RoadVitals

2019 MINI Cooper S Owner Complaints

Reports submitted to NHTSA by owners and drivers, shown in full

Data refreshed

Complaints on fileComplaints are reports submitted to NHTSA by owners and drivers. NHTSA does not verify most reports before publishing them, and a complaint does not establish that a defect exists. Volume is influenced by how many of a vehicle were sold, how long it has been on the road, and how much attention an issue has received.
5
Latest May 12, 2026
Crash or fire reportedComplaints whose submitter recorded that a crash or a fire occurred. These are the reporter's own answers on the NHTSA form, not verified findings.
0
Filed in the last 12 monthsReports filed with NHTSA in the trailing 365 days. Recent volume reflects attention and vehicle age as much as anything else.
1
Reports on file since Jan 4, 2019

What this page shows

Our database holds 5 NHTSA owner-reported complaints for the 2019 MINI Cooper S. Each one is a report filed by an owner or driver and published by NHTSA without most of them being verified. A complaint is not a confirmed defect, not a recall and not a manufacturer bulletin. Narratives are shown exactly as filed.

Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.

Complaints, most recent first

Showing 1–5 of 5

ElectricalEngine
Filed May 12, 2026

Starter started smoking at start up! And clutch failure at traffic light!!!! No accident occurred because of experienced driver!

NHTSA ID
11737373
Incident
May 10, 2026
Visibility
Filed Aug 7, 2025

The contact owns a 2019 Mini Cooper S. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the contact noticed that a rock had hit the driver's side of the windshield due to construction work on a local highway. The contact stated that the passenger's side of the windshield was also hit by a rock while driving. The contact stated that the driver's side of the windshield sustained a minor fracture; however, the passenger's side of the windshield was severely damaged. An unknown dealer was contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 81,485. The VIN was not available.

NHTSA ID
11679180
Incident
Aug 7, 2025
Mileage
81,485 mi
Steering
Filed May 27, 2025

Loss of power steering on startup or at stop light. A message pops up indicating that the Dynamic Stability Control is re-initializing and that steering may become difficult: Drive carefully. The warning message usually appears shortly after the failure. In fact, the steering gets so stiff, that my wife can barely turn corners. The problem comes and goes unexpectedly. This is my wife's car, and it has happened to her on several other occasions. Sometimes we can reset by restarting the car, but that isn't reliable. We put the car out of ECO mode into Sport mode, so that the engine does not stop at stop lights, but the engine sometimes stops anyway. When it happened at a stop light today, we tried several restarts, but the steering remained out. Steering is worse at low speeds. Today, we stopped at a light. My wife was driving. The engine stopped and restarted, and the error message appeared. She had difficulty steering into a parking lot where I swapped places with her. I drove her home. It was difficult for me to steer around corners after today's lock up, but I drove the car to a local BMW-Mini mechanic with whom I had discussed the problem, but it never appeared at his shop. Today, we tried starting at the shop and the difficult steering persisted without an error message. He ran a quick scan indicating that some modules in the steering column were not operating properly. He said the modules were not available for replacement, and that the entire steering column might need to be replaced. Unfortunately, he was booked up until Friday. I drove home and let the car sit in the garage for a couple of hours. I started it while writing this to try to more accurately reproduce the warning messages. However, no messages appeared and the car steered easily. Clearly, sudden loss of power steering poses a danger for my family and others on the road. I've looked on the internet and discovered that others have experienced similar problems with steering in Mini Coopers.

NHTSA ID
11663212
Incident
May 27, 2025
ElectricalExterior lighting
Filed Feb 12, 2024

The contact's daughter owns a 2019 Mini Cooper S Clubman. The contact stated that while his daughter was driving at an undisclosed speed, she depressed the brake pedal, but the rear driver's side brake light failed to illuminate. The contact stated that he was driving behind his daughter when he noticed the failure. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, and the rear driver's side brake light bulb was replaced; however, the failure persisted. The mechanic referred the contact to the dealer for assistance. Additionally, the contact stated that the vehicle failed to start. The vehicle was jumpstarted by AAA. The dealer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that they could not assist unless NHTSA required that they do so. The failure mileage was unknown.

NHTSA ID
11571447
Incident
Feb 10, 2024
Powertrain (other)
Filed Jan 4, 2019

175 MILES ON 2019 MINI S COUNTRYMAN. TRAVELING AT HIGHWAY SPEED. DRIVETRAIN MALFUNCTION INDICATOR CAME ON, CAR SHUDDERED REPEATEDLY AND DECELERATED RAPIDLY TO APPROX. 20 MPH IN 60 ZONE. CREATED INSTANT HAZARD TO MYSELF AS MULTIPLE LANES OF FASTER MOVING TRAFFIC NEEDED TO BE CROSSED TO REACH SAFETY AND NO WARNING TO TAILING VEHICLE.

NHTSA ID
11165237
Incident
Jan 4, 2019
Mileage
175 mi

Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.

Data sources

Data on this page last refreshed .