Open safety recalls, the components owners report failing most often, crash-test results and running costs for the 2017 Mini Cooper — assembled from NHTSA and EPA records.
Everything on this page applies to the model as a whole. Run its 17-character VIN to decode that exact car — its engine, trim, assembly plant and factory equipment — alongside these records. Free, no account.
Run a VIN →Recalls and complaints are filed against a specific model year, so figures differ from one year to the next even within a single generation. See every Mini Cooper year.
No EPA fuel-economy match for this model (naming may differ or it predates EPA records).
NHTSA lists 3 recalls for this make/model/year. Recalls apply to the model, so some may already be fixed on this specific car — check with a dealer using the VIN.
Issue: BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain model year 2016-2017 X1 sDrive28i, X1 xDrive28i, MINI Hardtop 4 Door Cooper, Mini Hardtop 4 Door Cooper S, MINI Cooper Clubman, and Cooper S Clubman, 2017 Rolls-Royce Ghost, and 2016 528i vehicles. The vehicle-sensitive locking mechanism of the seat belt Emergency Locking Retractor (ELR) for the driver's seat may not lock as designed. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 209, "Seat Belt Assemblies."
Risk: In the event of a crash where heavy braking is applied, the Emergency Locking Retractor (ELR) may activate when the occupant is more forward in the seat, possibly increasing the risk of injury.
Remedy: BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver's seat belt assembly, free of charge. The recall began July 3, 2019. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.
Campaign 16V747000
Issue: BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain 2016-2017 MINI Cooper Clubman, Cooper S Clubman and JCW Clubman vehicles. When the affected vehicles are braking and the turn signals are on, the inner, bumper-mounted, brake light will go out. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 108, "Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment."
Risk: If the brake light does not illuminate when a turn signal is activated, other drivers may be confused, increasing the risk of a crash.
Remedy: MINI will notify owners, and dealers will reprogram the vehicle to correct the brake lighting, free of charge. The recall began May 22, 2017. Owners may contact MINI customer service at 1-866-825-1525.
Campaign 17V222000
Issue: BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain model year 2017 BMW 640i, 640i xDrive, 650i, 650i xDrive, M6, 535i, 535i xDrive, 430i, 430i xDrive, 440i, 440i xDrive, M4, X1 sDrive28i, X1 xDrive28i, i3, i8, Rolls-Royce Dawn, Mini Clubman Cooper, Clubman Cooper S, Cooper All4, Cooper S All4, Mini 4-Door Cooper, Cooper S, Mini 2-Door Cooper, Cooper S, John Cooper Works and 2016 BMW 528i, 528i xDrive, 535i, 535i xDrive, 550i, 550i xDrive, M5 and 535d vehicles. The affected vehicles have seat- mounted side air bag inflator initiators that may fail to ignite during a crash.
Risk: If the air bag inflator initiator fails to ignite, the seat-mounted air bag will not deploy, increasing the risk of injury.
Remedy: BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the air bag modules, free of charge. The recall began February 6, 2017. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.
Campaign 16V914000
NHTSA has no NCAP crash-test rating for this model/year (common for older, low-volume, or heavy-duty vehicles).
The parts named most often across 18 owner complaintsfiled with NHTSA for this make, model and year — the closest free answer to “what is likely to go wrong?”
1 crash
2 crashes · 2 injured
1 crash
Complaints are self-reported and skew toward problems people find alarming, so treat this as where to look, not a defect rate.
The contact owns a 2017 Mini Cooper. The contact stated that while that vehicle was parked, the vehicle was turned on that there was a message on the instrument panel stating that there was a taillight malfunction. The contact inspected the vehicle and noticed that the driver’s side rear taillight had not illuminated. The vehicle was able to restart. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the driver’s side taillight housing and connector needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired, and the VIN was not included in a recall related to the failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 60,000.
The contact owns a 2017 Mini Cooper. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the vehicle rolled backwards. The contact applied the parking brake. There was an abnormal scraping noise detected while starting the vehicle. The roll back warning light was illuminated. There was a message stating “Transmission, Not Secure” was displayed. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 43,198.
Rear tail light malfunction due to defective ground, melting connectors to rear break lights and indicators. Lack of break lights and indicators is a risk to motorist safety as a whole.
The driver door latching mechanism failed this past week. For days, I was unable to latch the door closed -- all attempts to close the door would result in the door simply bouncing off the body of the car. I spent hours unsuccessfully trying to get the latching mechanism to work again, e.g. by repeatedly attempting to close the door, holding the door closed and trying to lock all doors. To drive the car home from work and to the dealership for repairs, I was forced to hold the door closed with my left hand while driving and by tying the door closed with my seat belt (on the highway, no less). I eventually took the car to my local dealership and left it for diagnosis and repairs. I took a video of the door's fault, and left the car locked and with the driver's door tied closed with my seat belt. To my amazement, the dealership called a few days later and told me that they were unable to duplicate the fault; as far as I know, no repairs were therefore made. I shared the video of the door's fault with the dealership; they hypothesized that the latching mechanism may have intermittently failed because of the weather. I now feel anxious about driving the car. This is a major safety issue. There are reasons to suspect that this reflects a manufacturing defect: 1) door latches should never fail, irrespective of the age of the car, and force drivers / passengers to e.g. use their seat belts to hold their doors closed; 2) my car is low mileage (~36,000 miles); 3) my car was not involved in any preceding accident or incident that could have caused the latching mechanism to fail; and 4) this is the second time this has happened with this car -- the same issue occurred with the front passenger door ~2 years ago. I'd be happy to share the video that I took of me trying to close the door (already shared with the dealer). At this point, I'd like the NHTSA to investigate; initiate a recall, if necessary; and I'd like Mini to replace the remaining latches on my car.
Front Upper Arm Bushing on both the Driver’s and Passenger sides needed to be replace after less than 25,000 miles. Bushing failure causes upper arms of suspension to whack against the body and greatly effect handling, could lead to accidents.
Transmission: secure vehicle against rolling. Warning is showing up. The battery died, and I put the car into neutral to roll it. Now this warning is showing up every time I put the car in park and turn it off.
Per dealer, the front passenger door latch cable went bad (documentation available if needed) on a 2017 Mini Cooper S (4-door). Background: there was an episode a few weeks back when I was unable to latch the front passenger door. It just wouldn't latch when you tried to close it - the door would just swing / bounce off the body of the car (so to speak) on closure attempts. I fiddled with locking / unlocking the door, was finally able to have it latch again. Around 7/12, people washing my car accidentally opened that door. Unfortunately, despite again trying to fiddle around to get the door to latch for quite some time, I wasn't able to latch that door again. This obviously created a huge safety issue -- e.g. to even get the car to a dealership for repairs, people in my situation would often have to physically hold the door closed from the inside while driving. I figured out a way to hold it closed with the front passenger seatbelt; that thankfully held the door closed while I drove (including on the highway) the car to the dealership. The dealer eventually diagnosed the front passenger door latch cable as having gone bad (please see attached service report). First, the latching mechanism for car doors should never fail - customers should never e.g. have to hold their doors closed while driving or have to rig up their seatbelts to do the same. Second, it's also very unexpected that this issue happened in my car -- my car has always been well-maintained (it's regularly serviced), my car is just four years old, it's very low mileage (26k); and hardly anyone uses my front passenger door.
THE VEHICLE WAS AT A STOP WHEN THE BRAKE WAS RELEASED IT LUNGED FORWARD INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC. ANOTHER TIME IN DRIVEWAY VEH WAS BOUGHT TO A STOP IN OUR DRIVEWAY TO TURN AROUND. THE BRAKE PEDAL WAS RELEASED AND THE CAR LUNGED INTO A WALL AND THE TIRES CONTINUED TO SPIN UNTIL BRAKES WERE HEAVILY APPLIED
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2017 MINI COOPER. THE CONTACT CALLED ON BEHALF OF HIS WIFE AND STATED THAT WHILE DRIVING AT 20 MPH, THE CONTACT CRASHED INTO ANOTHER VEHICLE. THE AIR BAGS DID NOT DEPLOY BUT THE CONTACT MENTIONED THAT THE OTHER VEHICLES AIR BAGS DEPLOYED. A POLICE REPORT WAS FILED. THE CONTACT SUSTAINED BACK AND NECK ACHES THAT NEEDED MEDICAL ATTENTION. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO A SALVAGED YARD WAITING TO BE DIAGNOSED BY THE INSURANCE COMPANY. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT TAKEN TO A DEALER FOR A DIAGNOSTIC TEST OR REPAIRS. THE MANUFACTURER WAS MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE VIN WAS NOT AVAILABLE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS APPROXIMATELY 40,000.
TL* THE CONTACT OWNED A 2017 MINI COOPER. THE CONTACT STATED WHILE DRIVING 35 MPH, WHEN ANOTHER VEHICLE FAILED TO STOP AT A STOP SIGN AND IMPACTED THE FRONT PASSENGER SIDE OF HER VEHICLE. THE CONTACT STATED SHE WAS COLLIDED INTO A FIRE HYDRANT. THE AIR BAG DID NOT DEPLOY. THE CONTACT STATED THE PASSENGER FROM THE OTHER VEHICLE SOUGHT MEDICAL ATTENTION. A POLICE REPORT WAS FILED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DRIVABLE. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO IMPOUND LOT. A DEALER WAS NOT CONTACTED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED AS OF YET. THE VEHICLE WAS DESTROYED. THE MANUFACTURER HAD NOT BEEN INFORMED OF FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS UNKNOWN. *TR*JB
DRIVER'S SIDE SEAT BELT LOCKING MECHANISM JAMS, PREVENTING THE DRIVER FROM FASTENING THE SEAT BELT AND OPERATING THE VEHICLE IN A SAFE MANNER.
PURCHASED VEHICLE NEW 2017 MINI COOPER COUNTRYMAN S AWD FROM DEALERSHIP IN SEPTEMBER 2017, DAY AFTER PURCHASE ON THE WAY FROM TEXAS TO OKLAHOMA VEHICLE STALLED ON HIGHWAY IN A SPEED ZONE OF 75, THE VEHICLE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON AND PERFORMANCE WAS REDUCED AND STARTED SHAKING AND VEHICLE WENT FROM 70 MPH DOWN TO 55MPH IMMEDIATELY. DRIVETRAIN MALFUNCTION LIGHT WAS LIGHT UP AS WELL AS SERVICE ENGINE LIGHT. DEALERHSIP TOWED VEHICLE AND WAS SUPPOSE TO FLASH/UPDATE SOFTWARE ALSO HAD TO REPLACE SPARK PLUGS AND COILS AFTER THAT VEHICLE WOULD DISPLAY DRIVETRAIN MALFUNCTION AND WOULD LOSE POWER AGAIN. ON 02/28 ON THE WAY BACK FROM TEXAS AGAIN VEHICLE DID SAME THING ALMOST CAUSING A WRECK WHEN VEHICLE DECELERATED AND SHAKED. VEHICLE WAS TOWED AGAIN AND WAS ADVISED THAT VEHICLE SOFTWARE NEEDED FLASHED/UPDATED.
Showing 12 of 18 complaints.