Left Lane reports that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched a probe last September following about 50 complaints that alleged total power steering failures in 2004 and 2005 MINIs. The number of complaints thereafter grew ten fold to 519. In addition, MINI reported it has already handled 4,508 warranty claims involving power steering problems, with 2,800 of those being 2004-2005 Cooper and Cooper S models. Five minor crashes have been reported to have occurred due to the problem as well as three electrical fires. Left Lane believes,
Because the issue seems to create more of a quality issue than a safety issue given the fact that drivers do still have control of the vehicles, albeit with more steering input required, it is possible that no safety recall will be mandated and MINI may get away with a service bulletin instead.
