Resurrecting this thread. I've currently got this problem with my 2015 3 door JCW and wish I'd found this thread sooner.
I initially took the car to my local MINI specialist, as my car is around 10 months out of warranty (I had the 5 year extended warranty) and I assumed the issues I was having were relatively minor and down to a dodgy sensor or a loose connection. £350 later the specialist told me they'd found evidence of swollen wiring and the car would require a portion of the wiring loom replacing. They told me where maintaining an ongoing warranty isn't an issue, BMW supply a part that allows them to partially replace the loom without having to do the whole thing. However, it still requires a huge amount of the interior out and is still major work.
I asked them to hold off on doing the work and spent much of last week pursuing the issue with my dealership. They told me as the car is over 5 years old and out of warranty and the issue isn't common (which I now know was a total lie) that my car wouldn't be eligible for goodwill and to contact MINI UK directly myself.
I contacted MINI UK and offered to pay to have the car re-assembled at my local garage and driven to the dealership, with the understanding that they'd carry out the work on the wiring loom. This would be at a cost of roughly £500 to me due to the amount of investigation done at the previous garage to discover the fault and I thought I was being pretty reasonable by offering to cover this.
However, MINI UK told me that they weren't prepared to do any work on the car without running their own diagnostics and ONLY if they decided the fault was a manufacturing defect would they consider a goodwill gesture. They wouldn't divulge how much of the repair bill would be covered by any goodwill and they refused to take the car based on the diagnostics already run at my local garage, despite me sending a report and photo evidence. I told them I'd be happy for them to confirm with their own diagnostics as it's understandable they may want to do this, but that if the fault was confirmed to be the same as the one identified by my garage that I'd like some assurances that they'd cover the costs, especially as at this point they quoted me an estimate of £2548.60 + VAT for the repair.
I told them I couldn't be expected to pay £500 to my existing garage, only to drive it over there and discover that A) they either they won't cover any part of the repair under goodwill or B) they will cover only a small portion of the repair bill, leaving me worse off than having my existing garage cover the repair work. I explained again that the fault is common and BMW have themselves created a part to repair it as it's so well known, and that I'd be more than happy to bring the car to the dealership and shoulder the costs from the MINI specialist as long as they'd give me some kind of guarantee that they'd cover some or all of the work.
At this point, they told me they had escalated my complaint but the final decision was that they were no longer prepared to offer any goodwill whatsoever and to let them know if they could help me in the future but that this discussion was no longer to be continued and they wouldn't change their decision.
Having been without the car for two weeks and assuming that I wasn't going to get the dealership to commit to the repairs based on their correspondence, I've now instructed my MINI specialist to carry out the work for me, but they've advised me the repair is already running into day 2 of labour and while they're doing everything they can to keep the costs down, it's extremely labour intensive work. The bill looks like it'll easily exceed £2000 at this point.
Reading this thread, I'm now kicking myself that I didn't take the risk and have the car reassembled and taken to the dealership, however both the dealership and MINI UK made it quite clear that they weren't going to take any financial responsibility. If I'd found this thread sooner I'd have taken the car down there anyway and kicked up a huge fuss but based on everything both the dealer and MINI UK had told me, they weren't prepared to cover any costs associated with the repair.
I'm now faced with a massive bill from my garage, although they're very sympathetic to the situation and are providing me with photo evidence of the damage, the repair and have offered to give me the damaged section of wiring to use as evidence once it's been extracted. They've also agreed to put together a report detailing the fault, diagnostics and the repair along with the bill so that I can continue trying to pursue the dealership for my costs.
Following all of this, I emailed Peter Vardy customer complaints and outlined everything that had happened so far between myself, the dealership, MINI UK and the third party garage and I told them that at this stage I now consider the dealership in breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and will be pursuing the third party costs for the repair. I've given them one more opportunity to settle the cost and told them if we can't reach an agreement, then I'll be escalating to ADR and if necessary I'll take them to the small claims court to get my money back.
I've fought as hard as I possibly can and I'm really disappointed that it's come to this. Not only that but I'm concerned about what state my car will be in once it's reassembled. I trust the garage who have the car (they have a 6 week waiting list as they're that popular with MINI and BMW owners) so I'm hopeful that, if anything, they'll do a better job than the dealership monkeys would, but I still worry that it'll never be the same.
Reading everyone's success stories gives me some hope, but as the repair is now being done by a third party I'm not sure how successful I'll be in pursuing them for the costs. I have a paper trail to prove that they refused to offer any goodwill, forcing me to have it repaired elsewhere and I can only hope this is enough.
Sorry for the huge essay, I'll update once I know more but please keep everything crossed for me
With a bill this massive, I'm going to be forced to sell the car once the repair is complete if I can't get the money back, as I'm 6 months pregnant right now and just don't have the money for this kind of repair at the moment
