Wollaston BMW didn't believe it either, but the mechanic soon winced as I demonstrated the problem on a test drive and back at base a new gearbox was put on priority order. That was on December 13. By December 20 it was becoming obvious that it wasn't going to get replaced this side of Christmas.

'No gearboxes in the country, sir.'
Actually I know there's a heap of them in Oxford.
'Ah, they're different,' said Wollaston BMW. 'All spare gearboxes all have to come from Germany.'
How silly of me.

So we limped on. Then over Christmas the Mini sprung the next surprise. It wouldn't open on the blipper, and even though it would open on the key, it turned out the Mini's battery was dead.

'Ah, you must have the single-CD player in that car,' said the ever-helpful Wollaston BMW. 'We need to change them, because the original version can flatten the battery if you don't drive the car for more than three days.'

Now, I was starting to get a bit cheesed-off with evo's new Mini, so I suggested I ought to take up BMW's offer of a replacement car while they took ours in to be fixed. No problem ΂- I qualified for one under BMW's emergency service ΂- but I wasn't expecting a base Vauxhall Corsa to turn up at home that afternoon, though admittedly they did explain that it was all they had at short notice and they could upgrade it the next day if desired.

New Year came and went, then the first week of January, and finally I got a call to say they'd found a gearbox, it was going to arrive with them on the 10th and they should be able to get the car back to us by January 11.

Right on cue our shiny silver Mini was returned, with a cracked window replaced as part of the service too, but it had still taken an absurd 28 days to get the gearbox replaced. Christmas didn't help, but you do wonder about BMW's parts supply for its new baby. Meanwhile the gearbox has been sent back to Germany for examination. It looks as if a synchro ring cracked for some unknown reason.

I had wondered if the 'Works' kit recently fitted to the car had something to do with the problem but this disproves that theory. Apparently BMW had been worried about the gearbox bearing life with the Works kit on, and so torque is actually limited in first and second gears within the conversion to help the gearbox withstand the extra grunt. That's why the Cooper S has the six-speed gearbox, which is a stronger unit.

What does stand out from all of this is BMW's customer care standards. At no time did I feel like a second-class citizen at the dealer; in fact I can't think how the dealer could have handled it better. I was kept informed throughout and there was no question over whether I should be given a replacement car in the meantime. I ought to add that it was my choice to carry on driving until the battery snuffed it and I'd also made sure the dealer didn't know that it was evo magazine's Mini. The whole thing was a completely different experience to what we've had to endure with a certain Italian manufacturer when things start to go wrong.
Trouble is, I sense we're about to go through it again as the driver's seat has decided not to let anyone into the back seat anymore, and the passenger door glass doesn't electrically dip under the roof gutter when you open and close the door; I'm sure it's going to shatter on someone who doesn't know to dip it on the toggle switch first. As the first service is due, it'll all get attended to then ΂- along with the malfunctioning fuel gauge.

It's ridiculous that such a great car is being let down by all these problems so early in its life. I never had this much trouble with my Maseratis.