I live in Lexington, Ky, and work in Louisville. My '06 S has 36000 mi on it. The "service engine" light came on yesterday on the way home, and I need to get it checked out asap. The closest dealer is in Cincinnati - and I really don't want to take a day off work to drive up there. Any one know a good mechanic in Kentucky?

 

cincy mini is also open all day sat. if your car still has warr. you should make appointment, or at least call to see if you have warr. basically take advantage of your warr.

 

Actually, I did end up taking my car there. I'm really glad I did, because they ended up putting in a new catalytic converter (all covered under warranty). Their service was AWESOME...they really took care of me. At first, they thought that the problem was a loose gas cap. But after only a couple of minutes down the road, the light was back on, so I turned around. They gave me a 2010 Clubman to drive while they did some more diagnostics. When my car was fixed, someone from Cinci Mini drove it to Louisville and delivered it to my door. Can't say enough about their excellent service!

 

good to hear, i also have had nothing but great experiences there. they seem to remember their customers and really try to look out for their best interests, at least thats my experience. Nick is always my advisor and he is the best.

 

I would stay away from the Mini of Louisville Dealership. My gf bought a 2010 Cooper S last summer and it has been a nightmare ever since she purchased it. It started after they agreed on a price and it wasn't ready on the delivery day that was agreed which was about a week and a half in advance. When the car was finally ready, 3 weeks after it was agreed upon in the email, it didn't have the right wheels that she was suppose to get and the saleswoman (Kristi) said we would just bring it back another day to switch out the tires or we could leave it and they would have someone drive it to us (in Lexington, 75 miles away). After 2 hours of complaining, they had two guys jack it up manually to switch out the wheels with another car and it took them 30 minutes. I talked with the Manager (Gordon) and told him that I purchased 2 cars from dealerships and this wasn't the way business is suppose to get done. I told him that he should at least give her floor mats or do something. He told me that if he had to give someone free every time a customer was were unhappy, that he wouldn't be in business. I told him we prob would of gotten better treatment from a Kia Dealership (no offense Kia) The next adventure was 2 weeks later when it wasn't recognizing any ipods and was told after they had the car for 6 hours that it was the ipod and not the car. I assured them it wasn't the ipod and when we tried it in another car on the lot, it worked fine. By this point, it was now Friday at 4 pm and the service garage is only open Mon-Fri so now we had to leave the car till the following week. That was the last time we went there and started using the Cincinnati dealership who has done a pretty good job customer service wise but the car only has 6k miles, it's been in to have the cpu replaced (ipod), airbag sensors twice, check engine light latest problem (sensor problem) and to top it off, she hit a pothole the other day and bent the rim and found out at the tire place that it didn't have a spare and I asked Kristi specifically when she was showing us the features at purchase if the spare was full size or a donut, she said it was a donut. Turns out the run flats don't come with a spare. I called about complaints once and they connected me to the dealership in Columbus, OH and told them all the problems and have never heard anything back.

 

so with your experiences where do you go? i'm looking for a second set of eye to go over a few issues if they're not resolved at my dealer soon.

 

There is a whole new crew in the Service Department at Mini of Louisville now. There may have been some issues in the beginning. Come on in and check us out.

 

I'm hoping to bring this back to life. I am going to be out of warranty in about 1500 more miles and would like to know of somewhere other than the dealership that might specialize in MINI. So far I have had pretty good experiences with Cinci (even though one service started off bad but ended pretty good thanks to the BMW service manager Bob Speed). Little upset with louisville right now though. Took a day off to drive from Lex to go to Lville to have 2 different sounds diagnosed and after nearly 2 days they called me to say they didn't hear anything. I said well I hear one of the sounds every single morning while accelerating and I haven't heard it on this loaner or my buddy's car so it's got to be something wrong. She asked me to come in and ride with the service tech the next morning but i couldn't until the following day so she told me I would have to reschedule and bring the loaner back because they needed it. So they didn't fix mine and then told me to bring theirs back because they needed it. What in the world kind of service is that? Oh and no paperwork so I guess it wasn't even documented. Thing is I heard it before I even got out of the parking lot on to Shelbyville Rd but of course it was after 5:30. I had mentioned it to Cinci on 2 previous services and was told the first time they didn't hear it and then on the second time that they did hear what I was talking about but they didn't know what it was. It's not a loud sound but anyone familiar with how a MINI should sound should hear it immediately.
Anyway......sorry for the rant, long story short, I need an experienced MINI mechanic from here on out that isn't the dealer.

 

I've nothing but great experiences with Cincinnati MINI and nothing but Aggravations with Louisville. Their lead mechanic has been working with the MINI since it came to the states and was working on BMW before then. This guy IS the most experienced MINI mechanic on new Gen MINI (02-2012+) I have come across.

 

Hello and sorry to hear about your issues with MINI of Louisville. I have left the dealer and moved into a BMW/MINI only specialty shop located in Jeffersonville, Indiana just over the bridge from Louisville.

We have invested hundreds of dollars to obtain all the MINI specific special tools and do can anything the dealer can, better, faster, and cheaper.

Call or stop in and let us have a look. Ask for Aaron.

Mike Johns Imports 812-284-3791