First I would like to say this is my completely biased opinion, and is a result of a complete and utter lack of motivation from this company to earn a customer.

I went out to Mt. View Mini today and part of me was willing to give them a final chance to change my mind about their dealership.

Unfortunately, they failed .. miserably.

My previous visits (before I owned my Mini) were to find out more about the car, and take a test drive. Back in August of last year I took a day off from work and went to the dealership to get documentation about the car, find out more about it and take a test drive. Thank god I didn't let that experience deter my pursuit of purchasing a Mini. When I went into the dealership no one wanted to talk to me, and several of their employees seemed too busy moving bits of paper around their desk to look up or even acknowledge my presence.

It took about 10 minutes at the dealership before I called (on their show room floor mind you) East Bay Mini for a test drive, where I finally bought my Mini.

Today I needed to get a part for my car (someone thought it cool to rip up my license plate light assembly, maybe thinking they could get into the car somehow), and Mt. View is closer to my residence as well as being about $20 cheeper than other dealerships in the area. Now I'm usually not a tight-wad about money, but given the distance and savings, I opted to find out if Mt View Mini's service / parts department was better than their terrible sales department.

I called their parts department and was routed through the parent BMW receptionist to the Mini parts guy. The parts guy told me that since this wasn't a part they normally carry I would HAVE to come down and order it from them. HAVE to come down and order it? Well, I can't say I don't like driving my car, so ok.

Having arrived at the dealership after my 15 minute commute I was presented with this little pickle of a parking lot maze.

See any cars that might not be like the others? Ya, this is the Mini dealership, not the BMW dealership.. but you might get confused if you're not paying attention.


There was only 1 person in the Mini dealership, looking to buy a new Mini, from this picture it appears they like to fill up their customer parking with their service vehicles that have been repaired, and their new cars.


Which left me parking down the street about 3 blocks, can you see my car? No? It's all the way down this road as it hits the gravel part.


Ok, so a nice little hike to the dealership as there's no parking .. AT ALL. As I get to the door I see they have a service and parts department inside. Ok cool. I took a look around the place, but I was unable to find the parts or service departments. I had to interrupt a very important conversation between two employees to find out that there is no front end for either, you have to ask someone to page them to the sales floor. LAME. So those two went right back to chatting about who knows what, no longer interested in the guy that interrupted them (how rude of me).

The front desk had NO ONE at the helm. Remember the call to the dealership being routed through the BMW desk? Yah. After about 5 minutes of waiting for someone to say something, and seeing as how everyone was too busy to break away from their paper shuffling, I called up East Bay BMW and ordered the part I needed over my cell phone from the Mt View show room floor. Really .. this is how LAME their dealership is.

Now, in all reality some part of me, wanted .. really wanted to give them another chance, maybe . . just maybe something might have changed in the past few months, but as I just related, they haven't changed at all. Now .. this is just me, call it a bout of bad luck, call it not being aggressive (should I have to yell at someone to get service?), hey all good, but this is how I have been treated EVERY time I've been there. Their dealership makes my first car purchase from a shady Subaru dealership seem like a dream automative experience comparatively.

For the folks that have had a pleasant experience from this dealer, my hat is off to you, I've had nothing but high blood pressure from them. I've written Mini USA about it, and I'm drafting a formal letter to the BMW parent dealership, I have to think the Mini portion of their sales is kind of an afterthought to them (even though my Mini cost more than several of their "luxury cars" in their lot).

 

BEST THREAD EVER. plus it has pictures!
...but this should be in the 1st Gear/General MINI

 

Complain.

Complain.

SCREAM.

And complain.

Seriously. If this had been me - the manager of that dealership would still have ringing ears. That is complete crap. I admire your patience, I would not have been so nice.

 

My experience (almost two years ago now) was almost identical to yours.

I showed up in the summer of 06, wanting to buy a Cooper, take a test drive, learn a little more, etc. I was already a NAM member and expected that because of that I would be considerably more educated than the average customer, but other than that, I had no expectations of the process. I actually was able to park in the customer lot (that may just be a time-of-day thing...I would guess in the late afternoon, the lot is full of cars to be picked up...not that that makes it okay, but it at least makes sense), I wandered outside for probably 5 or 10 minutes, looking at all the new and used cars on the lot and reading all the stickers/spec sheets carefully. At most dealerships, you'd have been accosted by someone before your own car door was even closed. I can see inside the dealership that there are 3 workers watching me. Not one approaches. I go inside and flag one down and my first question was "will you sell at MSRP?" This was at a time when they still were selling above MSRP, but it could be negotiated. I got a flat "no". Not "let's see what you're looking to get and see what we can do"...just "no", and then sort of wandered away. So from the sales floor, like you, I called East Bay. I spoke with Robert, who said normally they do appointments for test drives, but he was planning on hanging out a little later than normal that day, and to come on over.

So 40 minutes or so later, I was at EBM, and an hour after that, I had ordered and put down a deposit on my MINI. At MSRP.

Then this past fall, I was having a steering column issue. Because MoMV is closer, I made an appointment there for service. The SA was very nice, I had to cruise around for a little drive with the tech to show her what was going on. Both the tech and the SA comment on the aesthetic mods I have. They give me a free loaner (a Prius, even). I am somewhat impressed.

I get a call that the car is fixed. They say that my strut tower plates were "loose", and that's what was causing the clunking sound. I'm suspicious, but okay, they're the experts, right?

I pick up my car, signing a form that acknowledges a "one-time courtesy waiver of fee for customer error". I drive home, everything seems fine. I turn into the garage....*clunk* goes the steering wheel.

I am thoroughly annoyed. I call MoMV back, of course they are closed at this point, and leave a somewhat stern-sounding message for my SA, that it clearly was NOT my fault and the steering column is still messed up. The next morning I call EBM and make an appointment for the next day. I take it up there, take the tech for a drive, show him the problem, and he says "Ohhh yes I know exactly what it is. We'll have to replace both the upper and lower racks." I get my car back 5 hours later, no more clunking.

On my drive home, I get a return call (2 full days later, mind you) from MoMV...I somewhat shortly tell them I'm driving home from EBM and that it's been fixed.

I know a lot of people have had great experiences at MoMV, and to be honest, all of the staff there were very nice to me...but I can't figure out what it is. Maybe you're right and it's just a lack of motivation. They could have sold me a car in under an hour if they'd have sold at MSRP like they did for others. They could have fixed what was obviously a simple issue, what with how fast it was recognized and repaired at EBM. But they lost a customer (and a good customer, as I am a MINI girl for life) because they couldn't find it within themselves to win me over.

So now we call EBM home (or jokingly "The Mother Ship"). It's a more fun drive anyway, even if it is a little futher for us.

 

My experiences have been similar with MoMV. When I was in the shopping process, I showed up on the lot, admiring the cars. There were about a half dozen other customers just wandering around with no sales people in sight, and everyone busy or absent inside. We had to leave because of a prior engagement and come back early the next morning to finally flag someone down for a test drive. They didn't have the right options/pricing and I ended up buying from East Bay MINI, who were much more friendly.

Like others, I go to MoMV because of its closer location to where I live. One note is to call to make an appointment for service. Do not depend on the website registration, it will get you nowhere. My first time was to get a light bulb fixed. That was simple and straightforward. They did a standard inspection of fluids, brakes, etc. However, they still washed the car even though I specifically told them not to at least 2 times. I went in today for installing a part to help with windshield noise. I hope it was also straightforward enough that I won't get any problems.

But I agree, that even though some of the SA's may be nice, the dealership overall needs to get its act together.

 

I agree! The pics made it!! Hopefully the bad publicity will travel and affect them in the future!

 

EB Mini is a good place. Attentive staff, good attitudes.

We bought Gromit from Niello however. Same kind of great staff, but they didn't need a deposit from me, and sold at MSRP. Service has been a dream, and the MA's always remember us, and one even hugs us. *enter warm fuzzy feeling here*

 

I've only dealt with Mt. View's service dept. (a few times), and it's been a pleasant experience.

Give 'em a break on the parking situation, though. So they have service cars all over the place, and the BMWs are mixed with the MINIs. It's not like there's a WHOLE lot of parking space at either the BMW or MINI dealerships (and for those who haven't been there, the two are separated by a side street) - they're no doubt dealing with it the best they can.

 

My only experience with MoMV was a phone call to try to schedule a service appointment. Imagine my surprise when I found out they have *no* weekend service appointments, and their latest service appointments during the week are 10:30 AM. (I guess they have a lot of unemployed MINI owners that can come in on weekday mornings?)

Plus, they said that they wouldn't do the OBC-recommended service until the countdown timer was at zero miles or negative. My normal dealership in Virginia will do a service as long as it's coming due in the next 500 miles, and I was under the impression that most dealers had the same policy (I guess not).

So, I'm now down to 200 miles remaining until my service, and trying to find another dealer that either has weekend service hours or afternoon appointments during the week.

 

Scott, Niello does, but obviously too far from Monterey. They also adhere to the 500 mile or one year rule.

What's EB like for service?

 

It's a bit more of a trek for you, but Niello does do Saturday and afternoon service appointments (as long as it's just regular service, and not a huge repair/diagnostic thing), and if you're within 200 miles of the service counter zeroing, they won't give you any hassle.

 

Thanks - I'll look them up. I don't really care how far away they are if they have Saturday service hours - I can always get up at "oh-dark-thirty" and make a road trip out of it.

 

Wow, I thought it was just me who was treated that way at MoMV! I walked in with every intent to buy a Mini a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn't get anyone to help me. My wife and I walked around the cars for a bit, and tried to open the clubdoor on the clubman. For some reason, we just didn't see the latch to open the clubdoor (stupid, I know.. but I kept looking on the door post like my old chevy silverado had on it's third door).

So, we walked inside, asked someone if they could show us how to open the clubdoor. First, it was hard to get someone to look up from their desk and actually help us. Once they finally did, we asked them to show us, and the guy just said: pull on the handle. Then walked away. So, I turned around, walked out and finally figured it out myself.. but I was not very happy. We left.

A couple days later, we had a rare opportunity to go look at cars without our 4 year old, so we decided to try and test drive a mini that evening. To get a MA to help us with the test drive was difficult at best. it was like the MAs were trying to NOT help us, and whoever got the short straw had to help us. I immediately told the MA that I'm ready to buy one now, I just want to test drive one, and talk about reducing their Mark UP. We went on the test drive, but the MA said they can't do anything about the markup.

The next day, I called EBMini, set up a driving appt, when I got there, the MA gave me the keys, had me sign a little form, and off I went for a test drive. Came back, said let's order this bad boy, but only if you dont' charge me the markup you have on the sticker on the lot. MA said no problem.

I'm not really a difficult customer, but MoMV lost me as a customer forever. I'll make the drive to EBMini for all future mini needs. It's about 18 miles further away than MoMV, but oh so worth it. Everyone was a class act at EBMini.

 

Scott, EBM has Saturday service - when I took Clara in for the 2nd go-round with the steering column (after MoMV failed to fix it), I scheduled for a Saturday morning. They shuttled me to the mall with a nice couple who was also in for service, and shuttled us back when our cars were fixed. They provide loaners as well for warranty service.

 

Nice thread, especially w/ the pics! Should also be posted in the Norcal/Northern CA forums.

I also went to MOMV when I was first interested in finding out more about Minis since it was the closest one to me. Had some hit and misses w/ the MA's, and fortunately didn't have the same parking issues as the OP. I would have probably taken off if I had to park that far. Anyhow, there was a very nice MA named Russ who took the time to explain all the features w/o hassling us to buy. Looking on the MOMV site, looks like they've had some turnover b/c I don't recognize any of the MA's (except for Jeff). I've heard that Jennifer is great to deal with, although I haven't personally.

The few times I've been to EBM I guess I just haven't been as lucky as most of the posters here. Kind of lackluster service where another couple and I were wandering around the lot and showroom aimlessly while 2 MA's were chatting near the back.

 

Thank you for this story. I'm very bored and work and it provided me with some good reading for now. Plus, like someone said..."it has pictures!"

p.s. I'm sorry about your bad dealership experience..

 

i thought people in the bay area are supposed to be better people

douchey car dealers are douchey car dealers. maybe they'll go out of business

 

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one, (thought I might have to change my deodorant or something), but I'm disappointed that the dealership is like this. I'm wondering how many people have gone there and received the cold shoulder approach. Personally, if I hadn't been checking other dealerships when I was looking to buy my Mini, I might have left there with the feeling that because the Cooper is still relatively new and popular that the sales team doesn't need to do anything to sell them. Almost like they'd be doing me a favor selling me a car.

East Bay is the polar opposite. The first time I went to EB to look at a Mini I was greeted by someone and asked if there was anything they could help me with after I walked in. The sales team is great, I was even introduced to the manager for the sales team, and asked how everything was after I ordered my car. They at least go out of their way to make your experience a good one there.

Recently I had to have my battery replaced (a bad cell in the battery at 1700 miles), and even that was a pleasant experience. I used the online scheduling system on their website and got a courtesy phone call the day before my appointment reminding me to bring it in, as well as a nice confirmation that they actually knew I was coming and the web scheduling didn't just send my appointment to the cyber junk pile.

Again, I'm sure some people have had a pleasant experience at the Mt View dealership, but I haven't and I wasn't very happy after my last visit. I'm only dealing with East Bay from here on out, lesson learned I guess.

And Oh yea ... I took the pictures of the parking after I hiked the three blocks to the dealership. Snapped them with my cell phone camera. I was thinking to myself "Why is there no customer parking on a Tuesday at 2pm??? And what's with all the BMWs??".

 

I think the issue with the parking is on the weekend at MoMV. I too find it frustrating sometimes that there is no parking in their immediate lot, but I always find parking at the flower place in the back if my visit is only for a short period. The walk is short enough.

As for servicing the BMW's, it is because the car wash that is inside the MINI dealership was moved there from the BMW dealership across the street. So when BMW's need to get washed they get moved over to the MINI dealership. I was surprised when I went there and there were more BMW's in the lot then MINI's.

From my experience with them, I can't say that it was fantastic, but I don't really have anything bad to say about them either. They are extremely short staffed. Coming in on weekends can be tough, they have a signup sheet just to talk to someone there.

They are less then 5 minutes from my work so I can't complain.

 

They still have a $2500 dealer markup on their Clubmans. Haven't they figured out that it's hard enough to sell vehicles at a discount, less then MSRP, in this economy. When I saw that I just turned around and left. Why should I have to haggle from their olympian price start point to what I consider a real price. I wish Peter Pan in San Mateo was a Mini dealer, they are closer and friendlier.

 

Hmm, if it really was hard to sell the Clubman at a discount in this economy then I think they wouldn't be selling them at a markup. This is silicon valley: *everything* is more expensive here. Anywhere else in the country I can get my shirts laundered at the cleaners for a buck. Not here (or I haven't found the place yet!) Rents are higher, wages are higher, there are all sorts of reasons why things are more expensive here.

If you can find a less expensive place, and don't mind the drive, then good for you! But many others don't have the time or inclination to drive further so they are willing to pay more.

My MA was upfront with me: MINIs at MSRP, and Clubmans have a markup above MSRP. She said it didn't matter if I ordered or bought off the lot. I liked the fact that she was direct about it, and I liked that she was not at all pushy. When I went over options with her, she pointed out some things that I hadn't thought of (eg, I was getting the SS and the DSC and so she asked about the Sport package) but it did not feel at all like she was trying to upsell me.

I had also looked previously at a Honda dealership and a Mazda dealership. The sales guy at the Honda place was nice enough but a little aggressive. The guy at the Mazda dealership was super aggressive - definitely fit the "car salesman" stereotype.

 

I've had no trouble with MoMV either. Last time my car was in I was reading the paperwork my SA gave me. It stated that if I didn't find parking in their lot to just park behind/in front of any of their models or right in front of the showroom.

 

Maybe it is just my personal experience but I have found EBM quite aggressive with them trying to sell to me. With constant emails and phone calls. This turned me away.