G'day there,

Well I have been surfing around at the DCMM message board and not mentioning any names I have read people complaining about buying a MINI from certain dealer. So I decided to write up my MCS purchase from the guys at MINI of Sterling. In summary these guys and gal are fantastic and I would recommend these guys to my best mate.

I was looking around for a MCS and did all the normal things checked out the WEB and even tracked a few on e_Bay that I liked. I thought (reluctantly at the time) I would go down to MINI of Sterling just to see what they had (I ended up purchasing a 02 Cooper S - yes pre-loved one). I also at the time opted for 220HP upgrade package, well I thought that if I didn't get it when I bought the MCS I probably would never do it later. I am soooooo glad that I had the upgrade that I can not stop smiling.

Now back to the Dealer </SPAN>experience, even though I was not buying the top end 05 MCS with Navigation and every option possible from them, they really treated me like I was their No one customer and made me feel like I definately was doing the right thing buying it from them. I delt with 2 sales people Jeff and Nameste (I hope I spelt her name right), and they were both fantastic and very helpful. I can not give them enough credit, my expectation for car sales people were that they are just after the $$$ and I would be just a number to them. Well let me tell you that if all Car sales people were like them alot more cars would be sold, as I can honestly say that I consider them more as friends now not just another car sales person.

At delivery time Jeff spent lots of time with me showing me around the MCS, I tried to get him to just give me the keys as I was dying to just drive it, but I was patient and let him tell me all about it. They made it look like a brand new one, it was very clean and shiny like a new one should be.

Anyhow I have ranted and raved enough I know but hats of to MINI of Sterling, you are excellent mate!!! Even though I dont expect to be going down to them and buying a new MINI soon, I will definately go back and buy from them again whenever I get the need.

Thankyou MINI of Sterling you are the best

 

I purchased My MINI Cooper from them in Sep 02. I also was treated very well. Additionally I will add that I was always treated very well there by the service side. Congrats on the new ride, I hope to see you on one of the drives.
John

 

I'm very happy to hear you got as wonderful service from them as I did... it's nice to know I'm not a "special case" because of how much I spent there. I pointed that out before because I had no way of knowing for certain if I was given special treatment.

Believe me, I don't want to be treated better than other MINI owners... I would rather EVERY MINI owner be treated wonderfully!

 

I ordered my 2005 MCS through Mini of Sterling, and so far, they've been great. Especially Namaste, who deserves credit for bringing a little more "Zen" to the car buying experience. It fits the MINI marque. Hats off, guys!

Cary

 

I'm glad to hear your experience was great. As was ours when we bought 2 MINI's from them...

Donna
02' CR/W MCS (gone to MINI heaven - burned up)
05' Cool Blue MCSC "Ariel"
05' HB/W MCS

 

Did the dealer install the performance package? If they did, what warranty did they give you?

 

From the last time I was over there, Sales at Sterling may finally be coming back to where they used to be back in 2002/2003.

Jim is no longer the MINI Sales Manager, and it looks like Crystal will be playing a more direct role in the operations on the MINI side, although she is not the new Sales Manager. The new MINI Sales Manager is Mike who was previously at BMW of Fairfax.

For those of you who don't know, MINI of Sterling provided us with excellent support for MOTD this year. They provided the club with over $500 in prizes that we were able to raffle off. That was the most significant contribution any of our local dealerships has made to the club since it's founding in the summer of 2003.

 

I'll chime in... I did not have the best purchase experience a few months ago at Sterling. That said, the sales guy I dealt with is no longer selling cars there. I got some help when he was awol from Namaste. She is one of the sales reps there, and has been a mini owner for some time. I can recommend dealing with her.

Herb in parts is really, really good. He has helped me out a few times, including rescuing me by prioritizing a part I needed to replace one I screwed up. He is the guy that gives the mail order discounts, if you buy over the phone, or gives 10% off to DCMM members. I think I already paid for my DCMM membership through the 10% off.

I've changed my opinion of them to thumbs up over the last few months.

 

I've purchased some parts from Herb at MINI of Sterling too - great guy to do business with

 

dislike Sterling and always will and not until I get a call from them apologizing on how badly I was treated will I ever return there. For those who are new here. I had one of the leaking convertibles and they told me to bring a towel in the car.

Howard

 

And nothing can ever change. Heck the staff that was there when this happened might not even be there anymore.

I'm sorry Howard but your constant harping on this has gotten very old. I know you were treated badly, but let it go already.

Hate to tell you I got screwed royaly by Towson over the delivery of my car. Yet you sing their praises as often as you like to slam Sterling. The trouble was caused by both sales and service. My problems were over the delivery of my car were just as deplorable as the issues you encountered with you leaking roof. When it happened I said my peace about it and I moved on... You need to as well already.

 

Unfortuneatly I don't let things go as easy as you. If I'm spending 50 bucks and I get screw hey, lesson learned. If I spent 30,000 dollars and I get screwed? Ya well a bunch of other people are going to be screwed too. This day and age with Cooperate American the big companies will try to blow you off. You can't let that happen and need to stick up for "you" the consumer. Maybe one day I'll have a bad experience at Towson, you never know. But till then I will sing them praise.

Howard

 

What you don't realize Howard is that your constant and predictable slamming of Sterling has become so frequent that it's now damaging your credibility.

When this happened you were disgruntled and wronged customer, you came up here and were very vocal about what happened... and rightly so. You were treated like crap over that roof.

But now after 6 months or more your continous slamming of Sterling due to one incident instead, well to put it bluntly makes you come off as nothing more than a cranky loudmouth. Especially when people who still deal with Sterling are giving evidence that things appear to be improving over there.

Especially considering the fact that the troubles with your car stem not just from MINI of Sterling... As I recall, you had a less than stellar experience with Crown MINI in Richmond too... Yet only Sterling seems to draw your hatred.

Howard you're rapidly moving from the "pissed off customer who wants everybody to know about it" stage, to the "if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all stage."

I'm not saying Sterling is perfect... I'm just saying enough is enough already.

 

I'm in the process of buying my 2005 MCSa (it's on the ship right now), and all I can say is that Jeff in sales has been great so far. When I came in to test drive he just threw me the keys and said go (a JCW car too! - didn't have an MCSa). Answered all questions. After I bought the car I made a few changes and bugged him with some other things (relating to the HK fire and the fact that it looked like my MINI might be delayed a month - thankfully it was not) and he always was very nice and professional. Hope the parts and service dept are as good!

- John

 

Bought mine through Sterling and so far so good..

worst thing that happened to me was that I had to drive around in a beige taurus while my car was getting serviced...
I'd never opt for a enterprise rental again.

 

I don't see how my slamming is damaging my credibility? Its not like I'm randomly making up things. Its always the same issue so my credibility should have nothing to do with it. And it wasn't just the roof issue I had at Sterling there were mulitple issues. As for my issue with Richmond, they did a very good job selling me the car, of course they were less then knowledgable about dealer programable options but I'd hardly call a defect I paid for. I'm not going to keep debating if I'm right or wrong with you about how I feel. I'll try my best to make sure no one ever has to face the same issues I had to deal with and I see nothing wrong with it. This is my last post on this thread on the matter as now we are completely off topic.

Howard

 

G'day MINI mates,

Just wanted to share my excitement of buying a MCS from MINI of Sterling. To the question of did the dealer install the perfomance pack.... yes I got it put in before I got it. They were great they gave me a loner car (BMW 325I) while they were waiting for the reporogrammed chip to come back. Nameste even came to pick me up in her MINI one day to take me to the shop to get the loner car. She is EXCELLENT and it is ashame she is married as she would be fun to date she has a great personallity...ok back to my MINI story..... sorry for the slight digression....

Again hats off to MINI of sterling....

I have just joined DCMM and looking forward to meeting you all... you are all a bunch of obsessed sicko's and I think I will fit in well .

MINI you later mate !!!!

Aussie Dave.....

 

Dave congrats on your happy experience and your new car. If you don't mind sharing, what brand performance package did the dealer install and what warranty did the dealer give you.

 

G-day Willimini,

MINI of sterling have a list of performance options. It was a 230HP upgrade... not that doesn't mean MCS + 230HP it means that my MCS has 230HP. I forget the name of the upgrade package, basically if I can summerise was a New headers / exhaust, reporgrammed ECU chip, new airbox, new pulley The MCS was already lowered 1 inch and had suspension upgrades done to it before I bought it. If you really need to know what the name is let me know as that will be just another reason to go down and see Nameste (LOL)

MINI you later mate!

Dave

 

She sounds very nice. It couldn't hurt to call her or stop by sometime. I asked about the name because different packages come with different warranties. I'm mostly interested in your warranty.

Lew

 

Ok G'day again Willimini,

Sorry I should of read all your reply before I answered your posting sorry willimini, OK The kit does not void any factory warranttee (sorry brain can not spell today well it is saturday so I am aloud to have a brain freeze right?)

I think that the dealer gave me a 12 month warranttee on the mods... but I can not be 100% sure on the length of time.

Ok Maybe I should of checked out the warranttee for the mod's a little better but with all that horsepower I failed to be rational and remember that part.

Hope that is what you want

MINI you later

Aussie Dave

 

big_davoc, I want to be open with you. I've had performance mods done on my car by Sterling. I have learned that the exact language of the warranties that come with their mods is extremely important, and not always obvious. Your car and my car are different years, so our MINI factory warranties may be different. My factory warranty says, if any performance mod causes damage to a factory part (which just happened to me with a sway bar mod - see the thread Question about bent sway bar link), "this warranty does not apply." When that kind of thing happens, the big question for you and me is, "Who pays for the repair?"

 

Well that will be yet another excuse for me to go back to Nameste and Jeff about... thanks for giving me the excuse... I will ask them for the definate answer on Monday and post back the answer here. But we are getting off thread abit here.... Originally I set this up just to commend MINI of Sterling for a great / fantastic / Excellent service I got whilst buying my MCS

 

it's a mini mania package.
they have warranty on their packages so it must be related to the warranty Mini of Sterling is offering.
here's some info:
http://new.minimania.com/NMM/Mini_Ma...d_Warranty.htm

 

Anybody remember the prices of the performance combo package upgrade installs there?