MINI Cooper Tops Safety Complaints Made To NHTSA
. . . car models of the brands that received the most complaints recorded by the Traffic Safety Administration, based on data provided by online automotive information resource Edmunds.com. In nine out of the 10 cases, well-publicized recalls had been initiated on these vehicles. The Prius — part of Toyota’s unintended acceleration fiasco — was the brand’s most complained-about vehicle. Similarly, the Murano, Nissan’s most complained-about vehicle, had a 360,000-vehicle recall in 2009 due to air ducts that caused the engine to stall.
This vehicle the vehicle with the most complaints is the MINI Cooper. Here is what the Wall St. 24/7 said:
1. Mini
- Complaints per 100,000 vehicles sold: 410.1
- Year-to-date car sales: 43,632
- Year-to-date complaints: 275
- Model complaint leader: Cooper
The Cooper, which represents more than half of the brand’s total sales, was the most complained-about Mini model, with concerns over steering comprising 41 percent of all Mini complaints. In 2010, the Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the 2004 and 2005 Cooper models following complaints that power-assisted steering often fails. Then in January of this year, parent-company BMW recalled 235,000 Minis following complaints to the Traffic Safety Administration of fires due to the overheating of the vehicle’s water pump. According to ConsumerReports.org, the Mini brand was tied with Scion and Ferrari as the worst brands for consumer perception safety.