I just had my MINI at MINI of Sterling for VA inspection and spoke briefly with David Rockwell, MINI Service Manager. I was pretty impressed with my service experience (after my sales experience and reading about service horror stories on this board) and let David know I really appreciated it.

David told me that "You should see how great it's going to be when our new building is finished. We'll go from 5 service bays to 25, and be able to have a lot more mechanics and service managers on staff, instead of just me". He told me they were constructing it "right down the road".

Anyone hear rumors on this? I asked him if it would be "just MINIs" and I swear he said "yes"! Anyone confirm?

 

Wow... Doesn't sound like a rumour then, sounds like Mini Service will be at a different facility, which is not uncommon when dealerships need to expand.

 

Yeah I hope they get 50 bays. I was there day before yesterday for some kind of boot latch actuator switch thingee or whatever that left me thinkin the hatch was open when it was closed. Anyhoo.

You know how you feel when you have on a brand new outfit and it looks and feels fine and you feel good cause you feel slick. That's how I felt hanging out at the Sterling facility while waiting for my MINI fix and afterwards. Fine. By the way...the salespeople...they dress almost as good as the people in the Devil Wears Prada. So, anyhow, the whole thing felt like I had a new pricey outfit and looked fine. They found a fan problem I didn't know about and fixed it also under warranty. My car is wearing Sterling MINI license plate holder (free) and that's they way it is...you know what ahm sayin? Good coffee.....cute little displays all over the place...steel, glass, ..slick ...got the job done...know what ahm sayin?

 

Yes, I posted about this a couple of weeks ago in this thread. It's wonderful to hear that things will get a WHOLE lot better at MoS soon!

 

Oops, sorry Edge. I must have missed your post about this!

 

Hey, no big deal, we can't all read everything (I don't!).

 

Actually MINI of Sterling has been working on this since Spring of 2004... It's nice to hear that construction has finally started...

I've posted about this a few times in my updates to the club as I had information about it...

 

Yes, but previously they wanted to build next door (the lot on the opposite side of Pacific Blvd), and Mr. Moorehead (MoS' owner) even bought the land. Then that land was re-zoned as residential, so they couldn't build there.

They also looked into extending the existing service space into the parking lot area, perhaps building a multi-level parking lot as well, so they didn't lose parking space... but regulations prevented them doing that too...

So this is the "new" deal that IS happening. Finally.

 

The story I got just this past Friday is that there is a new facility under construction (not where they originally anticipated) and that it will be for service only - at least initially. They still would like to separate the MINI dealership from the BMW facility but that won't happen right away.

 

Any idea where? All David would tell me is "down the road". I said "Loudon County parkway? Sully Rd"? He was very vague on the subject and never confirmed. Maybe he knows we all have a little stalker in us when it comes to MINIs!