Wow--I wonder what would have happened if you'd driven any twisties. Or did you?

 

I have 4 all about within 20 mile radius (pleasanton, S.F., walnut creek, mountain view)

 

Weird--you'd think they build one really big free-standing dealership to serve the entire area.

 

I'm in Sandpoint, ID - the dealer I use is in Portland, Or. Google says it's 478 miles. Takes me about 7 hours to get there, unless I'm driving down in my fast car then it's a bit less.

 

And I'm fussing about a 60 mile drive (although no car owner should have to drive even that far for service in an area that has almost any brand available just 10 miles away). If I was more than I am from a MINI dealership, as much as I love my car, I wouldn't have considered it as a choice. But I'm one of those people who doesn't buy used and starts looking for a new vehicle when the warranty runs out. Repairs are just too expensive these days to risk a major out of warranty failure.

I'm already thinking about a Fiat 500 Abarth in 2011-2012. If history holds, I'll definitely need a good warranty and a nearby dealer (assuming they even make it to the US). But what a sweet ride:

 

That is cute!!

 

My mini dealer is an hour and 20 minutes away

 

I Acualy drove to the dealership last year,35 hours of just drive time, about 3 days to get there. I would love to have to only go 600 miles but alas being where I'm at that can not be done. Hell would have to freeze over before MINI will have any one but a MINI Tech fix your car under waranty. If it is not waranty service pick a place that you can trust. I'm now out of any sort of MINI waranty, even though it feels like I've been on my own for waranty work since I got My MINI home 2 years ago. Not sure if I would go through with some of the hassle again.
Still love the car not the Company.
Cheers
Shawn

 

I think you deserve some kind of award for that drive to the dealer!! Now that is a true Mini loyalist in my book!

 

Long sigh- 3 hrs 30 mins driving at 75mph interstate all the way, all flat and NO TWISTIES to be found ANYWHERE. By the time I get to Memphis I am practically in a coma!

What does it take to open a MINI dealership? Assuming a whole state with no dealers, and assuming someone wanted to open an independent MINI dealership and was willing to buy the land and building and tools and whatall?

 

Q: What are you doing for vacation this year?

A: Getting an oil change... And a new set of tires...

 

No long trips this year. All is well with the MINI. If I do need any work done, at my expense, I will be doing it local.
Bye the way since buying My Cooper it has seen 5 dealerships, not all for service, and I've been to 6 of them. the last one was Mini of Hawaii.

 

Since I haven't seen the car we bought (yet), when is the first service on these neat little cars due? I know we won't let anyone touch it other than a Mini dealer...no way, no how.

 

Much debate on this one. But if you go with what the car says, when first turning on the car it will give you a service interval based on your driving, between 10,000-15,000 about.

 

I'm about 1300 kms (800 miles) from my dealer. And there's a 7-hour ferry ride in the middle.

I flew in one Sat morning and drove it home. I was back by Sunday night. The most fun new car delivery I've ever done.

 

Most people don't wait for up to 18,000 miles go by before doing an oil filter change. At the prices many dealers charge (~$150 an hour), it just isn't worth it to have your off-maintenance changes done there. Changing oil is not rocket science (although it's best not left to the geniuses at Jiffy-Lube).

 

Wow. Someone else who can feel my pain. MINI/BMW could have saved some money if they would have let the Anchorage BMW dealership do warranty work on my MCS. It can't be that hard to send one of the BMW techs to MINI school. I wouldn't have minded the 12+hr ferry ride, and a few hours of driving to have work done in Anchorage. But hey, I can't complain, they offered to ship my car to Tacoma (see my other post regarding that) for some warranty issues. If I didn't just get back from a 3-week vacation in Europe, I would drive it back to Alaska instead of having them ship it back.

 

Just read that the geographical center of the lower 48 states is in a hog farm in Lebanon, KS. BMW could eliminate almost 80 dealers and just put one huge dealership there.

 

I am 4 miles away from my MINI dealer (Keeler) in Latham, NY (capital region). I guess I'm lucky. Ironically, I haven't had any service done at the dealer and don't plan to either. I do all the work myself, including oil changes.

 

I am 130 miles away from my dealer.

 

Does ANYONE have an email address of someone in the MINI organization (other than ASK-MINI), who would be willing to listen to us? We could send a link to all 5 pages (so far) of respondents.

 

I don't know if this would change anything. They know dealer location is an issue, and it comes up often. Their solution is to expand the dealer network over the coming years with new dealers in areas that do not have MINI dealers. They are actively working on this issue, but it will take some time.

They are not going to let BMW dealers service MINIs... I'd be willing to bet alot of money on this.

 

They could set up kiosks at BMW dealers and call them Mini-MINI dealers.

I'm going to send the link through the 'contact us' page on the MINIUSA website. If enough people do that maybe someone will click on it.

 

Well, frankly, this is stupid on BMW's part. Just stupid.

It's such an obvious solution, and a whole lot cheaper than building whole new dealerships!

 

Go to:

http://www.miniusa.com/#/contactFaq/contact-s

check 'General Customer Service'; add name and email, and paste:

"Please read this:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118837"

in the message box. Only takes a minute.