The defect
BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain model year 2014-2015 MINI Cooper Hardtop 2 Door, and Cooper S Hardtop 2 Door vehicles manufactured January 6, 2014, to October 17, 2014. During service appointments, dealers may have inadvertently reprogrammed the transmission control unit with software that may allow drivers to exit the vehicle when the transmission is not in Park. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 114, "Theft Protection and Rollaway Prevention."
The risk
If the driver exits the vehicle without the transmission being in Park, the vehicle could roll away as the driver and other occupants exit the vehicle or anytime thereafter. A vehicle rollaway increases the risk of injury to exiting occupants and bystanders.
The remedy
MINI will notify owners, and dealers will reprogram the transmission control module with the correct software, free of charge. The recall February 4, 2015. Owners can contact MINI customer service at 1-866-825-1525.
NHTSA's own wording · initiated by MFR
Vehicles covered
| Model | Model years |
|---|---|
| MINI Cooper | 2014, 2015 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2014, 2015 |
Components: POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:CONTROL MODULE (TCM/PCM/TECM)
Model years in this recall
NHTSA complaints and the number of recall campaigns for each model year this recall covers.
| Model | Year | Complaints | Recalls |
|---|---|---|---|
| MINI Cooper | 2014 | 34 | 7 |
| MINI Cooper | 2015 | 56 | 6 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2014 | 13 | 4 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2015 | 18 | 4 |
Other power train recalls in 2014
49 of the 770 recall campaigns reported to NHTSA in 2014 concerned the power train; BMW of North America, LLC filed 347 campaigns in all.
| 14V819000 24 Dec 2014 | General Motors LLC |
| 14V811000 22 Dec 2014 | Suzuki Motor of America, Inc. |
| 14V803000 19 Dec 2014 | Nissan North America, Inc. |
| 14V796000 16 Dec 2014 | Chrysler Group LLC |
| 14V784000 9 Dec 2014 | Hyundai Motor America |
| 14V779000 8 Dec 2014 | Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) |
| 14V739000 18 Nov 2014 | Volvo Trucks North America |
| 14V736000 18 Nov 2014 | Ford Motor Company |
NHTSA recalls (public domain) · all recalls of 2014