Mini Cooper

Which Mini Cooper years should you avoid?

Going by 2,237 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Mini Cooper years to avoid are 2005, 2003 and 2004.

• 2005372 complaints, 3.6× a typical Cooper year, most often about the steering.
• 2003320 complaints, 3.1× a typical Cooper year, most often about the steering.
• 2004282 complaints, 2.7× a typical Cooper year, most often about the steering.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2016, 2013 and 2015 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

Too new to judge: 2025 and 2026. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →