| Components - Details | |
|---|---|
| NHTSA Complaint Number: 006085501 | Incident Date: Jul, 23 2006 |
| Consumer's City: NAVARRE | Consumer's State: FL |
| Vehicle Transmission Type: MAN | Manufacturers Name: BMW of North America, LLC |
| Model Name: COOPER S | Model Year: 2005 |
| Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No | Component's Description: Structure |
| Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No | Persons Injured: 0 |
| Vehicle's VIN#: WMWRE33545T | Date added to File: May, 23 2021 |
| Date Complaint Received: Nov, 14 2006 | Complaint Type: IVOQ |
| Incident Reported To Police: No | Purchase Date: Jul, 23 2006 |
| Was Original Owner: No | Anti-lock Brakes: Yes |
| Number of Cylinders: 4 | Date of Manufacturer: - |
| Was Vehicle Towed: - | Description of the Complaints: (1) i recently traded my 2003 mini cooper in for a 2005 mini cooper s at a private dealership. (2) upon inspecting the 2005 cooper s, i noticed that the strut towers were deformed, but since this was not a mini dealership, nothing could be done by them. i bought the car thinking this could be fixed under warranty. after calling the closest mini dealership which is 200+ miles away, i was informed that this was considered abuse to the car and it would not be covered under warranty. the previous owner must have hit a pothole. the problem i have with this situation is there is a serious design flaw in the mini cooper's shock towers. this is the first time i have seen this happen to a car. i have owned many cars in my lifetime, and never have seen this happen. i am not the only owner to experience this and it is a pretty common occurrence in mini coopers. i'm concerned because this situation causes the car to wander on the road. after doing research, i'm getting feedback from other owners. some say their dealership is fixing the deformation, others, like myself are denied. i'm a little frightened at what could happen to the car over time from this. will the sheet metal get even weaker as time goes on? i believe bmw should address this issue. (3) i have not fixed this problem on my car yet, but the fix is to either pay money to have the shock towers cut out and have new ones welded in, or pound down the old ones until they are flat, then buy reinforcement plates from a vendor to keep the already stressed metal from bending again. *jb |
