Consumer Complaint Detail

MINI / COOPER / 2003

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 007122492 Incident Date: Aug, 16 2007
Consumer's City: SPARTANBURG Consumer's State: SC
Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO Manufacturers Name: BMW of North America, LLC
Model Name: COOPER Model Year: 2003
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Power train:automatic transmission
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: WMWRC33453T Date added to File: May, 23 2021
Date Complaint Received: Oct, 11 2007 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Jun, 13 2004
Was Original Owner: No Anti-lock Brakes: Yes
Number of Cylinders: 4 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: My 2003 mini cooper with the cvt transmission began making a ratcheting noise from the transmission. the car was towed back to town, and after talking to the dealer, it was driven to the dealer. i was told it needed a new transmission: $7,200.00. no rebuild available. it had just turned 90,000 miles, driven by myself (retired) and my wife; very easy driving. this was over half the value of the car, so we drove it to a transmission shop that we were aware of for a second opinion. on the test drive at that shop, the transmission "blew up" and locked up everything on the street. the steel belt in the transmission had come apart, destroying everything internally. had this happened on the freeway or a busy street, it could have been disastrous. upon researching this transmission, i find that this problem is not at all uncommon. i believe mini should be doing something about these early model cvt transmissions, which obviously have some mechanical defects built into them. *tr