My MA contacted me to wish me "Happy Anniversary" for my first year of ownership of my Clubman. I asked her for a recommendation for a good service writer and she gave me a name. I contacted the guy who answered his phone on the first ring.

They will send a flatbed to my house with a loaner car and they will take my Clubman to their service department for the first annual service. I can either drive the loaner back and pick up my car or they will deliver my car to my home and haul the loaner away. All at no charge.

I asked if I should remove the Dinan. He said not necessary. He's got a JB box on his MINI and said the mechanic who will work on my car will want to see what the Dinan can do!!

He confirmed that the software update will erase my coding so I'll have to re-Carly. Oh well.

My only warranty issues are a passenger seatback rattle and Cosmoline stains on the black plastic trim surrounding the front wheelwells.

I look forward to reporting back on the actual service experience after it happens next week.

 

How far is the dealership from you? Flatbed seems a bit extreme for an annual service.

Sounds like the mechanic is going to be drag racing your car with the Dinan, I'd probably lock it into normal mode and have him scratching his head on why the performance isn't any better than stock.

 

15 miles/half an hour drive to the dealer. Part of the deal is membership in their VIP deal -- I get free car washes at any of their local dealers (they have VW, Subie, BMW, and MINI stores in the area) and free pick up/delivery for any service, plus a free loaner. SoCal is a very competitive market.

I say let the mechanic have his jollies with my car. Can't be any worse than what valets do!!

 

What's your mileage? I'll be coming up to a year soon, but I only have 6800 miles on the car. The counter is telling me to schedule service in 800 miles.

 

I'm under 7,000 miles also. My car tells me service is due in 1,200 or 10/2017. I took delivery a year ago this week. Service is scheduled for next week.

 

Wow, great deal for you, that is pretty amazing with the flatbed deal.

The dealer I purchased mine from is 45-60 minutes from my house, in the opposite direction from work. There is another dealer between my house and work (~10 minutes), so I have decided to service mine at the more convenient dealer. I offered up my order sheet to both dealers and the further dealer beat the offer of the closer dealer by $3K...sorry, couldn't give up that much $$ for the initial buy-in.

The closer dealer had no issue when I came in for my first oil change/visit (9000 mile). An oil change doesn't warrant a loaner, but I had the brake light recall and a firmware update also clocked against my VIN, so I ended up with a loaner. Funny thing was, it was a 2018 Clubman ALL4 (non-S) in Moonwalk Grey...couldn't have gotten much closer, although I was hoping for something 'different' to try for the day. They washed and vacuumed my car, so I was quite happy. Only had to reset some of my preferences (~5 minutes) and off I went. Looks like the closer dealer will keep my free service appts for the next couple of years.

 

Yes, one of many reasons I selected this particular dealer.

I have received a follow-up email confirming the scheduled pick up of my MINI for Monday. I'll post the details of my experience after it actually happens. So far, I'm impressed.

Here's the detail on the dealer's VIP program:

http://www.mckennacars.com/about-us/mckenna-vip/

 

UPDATE.

Flatbed driver called at 8:10AM informing us he was on the way. He called again around 9:00 saying he was parked outside our front door. He did a quick walk-around of our Clubman and then a walk-around of the 4-door Justa he was delivering for us to use as a loaner. Entire operation took less than 10 minutes.

The yellow Justa is a great, zippy car.

Here's our Clubman residing in the natural habitat for English cars -- the flatbed:





And here's our loaner:

 

Do the palms sprouting out of the roof on your Clubby come standard in CA?

 

Yup. Temp has dropped into the mid-70's today. Winter must be coming!!

 

Our Clubman was returned washed and vacuumed. In addition to the oil change and fluid top-offs, some front suspension parts were replaced under a service bulletin and a 4-wheel alignment was done, as was a cleaning of the air conditioning system with filter replacement, per another service bulletin. The two front black wheel well trim pieces were replaced due to cosmoline stains.

Software was updated and I was able to restore my Carly coding (which was, of course, erased with the updates).

So far, the car appears to be running fine. No issues with having the Dinan connected and sitting there under the bonnet for all to see. I'll give the car a hard run tomorrow just to make sure the software updates are playing well with the Dinan.

I've already received a text message from the Service Manager requesting that if there is any need for follow up to contact him directly. This is, hands down, the BEST service experience I've ever had -- better than the treatment I used to get from the Range Rover/Jaguar dealerships.Everything, including the loaner and flat bed pick up and delivery, all at no charge. I had to buy 3 gallons of gas for the loaner and I gave the flatbed driver a 5 buck tip.

My neighbor came over as I was folding and unfolding my side mirrors and opening and closing my windows and sunroof with the key fob. He walked away shaking his head and laughing. I know jealousy when I see it.

 

I got service coming up on mine on Saturday. Do they list a TSB # for the suspension pieces? Do you know what was replaced and why?

 

M120617 - DME Update
M630217 - Program Control Units
M120217 - Program Control Units

SIM 64 01 17 - Perform liquid air conditioner cleaning service
SIM 31 03 15 - Removed and replaced LF/RF Wishbone Control Arms. Swapped Control Arm Bushings to new wishbone control arms. Performed 4 wheel alignment as per repair instructions. Part 31-12-6-879-843 and 844 Control Arm with Rubber Bushing 311020. Reason for repair: Click/Clunk when going over bumps. (I never heard it, but they did when they did their road test.)

Replace Left and Right Front Wheel Arch Covers Parts 51-77-7-373-335 and 336.

Oh, and they changed the oil and oil filter

 

Who's your dealer??

 

South Bay.