2021 MINI Cooper recalls & problems

The 2021 MINI Cooper has 2 safety recalls and 7 owner complaints on file with NHTSA. The most-reported problem area is electrical system (3 complaints).

Recalls2safety recalls

Complaints7filed by owners

Crashes · fires1 · 1reported in complaints

Injuries · deaths2 · 0reported in complaints

Safety recalls

Seat belts

NHTSA recall 21V554000 · Jul 21, 2021 · 21,537 vehicles

Problem: BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain 2021 2 Series (230i, 230i xDrive, M240i, M240i xDrive), 330e, 330e Xdrive, 4 Series Coupe (430i, 430i xDrive, M440i xDrive) M4 Coupe, M4 Competition Coupe, BMW 4 Series Convertible (430i, M440i), BMW X1 sDrive28i, xDrive28i, 2 Series Gran Coupe (228i, 228i xDrive, M235i xDrive), M2 Competition Coupe, 330i, 330i xDrive, M340i, M340i xDrive, M3, M3 Competition, 530i, 530i xDrive, 540i, 540i xDrive, MINI Hardtop 2 Door (Cooper, CooperS, JCW), X2 sDrive28i, X2 xDrive28i, X2 M35i, Z4 sDrive30i, Z4 M40i, MINI Hardtop 2 Door (Cooper SE), MINI Convertible (Cooper, Cooper S, JCW), MINI Clubman (Cooper S, Cooper S All4, JCW), MINI Countryman (Cooper, Cooper All4, Cooper S, Cooper S All4, JCW All4), Rolls Royce Ghost, MINI Countryman (Cooper S E All4), Rolls Royce Phantom, Rolls Royce Cullinan, and Toyota Supra vehicles. The passenger seat belt Automatic Locking Retractor (ALR) may deactivate early, before the webbing fully retracts. As such, these assemblies fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection."

Risk: During a crash, a seat belt retractor that does not function as intended increases the risk of injury.

Fix: Dealers will inspect the seat belt retractors (including the seat belts) and, if necessary, replace the retractors, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed on September 3, 2021. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417; 1-866-825-1525 (MINI); 1-877-877-3735 (Rolls Royce); and 1-888-270-9371 (Toyota).

Air bags › Side/window › Curtain

NHTSA recall 20V283000 · May 20, 2020 · 76 vehicles

Problem: BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain 2020 X1 xDrive28i, X1 sDrive28i, X2 xDrive28i and X2 sDrive28i, 2020 MINI Clubman Cooper S All4, 2021 MINI Hardtop 2 Door (Cooper, Cooper S, John Cooper Works and Cooper S E) and MINI Hardtop 4 Door (Cooper and Cooper S) vehicles. Due to a problem with the rollover sensor within the air bag control unit, in the event of a rollover crash, the head air bag, seat belt pretensioners and other safety systems, may not activate.

Risk: If the safety systems do not deploy as intended in a roll over crash, it may increase the risk of injury.

Fix: BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the air bag control unit, free of charge. The recall began July 17, 2020. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417 or MINI customer service at 1-866-825-1525.

Components: Air bags › Side/window › Curtain; Air bags › Air bag/restraint control module; Air bags

Recall repairs are free at any authorised dealer. A recall listed here may already have been fixed on a particular car: enter its 17-character VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls to see open recalls.

Fuel economy

Cooper Convertible

31mpg combined

City / highway	28 / 37 mpg
Fuel	Premium Gasoline

1.5 L · 3 cyl · Automatic (AM-S7) · Front-Wheel Drive · about $2,650/year to fuel

Cooper Hardtop 2 door

31mpg combined

City / highway	28 / 37 mpg
Fuel	Premium Gasoline

1.5 L · 3 cyl · Automatic (AM-S7) · Front-Wheel Drive · about $2,650/year to fuel

Cooper Hardtop 4 door

31mpg combined

City / highway	28 / 37 mpg
Fuel	Premium Gasoline

1.5 L · 3 cyl · Automatic (AM-S7) · Front-Wheel Drive · about $2,650/year to fuel

Cooper Convertible

30mpg combined

City / highway	26 / 37 mpg
Fuel	Premium Gasoline

1.5 L · 3 cyl · Manual 6-spd · Front-Wheel Drive · about $2,750/year to fuel

Cooper Hardtop 2 door

30mpg combined

City / highway	26 / 37 mpg
Fuel	Premium Gasoline

1.5 L · 3 cyl · Manual 6-spd · Front-Wheel Drive · about $2,750/year to fuel

Cooper Hardtop 4 door

30mpg combined

City / highway	26 / 37 mpg
Fuel	Premium Gasoline

1.5 L · 3 cyl · Manual 6-spd · Front-Wheel Drive · about $2,750/year to fuel

Cooper Countryman

29mpg combined

City / highway	26 / 33 mpg
Fuel	Premium Gasoline

1.5 L · 3 cyl · Automatic (AM-S7) · Front-Wheel Drive · about $2,850/year to fuel

Cooper Countryman All4

27mpg combined

City / highway	23 / 32 mpg
Fuel	Premium Gasoline

1.5 L · 3 cyl · Automatic (S8) · All-Wheel Drive · about $3,050/year to fuel

EPA estimates from fueleconomy.gov for each engine and transmission sold. Annual cost is the EPA's estimate for 15,000 miles a year at its current fuel and electricity price assumptions. Your results will vary.

What owners report

Problem area	Complaints	Crashes	Fires	Injuries	Typical mileage*
Electrical system	3	0	1	0	—
Tires	1	0	0	0	—
Air bags	1	1	0	2	—
Steering	1	0	0	0	—
Fuel/propulsion system	1	0	0	0	—

*Median odometer reading when the problem happened, where owners gave one. One complaint can name several problem areas.

Recent owner complaints

Dec 10, 2024Fuel/propulsion system
No incident occurred. On October 18th we received a high voltage battery recall notice for this car. Apparently there were some thermal events (fires) and BMW has released software to help protect the car from such an event. We have been trying to get in touch with MINI, and just recently found that the dealer closed. They left their answering machine online for about a month after. The local BMW dealer says that they cannot perform the update (MINI USA requested we ask them). MINI USA now says that the car must be trucked 300 miles away to the closest dealer. The car cannot even be driven that far because it has about 100 miles of range, the roads are 75+, and there is limited charging…
Feb 9, 2024Electrical system
Digital instrument cluster of electric Mini SE (includes speedometer and battery/range information) turns off without warning while driving and does not turn back on until car is powered down for over half an hour. This has happened more than ten times. Vehicle was inspected by MINI dealer locally and no obvious equipment defect was identified, although they were able to replicate it happening. After disassembly and reassembly by dealer, issue stopped for about two weeks after car was returned to owner. Now it has begun again, to the point of turning off within a few minutes of driving every day, rendering car unusable as driver has no other speedometer in vehicle. After sitting for half an…
Apr 22, 2023Steering
The car completely lost steering in traffic. I brought it back to the Mini dealership, they informed me this is a known issue for Mini Coopers equipped with the click-and-play system, and they needed to re-wire the click-and-play to fix it. However Mini decided this should not be a recall. I strongly disagree with Mini's assessment considering losing steering on the road could cause severe accidents.
Dec 13, 2022 · fireElectrical system
After work, I started the car in a parking lot. Before leaving, a fire started under the hood behind the passenger side headlight. After using the jaws of life to take off the hood, the fire department contained the fire. No injuries. There was extensive damage to the right front. The contents were all smoke damaged. Neighboring cars were not damaged. The car has been totaled.
Oct 4, 2022 · crash · 2 injuriesAir bags
On October 4, 2022, the Mini Cooper hardtop 4 door was hit in a head-on collision by a driver who was going at least 40 MPH, possibly more. The car that hit the Cooper was a Toyota Prius. All the Prious' airbags deployed. No airbags deployed on the Mini Cooper hardtop 4 door. None. The Mini Cooper, after assessment, was considered to be a total loss.
Aug 21, 2022Tires
Tire model is: Hankook Ventus S1 Evo Z 225/35R18 87Y. Failure started when vehicle turned the "CHECK TIRE PRESSURE" alert on while driving. Pressure started to drop from 32 lbs to 16 lbs in about 15 minutes. Worth to note: no pot hole or any other object was hit during the day of the incident; or even previous days. After stopping, I noticed that the failure occurred in the inner face of the tire. Inner face was pretty degraded and inner treads were visible. A 15 inch long breakage line was visible. Car has 18k miles on it. When comparing the tire that failed to the rest, its degradation was much higher.
Oct 24, 2021Electrical system
The night of October 24th, while I was driving my CID back screen went to black and there were messages displayed in white color. Bootloader 11.035.000/ FFW 1.8.3 Dec 5 2017 Next line is displayed HWEL:42E5 2.1.5 Followed by a large white bar This display stays on even after lock the car. The morning of October 25th, There are warnings came on â Battery discharged start engineâ and âIncreased Battery drain while stoppedâ After a while, Iâve noticed the instrument panel light were off. I had a day time running lights on, but lights werenât on, only the fog lights. And when I unlock and lock the doors, those lights werenât flushing. The morning of Oct 26th,my battery was dead.

Owner complaints are submitted to NHTSA by the public and are not verified. Shown as filed (NHTSA removes personal details); long reports are shortened.