IMO......

 

^^^^ or you could always use you Visa / MasterCard warranty. :lol:

The down side is: It will cover everything, you just have to pay it back.
The upside is: It cost you nothing up front and if you never us it its free.