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Did BMW drag its feet on Mini recall?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening an investigation into BMW's reporting of a recall for 30,456 examples of the 2014-2015 Mini Cooper Hardtop, Cooper S, and the 2015 John Cooper Works. According to the government, "it appears from a review of NHTSA's databases that BMW may have failed to submit recall communications to NHTSA in a timely manner." The automaker issued the recall in July because crash tests showed the models didn't meet side impact requirements for passengers in the back seat. While there were no reported injuries at the time, the company decided to install energy-absorbing material in the space between the rear interior panels and the exterior. However, NHTSA has decided to investigate whether this campaign should have started much earlier, given the evidence the company had. According to the government's report, the Cooper Hardtop failed side-impact tests in 2014, although one of these tests was five-miles-per-hour faster than the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard. The agency claims: "In January 2015 BMW verbally committed that it would conduct a service campaign to add padding to the rear side panels of MY 2015 Mini 2 Door Hardtop Cooper models. However, BMW did not initiate the service campaign and failed to inform NHTSA of its failure to do so." A subsequent crash test of an example with this fix showed it to make the vehicle compliant with the rules. Mini spokesperson Mariella Kapsaskis told Autoblog: "Regarding the NHTSA audit query, BMW Group is evaluating the request and will respond to NHTSA as appropriate." INVESTIGATION Subject : BMW Reporting & Timely Recall Execution Date Investigation Opened: SEP 24, 2015 Date Investigation Closed: Open NHTSA Action Number: AQ15004 Component(s): STRUCTURE All Products Associated with this Investigation Vehicle Make Model Model Year(s) MINI COOPER 2014-2015 MINI COOPER S 2014-2015 MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS 2015 Details Manufacturer: BMW of North America, LLC SUMMARY: NHTSA is opening this AQ to better understand and evaluate BMW's process(es) for its notification procedures and for timely and efficient execution of its safety recall campaigns. In mid-2014, NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) had side impact moving deformable barrier (MDB) tests performed on two model year (MY) 2014 Mini 2 Door Hardtop Coopers. These two tests were performed at a speed 5 mph higher than required by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 214, Side impact protection.

Jamaican bobsled team pushes a Mini around town to keep Olympic dream alive

PETERBOROUGH, England — The Jamaican bobsleigh team is used to training without snow, but the coronavirus lockdown has seen its male athletes resort to pushing a car around the streets of an English city to stay in shape, with an eye on Olympic qualification. Some residents of Peterborough have offered their help to Shanwayne Stephens and Nimroy Turgott as they push a Mini down the road, before realizing it is part of a new training regime to work around the closure of gyms in England. "We had to come up with our own ways of replicating the sort of pushing we need to do. So that's why we thought: why not go out and push the car?" Stephens, 29, told Reuters. "We do get some funny looks. We've had people run over, thinking the car's broken down, trying to help us bump-start the car. When we tell them we're the Jamaica bobsleigh team, the direction is totally different, and they're very excited." The couple said they had been inspired by the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics men's bobsleigh team, immortalized in the 1993 film "Cool Runnings." But they said they aimed to qualify for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 and then outperform the 1988 team, who did not officially finish the four-man bob competition after crashing. "Those guys set a legacy, and a movie came out of it. For me personally, I want to surpass that level, and even go beyond that," Turgott, 27, said. Turgott, who normally lives in Jamaica, has been staying with Stephens since January, and the pair had always planned to do summer training in Britain, albeit in gyms rather than on roads. "If you're able to do the same sort of training without the same equipment, then you should be able to achieve more with the right equipment," he said. The pair are focused on qualifying for Beijing 2022. While the woman's team competed for the first time in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the men's team failed to qualify. "The last Olympics, we missed it by one slot. And now we are using that experience as our motivation moving forward," Turgott said.   Weird Car News MINI

Mini John Cooper Works 1 To 6 Edition extols the manual transmission

Throughout the final year of this generation of Mini Cooper, the Anglo-German brand has been rolling out limited editions about every 90 days. We got the Mini 20 Years Edition last September, the Mini Convertible Seaside Edition in March, the Mini Clubman Final Edition in April, now we have the fourth to complete the set: The Mini John Cooper Works 1 to 6 Edition. It memorializes Mini racing and the "pure essence of motorsport" as a JCW with a six-speed manual transmission, hence the 1 To 6 name. It copies the formula for the Clubman Final Edition in being almost only special badges, colors, and materials; there's little more to this than a retail Mini JCW with a stick shift and three more horsepower. Outside, there's a Midnight Black body ornamented with Piano Black for the grille surround, side scuttles, and waistline finisher. The 18-inch Circuit Spoke rims come in Jet Black. The gray bonnet stripe is composed of shift pattern line drawings, the same shift pattern showing up on the hatch in black. Red, white, and silver 1 to 6 badges appear on the side scuttles and C-pillars. Mini's making 999 examples for global buyers, so "One of 999" appears in places like the sunroof, steering wheel, and instrument panel. The black and gray interior shows off an antracite-colored headliner, illuminated red bezel for the instrument cluster, red ambient lighting, badged floor mats, and course, the stick shift with special stitching. The special makes its world debut at next month's Nurburgring 24-Hour race. One car will compete as part of the Bulldog Racing team wearing race number #126, driven by Charlie Cooper, a regular competitor who also happens to be the grandson of the John Cooper that Mini's fastest trims honor. It's a pairing that shows how the "essence of motorsport" has progressed; the hardcore Mini JCW that Bulldog Racing runs is fitted with an eight-speed automatic. We'll find out soon how many of the Mini JCW 1 to 6 Editions will come to the U.S. and the premium Mini will charge over the $35,400 of the regular Mini JCW.