Independent vehicle inspections regarding engine failure

[Moseley]

Hello folks,

Just wondering if anyone has had to go through an independent inspection process regarding a warranty / non-warranty claim and had any advice or recommendations.

Long story short, the other half's 2009 Mini One which she bought from new has just suffered engine failure requiring an entire new block / pistons / head due to a part of a valve breaking off whilst on the motorway. The car has done just under 60k miles and has full BMW Mini service history, however, it is out of warranty and we chose not to take out an extended warranty.

The bill for the repairs came to £10.5k, which Mini (as a goodwill gesture) agreed to pay a percentage of, leaving us with nearly £2k to make up on our own. This was repaired under duress, and Mini are well aware of this. Going by my reading of consumer rights act and having spoken with CAB, they agreed that it sounds as if the car has failed within an unreasonable length of time (they quoted 6 years as being reasonable) and believe we have a string case. In an ideal world, Mini would inspect it and produce a report to say it was a manufacturing defect, however, they are not willing to do this. They have said we can get an independent inspection to find the root cause, and prove that we, as owners, have done everything in our power to avoid this type of failure from occuring (FSH is about all we could have done in my eyes).

Has anyone had one of these done, knows someone who can, or have anyone they could recommend in the West Midlands area? And any idea of what something like this costs?

Advice would be much appreciated before we start handing out lots more money.

 

[lasty]

Correct me if I`m wrong ...
You have a 5 year old car with 60,000 trouble free miles , and the engine let go ??
Mini waived 80% of their fee even though you had the option of extended warranty and turned it down ??

What the hell are you moaning about ??

Hats off to Mini - Very good customer service .

 

[chad]

10.5k seems a lot for an engine - I'm glad I don't have a Mini I'd be paranoid at any little noise

 

[bluenose]

regardless of warranty 60k is shit for a modern engine from any manufacturer, let alone a BMW who tell you they are a quality premium brand.

no excuse especially one that's been looked after with a FSH, I'd expect the engine to outlast the rest of the car.

You'll probably struggle considering it's out of warranty but it's worth a few letters, you might get somewhere

 

[Moseley]

Correct me if I`m wrong ...
You have a 5 year old car with 60,000 trouble free miles , and the engine let go ??
Mini waived 80% of their fee even though you had the option of extended warranty and turned it down ??

What the hell are you moaning about ??

Hats off to Mini - Very good customer service .

Really... :roll: You think it's ok for a modern car (and a 'premium' one at that) to fail after 60k miles? Even if we had taken out an extended warranty on it, there's no way we'd ever feel the same about the car again, and I'm shocked it has failed in such a way, and that Mini won't pay for it entirely when I'm 99% sure it's a manufacturing defect.

regardless of warranty 60k is shit for a modern engine from any manufacturer, let alone a BMW who tell you they are a quality premium brand.

no excuse especially one that's been looked after with a FSH, I'd expect the engine to outlast the rest of the car.

You'll probably struggle considering it's out of warranty but it's worth a few letters, you might get somewhere

I've hopefully managed to find someone who can inspect it, so will find out tomorrow. Unfortunately this means additional cost, but the CAB feel we have a strong case should it end up going to court. I'm hoping that the results of an inspection + some threatening letters will be enough.

 

[lasty]

S*it happens - as they say ...

Do i need to say it slowly ?

Mini/Bmw have repaired your vehicle at a fraction of the cost than if you`d have had to pay for it so full marks there ..
They could have quite legally washed their hands of it , YOU declined the additional warranty after all , so why is it their problem ??
It`s an engine - engines break ... FACT . 5 years / 60k miles is getting on a bit even with a full service history it`s still only a collection of parts ...

I`d like to wish you luck but can`t bring myself to do it - your `premium car` just isn`t ..... :lol:
Have you tried trades description ??
(Premium indeed :lol: :lol: :lol: )

 

[user 20733]

I agree with @Lasty. BMW are being very generous. I had a top of the range focus that had only done 50k when the turbo, EGR valve and diesel particulate filter all went in the same year. All I got from a Ford local dealer was 'Yes, we have seen this happen' and Ford themselves denied all knowledge and refused any help.
Take the money and run. It is unfortunate this has happened but at least you are not left with a dead car.

BMW co-designed a lot of engines in Minis with Peugeot so definitely not a premium brand. Several power plants - especially the diesel - have known issues. It was the same unit in my Focus.


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[Moseley]

Well agree to disagree and all that - I'm going by the advice given by CAB that we have a strong case, and given the nature of the failure and the period that it has failed in, I feel the same.

I had heard that the engine may not be a BMW designed one, but at the end of the day, the car is sold as a BMW, and it is down to them to make sure that the components they source are fit for purpose. I regard BMW as a premium brand (along with the likes of Audi and Mercedes), as would a lot of people... you pay more for a BMW than a comparable manufacturer, and so should expect better quality...

I'm fully aware that Mini didn't have to pay anything, but to be honest, my gut feeling says that they've offered what they have done in order to cover their costs and hopefully 'keep me quiet', because they know full well that an engine shouldn't have failed under these circumstances.

But anyway, the point of this thread wasn't to defend my actions, although it is interesting to here the constructive side to both parties involved. As it stands, I have sourced an inspector who will stand in court if required, so will see what the outcome is tomorrow.

 

[busdiver]

I'm afraid that i have to agree with lasty and skutterbob........mostly.. 60k is possibly not acceptable......buuut on the other side that sort of "goodwill" by a main dealer is not usual.. grab it and run !!

i have a 5 year old renault :shock: (yes i know) and over the last year both electric window control devices have packed up... are renault interested in helping with what is accepted as a common fault ie. a design flaw............. ARE THEY FUCK :x 400quid per door repair. no thankyou i'll get a 20quid part of the web and do it myself.. :roll:

 

[Davydomes]

I had a 4 year old BMW Mini Cooper with 28k on the clock. Over a period of 6 months - Clutch totally disintegrated £750 :shock: , Power Steering Packed in £340 :shock: Handbrake mechanism totally seized and needed replacing £220 :shock: Front Disc needed replacing - can't remember cost of this an a couple of other jobs. Has always been main dealer serviced. I spent shy of £2000 in repairs. Total bag of crap! Got rid as I was scared of anything else going. BMW quality - my arse!

 

[chad]

I had the same with a Mercedes A140.

At 3 years old, with about 15k on the clock, the Mercedes garage, where we'd taken it for a service, refused to let my wife take it away as it was dangerous. She was told that there was a problem with the rear suspension and the brakes.

The best part of £1k later we got it back.

This set the scene until we got rid of it - it used to get through front brake callipers every year and there was always something even more expensive like throttle bodies to replace.

We thought that we were buying a 'quality' car.......

The irony is that it replaced a Fiat Punto which was virtually fault free over 8 years and was cheap to service.

 

[Moseley]

I'm afraid that i have to agree with lasty and skutterbob........mostly.. 60k is possibly not acceptable......buuut on the other side that sort of "goodwill" by a main dealer is not usual.. grab it and run !!

i have a 5 year old renault :shock: (yes i know) and over the last year both electric window control devices have packed up... are renault interested in helping with what is accepted as a common fault ie. a design flaw............. ARE THEY FUCK :x 400quid per door repair. no thankyou i'll get a 20quid part of the web and do it myself.. :roll:

Oh I have taken them up on that offer a while back, for fear of it being rejected altogether... but it was accepted under duress, so now that the work is done, I'm hoping to reclaim the rest. Worth a punt for a few hundred quid I guess. The quality of modern cars does worry me, and there are plenty of horror stories about. Parts seem to wear out quicker, yet are substantially more to replace than ones from yester-year.

I had a 4 year old BMW Mini Cooper with 28k on the clock. Over a period of 6 months - Clutch totally disintegrated £750 :shock: , Power Steering Packed in £340 :shock: Handbrake mechanism totally seized and needed replacing £220 :shock: Front Disc needed replacing - can't remember cost of this an a couple of other jobs. Has always been main dealer serviced. I spent shy of £2000 in repairs. Total bag of crap! Got rid as I was scared of anything else going. BMW quality - my arse!

I've spoken to various people about this, and have been shocked at how many people have had 'Mini' complaints. The worse being someone who works with the Mrs whose ball joint separated at motorway speed and speared them off into an embankment. They were lucky to walk away from that one... but needless to say never will set foot in one again.

 

[68_early_bay]

£10.5k bill to repair the engine :shock: wow


If that was a genuine price and not inflated then they reduced that to £2k that was a hell of a discount,

My cooper s only cost me £14,900 when it was brand new for the whole car with loads of extras, I had it 8 years and sold it in 2010

The best car I've had. And sytner bmw's customer service was great

 

[bluenose]

I bet the service book says replace the cambelt at 60k not the engine :lol:

I do 20k a year so I guess I should expect to buy a brand new car every 3 years!

If it is a known design issue I reckon you've got a decent chance of getting some more money back

My old man got a full refund when his Vectra diesel packed up and got stuck in limp mode.... it was out of warrenty and the bill was massive, the issue was actually on watchdog. They wanted to charge him for it but after quite a few letters he got a full refund.

Only a total mug would walk out the garage thinking they'd been done a favour only charging 2k for a new engine on a low mileage car, fair play to you

 

[Moseley]

£10.5k bill to repair the engine :shock: wow


If that was a genuine price and not inflated then they reduced that to £2k that was a hell of a discount,

My cooper s only cost me £14,900 when it was brand new for the whole car with loads of extras, I had it 8 years and sold it in 2010

The best car I've had. And sytner bmw's customer service was great

I highly highly doubt that was anywhere near cost price, hence the big reduction. My thoughts are that the money off meant what we paid ended being break even point for them.

I bet the service book says replace the cambelt at 60k not the engine :lol:

I do 20k a year so I guess I should expect to buy a brand new car every 3 years!

If it is a known design issue I reckon you've got a decent chance of getting some more money back

My old man got a full refund when his Vectra diesel packed up and got stuck in limp mode.... it was out of warrenty and the bill was massive, the issue was actually on watchdog. They wanted to charge him for it but after quite a few letters he got a full refund.

Only a total mug would walk out the garage thinking they'd been done a favour only charging 2k for a new engine on a low mileage car, fair play to you

I've done a bit of googling and can't find any similar / common issues of this nature, although the mechanic at the garage did say he did an identical job a few years back, so maybe not a completely isolated case.

Well the inspection was today - it turned out to be a burnt out exhaust valve with a fair size chunk missing. Inspector has categorised it as premature failure, so will get a report shortly. Will be doing some letter writing and see where that gets us.

 

[user 20733]

Best of luck. I will be interested on how you get on. I don't buy Ford anymore because of the treatment I received.

Wife's auto Fiesta had a 'they all do that' last year (main dealer quote again). Luckily a local garage knew how to fix at a quarter of the cost.