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Some Kind of Service Alert - 2014 Mini Cooper Hardtop Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited October 2014 in MINI
imageSome Kind of Service Alert - 2014 Mini Cooper Hardtop Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds conducts a long-term test of a 2014 Mini Cooper and finds that it gave an alert for drivetrain service that was curiously non-specific.

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    pureclassicpureclassic Member Posts: 12
    Thankfully you are under warranty - if you weren't the Service manager will gladly charge you about 135.00 to plug your key into a reader - seems like the only true purpose of the info screen after radio or GPS is to inspire you to return to the dealer...often and confused.
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    kirkhilles1kirkhilles1 Member Posts: 863
    Yeah, nothing instills confidence in your vehicle than getting a transmission related issue at a little over 2,000 miles.
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    grijongrijon Member Posts: 147
    edited October 2014
    In one sense, this is no worse than a Check Engine light in that it simply conveys the message that you need to get checked out.
    But I have a hard time accepting this in a vehicle that clearly is capable of so much more - in what possible way does it serve the owner to NOT have more information? Is Mini trying to not "bother" the driver with the facts? I don't like it and it makes me wonder what other ideas they put into the car to "help" me.
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    banhughbanhugh Member Posts: 315
    This a typical BMW issue. Did you forget already the infamous "Service due since 10 miles" reminder in the 328i Xdrive GT? http://www.edmunds.com/bmw/3-series-gran-turismo/2014/long-term-road-test/2014-bmw-328i-xdrive-gran-turismo-first-service-commentspage.html#comments

    As I said, the BMW/MINI German to English translator should be fired...
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    darexdarex Member Posts: 187
    Better than unmöglichkeit.
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    darthbimmerdarthbimmer Member Posts: 606
    My BMW provides slightly more information than this though only through pictographs that send me digging through the manual to interpret.
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    misterfusionmisterfusion Member Posts: 471
    Honestly, there is no need for ANY modern car to not just tell you whatever trouble codes are popping up -- including the plain-English meaning of said code.

    I now own an OBD reader & phone app, but only because the alternative is so infuriating: California is the ONLY state where it is illegal for a store like Autozone to read your code for free. And when I had my car at the dealer for an oil change, I asked them to read a code for me, and they said I would need to schedule a separate appointment for that! This was when the car was sitting in their bay! SMH. (I gave them a nasty write-up in the follow-up survey.)
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    allthingshondaallthingshonda Member Posts: 878
    I don't think this is a maintenance issue looks more like a malfunction. This is a very vague message though and considering it has a message display it could say more. And trouble codes would have to be looked up to determine what the problem could be. The car should tell you exactly what is wrong. Why not display, for example "Number 2 oxygen sensor malfunction detected. Continued driving possible. Service soon." Instead of just "Drivetrain" or P0141. And with the technology already installed it should automatically display this message on the screen with the computer reading the it to the driver when the malfunction occurs.
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