BMW 3 Series vs Mini Cooper

Both cars' complete complaint records, side by side.

Read the totals carefully. NHTSA publishes no sales figures, so the car that sold more collects more complaints regardless of quality. The rows worth weighing are the proportions — the share of complaints that involved harm, and which part dominates.

Measure	BMW 3 Series	Mini Cooper
Complaints on file	1,149	2,854
Model years covered	1986–2013	2001–2026
Worst model year	2007	2003
Best model year	2012	2019
Crashes reported	49	94
Fires reported	32	163
Injuries reported	40	72
Deaths reported	0	1
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	10.5%	11.6%

BMW 3 Series by year

3 1 3 3 6 4 6 111 49 40 67 93 29 288 190 93 74 43 1 11 34

86 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Airbags 270 23.5%

Electrical System 146 12.7%

Engine & Cooling 98 8.5%

Lights 94 8.2%

Transmission & Drivetrain 67 5.8%

Body & Structure 67 5.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 52 4.5%

Steering 49 4.3%

Mini Cooper by year

7 220 388 330 440 247 159 155 193 142 130 98 72 45 76 43 42 10 17 11 7 7 9 1 1 4

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Steering 835 29.3%

Airbags 444 15.6%

Engine & Cooling 357 12.5%

Electrical System 312 10.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 284 10.0%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 86 3.0%

Other & Unspecified 82 2.9%

Seats 65 2.3%