My 2008 MINI Cooper S convertible speedometer needs to read 80mph for the actual speed to be 75. The service manager stated that this condition is normal and is in answer to a Federal law. However, both of my kid’s MINIs speedometers are accurate (All tested with onboard GPS). Is the service department just trying to get out of fixing the problem, or is there a way to fix it?
Thanks for any help!
Most speedometers are slightly inaccurate. The answer given to you by the “service dept” is HOGWASH! Ask them to give you the actual federal law that says so!! The fact that your kid’s speedos are accurate tells you the truth!
You need to get this fixed properly; call the BMW zone manager if they don’t cooperate.
Docnick is correct, and the service manager at the dealership is attempting to make you accept this bunch of male bovine excrement. As Doc suggested, ask him to cite the “Federal Law” that allegedly requires this level of inaccuracy for speedometers. (Hint: There is no statute that mandates what he has stated.)
I would suggest that you get the Mini/BMW Zone Manager involved in order to “motivate” the staff at the dealership to actually do what they are supposed to do. Contact information for the Zone Manager (or whatever Mini/BMW calls their regional service director) can be found in your Owner’s Manual.
It’s typical for German cars to have “optimistic” speedometers.
It IS a federal law that a speedometer cannot read lower than the actual speed that the car is travelling. Most if not all cars read 1-2 mph higher than their actual speed. This gives a margin of insurance. If it reads excessively high it could be a software calibration issue. Here’s what you need to determine though-does the speedometer match the odometer? If you set the cruise to 60mph and travel for one minute have you gone exactly one mile? I bet you’ll observe it’s very accurate. The potential class action suit from a car going out of warranty prematurely are enough to insure that manufacturers watch these things closely.
A lot of motorcycles are really bad about optimistic speedometers, the BMW R 90/6 I owned was one of the worst. I finally ended up taking the speedo apart and turning the indicator needle on the shaft until it read correct at 60.
My current ZRX1200R is doing a true 66 at an indicated 70.
Unless there is a guarantee that the speedo is accurate, there likely is no legal obligation to correct it.
I have a 2009 MINI with the inaccurate speedometer. I interrogated the MINI dealer at the local and national levels.
The story I got was that the MINI speedometer is exactly 8% high BY DESIGN and the odometer is exactly correct. The agent claimed that US law allows up to 10% error.
They refused to fix this problem at both levels.
Since they would do nothing to fix it, I used the opportunity to veny my spleen at them… I feel better now. I think every MINI owner should call their dealer and complain bitterly until they decide to fix it, it would only require a small tweak to the computer.
I just bought a 2010 MINI Cooper and the speedo reads 6% fast. I brought it in for warranty service and the free loaner MINI has GPS and shows it also reads about 6-7% fast. The service manager claims that the odometer uses a separate sensor (why would they do that?) and that they are allowed to be in error up to 10% fast. They also state it can’t be fixed.
This is a sorry explanation. So much for precision German engineering.