My wife went in to the dealer today to get an oil change and an alignment at 28K miles. I figure the inflated price for both of those items would be about $300. She came back with a $1222 bill!!!!

$200 for oil change, $200 for alignment, $200 for changing a cabin filter!, $200 for flushing brake fluid, $129 for "standard scope" and $165 for "vehicle check". Give me a flippin' break! About $300-400 worth of actual work for 3x the price. I feel violated.

 

That is.... pretty fu**ing horrible. I would have made a scene.

I think I paid $200 for an oil change, which is awful already. My MINI dealership charges $129 for a brake fluid flush. The cabin filter is a thirty second job and I'd be surprised if the filter retails for more than $30. Whenever I have my car in for anything I get a "vehicle check" for free... they give it a quick inspection to see if anything might need attention soon.

You got hosed.

 

Where was this?

 

WOW, a cabin filter take 30 seconds to change, that is a rip off.

Dealers like this only keep my shop in business.

 

That is completely ridiculous. I pay $70 at my dealer for an oil change, watching for the internet special which I ask for and they apply. Didn't she have to sign a paper first or agree to those prices?

I would quietly tell them that I am sincerely unhappy, and see if they will do anything about it. Not make a fuss, but express strongly that you are not pleased. Worth a try.

 

That's insane. I paid 85 for an oil change. I think the alignments go for close to 160 and as someone mentioned the air filer is a $30 part. Really poor on their part.

 

Isn't any of this covered under the maintenance warranty?

 

Mini of Concord California. Yes, they must have noticed she was a woman and charged her accordingly. She agreed to it which pissed me off as it was obviously inflated

 

Sounds about right for service at Mini/BMW... Total rip off!

 

36 months are up

 

Dang. That stinks. I seriously would bend their ear on the whole thing... and then go and find a good independent MINI mechanic.

And when you get your survey, tell MINI about it too.

 

Once out of warranty, the dealership won't see my car.... I have a local shop that has a lot of mini's... And these guys do great work for a LOT less $$$...

Took mine in for an engine light, they did the inspect. I never asked them or agreed to have them inspect it. Last year, the guy I mentioned, did it and I got a lot more info about the status of wear items on my car and a lot more attention for a lot less $$$.

How is it that Mini charges $30 more than everybody else for State and Emission stickers???? Yeah, gotta watch them.... They will sneak stuff in...

Cabin filter for $200??? Yeah, you got raped!

 

I just went down there and although the Mini dealership was closed I talked to a lady at the parent BMW dealership next door. She told me the service manager would be in tomorrow at 0700 hrs. I'll bend his ear. The lady at the BMW dealership was nice and seemed to indicate that a complaint like mine wasn't unusual. I am confident I'll maybe get a few hundred in junk charges off my bill.

I'm thinking about taking a copy of this thread with me to show the consensus on my victimhood :-)

 

Good for you, let us know how it works out! I'd be doing the same thing, those prices are outlandish. As I understand, dealerships take the MINI USA follow-up survey scores pretty seriously. If they don't make it right for you tomorrow, don't hesitate to let corporate know exactly how you feel about this padded bill.

 

Thanks for the support guys. I'll check in tomorrow with the results. Hopefully I'll have something good to say about Mini of Concord

 

Sounds outrageous , tell them you will lodge a complaint to the Better Business Bureau.

 

I'm not to surprised its not a cheap car. I made sure when I bought mine to get the extended service package for these reasons. After dealing with my wife's Beemer for the past 7 years. Her brakes are $645.00 per axle and her oil changes $145.00 after her warranty and maintenance plan was up. I had to learn real quick how to repair her car.. It really isn't that hard to maintain and I'm saving ourselves boat loads of money.

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My dealer charges $69.00 for an oil change and I have the extended full coverage warranty and the maintenance warranty on my wife's Mini. But once that is up we plan to use it as trade bait and she is buying a new Corolla. She likes em and it gets better fuel economy then her Mini and it's way more quiet and easier to drive. (I know it's a Corolla but they pretty much trouble free and maintenance is inexpensive, by comparison)

I just bought a used Trailblazer and had a full inspection, brake fluid flush and fill and coolant flush and fill. I took it to a Chevy dealer and they charged me $508.00.

 

Was the work done at a "Forturne 200" MINI Shop ?

Book rates/costs for that work is way off when compared with about 100 of the some 104 dealerships since they are a franchise, and only after proper vetting can charge more than most.

Some MINI dealers, like the one in Miami I have heard charges $225.00 per hr !!!.

If that's not the case, I hope you paid with a credit card so you can dispute the charges.....

 

I always hear about people saying they go to a dealership or garage that specializes in Mini or BMW and that justifies the extra cost. I say horse ....

My father owns a garage and I worked there for many years. He works on every type of car and I work(ed) on my own Dodge, Mini, Nissan, Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Mazda and Ford. With the exception of not having the BMW tools to flash the computer he has all the equipment and knowledge necessary to work on any make car and charges the same hourly rate for all. He also charges only book rate for repairs and seldom charge full hourly for diagnosis.

MY father's garage can't be the only one in the country. My recommendation is to find a local shop that you can trust, if they say they charge extra for Mini or some other make I would go elsewhere to me that just means they aren't good enough. If the book says it takes and hour to do a job on the mini it ought to take a good mechanic 50-70 min. period so there is no reason to charge extra. And at a good garage things like air filters and cabin air filters are replaced for no labor when your getting an oil change. Hell we always pulled them out and blew em out with the compressor as part of the LOF (course when I was doing it cars didn't have cabin air filters).

Additional thought:
If you are dealing with an independent garage let them know everything you want to have done when you schedule the appointment so they can have the parts on hand.

And don't be surprised if there is a slightly higher charge if you want to bring your own parts.

And while I think most garages now a days stock some brand of fully synthetic (my Dad has always used Mobile 1) if you are partial to a particular oil make sure they know that.

 

Went when they opened at 7am today and spoke to assistant service manager who appeared to be listening. He said he'd review everything and give me a call back by 2PM. Said if they decided to refund some of my bill that they weren't admitting their service charges were excessive.

I looked into the $210 cabin filter change some more and found you guys were right. $30 shipped on ebay. Even the dealership I went to had it for 1/2 what I paid on their website!! I watched a youtube video on the replacement and it literally does take 30 seconds to replace. They charged me $120 in labor!

I just called the dealership (as someone who has never been to their dealership) to inquire how much an oil change and brake flush would cost. I'm doubting they will call back and tell me $400 (like I was charged)

 

What they charged you is so utterly outrageous that words can't describe it...wow.

 

Suspicions confirmed! We went to Mini of Concord for our temperature sensor recall. They tried to get me to have the tire rotation/alignment and injectors cleaned before the recommended interval and quoted me what seemed like an unreasonable price. I wish I remembered what it was, but I didn't really listen as I was only going to get the recall done. I just had a weird taste in my mouth from that place. Thank you budoboy for letting us know this. I will be heading to Mini of Marin, where we bought our mini, from now on. When we do, I'll report back here with my experience there. Good luck with getting a refund, sorry that sucks!

 

I'm glad your spider senses were working. There is no way I would have approved that bill if it had been me there.

I looked on-line and saw that the Mini Dealership in San Jose has a $49 oil change and $89 4-wheel alignment coupon on their website. I would have saved over $260 on those two services alone (never mind the $200 brake flush, $210 cabin filter change and $300 in unnecessary diagnostics) if I had went to the San Jose dealership instead.

 

Glad to see the forum being used to "pass the word" on bad dealers. I wonder if there is a thread on bad and good (yes, there are some) dealers somewhere here.

Let budoboy's experience be a lesson to the rest of us...for routine out of warranty maintainence, always get a firm price beforehand. And there's no reason for it to be anything less than a firm price, not just an estimate. And make sure the price you get includes all hidden fees like environmental, shop supplies and other bogus fees.

Personally I would not trust any shop that adds fees like that. Any "honest" shop will give you "the price" for routine service rather than play games. If you insist and they won't do so, it's time to run the other way, and you can assume that same shop is going to be the first one telling you that your car needs other repairs when it does not.