What 17 owners told NHTSA about the 2025 Mini Countryman Se

Vehicle exhibits persistent, intermittent failure of Bluetooth and Apple CarPlay connectivity. Phone fails to pair, drops all connection mid-drive (all displays including speed, navigation, etc go dead), and disconnects active calls and navigation prompts during operation. Defect requires repeated manual re-pairing attempts that draw driver attention from the road. The same phone pairs reliably with all other vehicles and devices tested, including a more recent 2025 Countryman dealer loaner and personal home equipment, indicating the defect is in the vehicle's electronic architecture rather than the phone or user settings. Multiple service visits to an authorized MINI dealer have not resolved the issue. The dealership service team has stated verbally that "all the early 2025 Countrymen seem to have these issues." Dealer is now indicating that full head unit replacement may be required, with extended out-of-service time. The defect creates a documented driver-distraction risk and aligns with multiple existing NHTSA complaints and BMW Technical Service Bulletins for the 2025 Countryman platform. The sudden outage meant I had no information while driving on the interstate at speed and didn't know what was happening. I didn't even know if I was indicating to move over to the shoulder of the road. This happened at least 4 other times since I had had the car but thankfully only the once on an actual highway. Other times were in Atlanta city traffic and a couple of times in my driveway. Even more frustrating, I cannot get it to reliably pair with my iPhone 17 Pro. The lack of reliability increased markedly with the last MINI update which occurred about a week ago. I need to travel for work and cannot rely on this car to get me where I need to go and I actually avoid driving it now. The problem has been validated by the Dealer. The Service intake worker noted, "We have seen this in almost all of the early 2025 Countryman models." There was no warning at all when it happen

NHTSA ODI 11735640

The morning of Tuesday 12/24/24 while driving the car at 30-40 mph, in the dark, all systems suddenly shut off - by all systems I'm mean the engine, all interior and exterior lights, the "computer" screen.  Everything went black in an instant.  After a second of two the car lurched back to life.  I was able to pull over at that point.  The only "idiot light" that came on was a yellow engine symbol.  I opened it and a screen came up that said "Check Control", "No entries". If this had happened with traffic around I could have been injured in an accident.  If it had happened on the nearby Interstate and highway speeds, I could have been killed. I am taking the vehicle to the dealer today for evaluation. There have been no professional inspections at this time. For the two months that I've had this car there have been repeated problems with the "boot up" process when trying to start the car. It at times displays wrong information, does not recognize the "key fob", forgets previous settings, etc. This has been told to the dealer and to a BMW/Mini factory rep on 12/23/24. These were considered nuisance problems; however, a complete system failure while driving is not a nuisance.

NHTSA ODI 11632371