I live in a medium-sized metro area with over half a million inhabitants within a 30 mile radius. Why are there no MINI dealers closer than Philadelphia or Princeton which are over an hour away? Is there any chance new dealerships will be added to the line-up or are the original few part of a monopoly that we're stuck with? I'm buying mine in Morristown, NJ but it's gonna be a major PITA to take it in for servicing. More than an hour and a half to get there. Some of the existing dealerships are in somewhat rinky-dink little towns. I don't get it.

 

My nearest MINI dealer is about 45 minutes away, but the local BMW dealer can get some parts for MINIs and they have worked on my car at least once.

 

try living in montana, where the average motorer has to go hundreds of miles to SLC or Denver for sales or service-- or Alaska, where the closest dealer is prob in Canada. y'all back east should not complain.

I'm actually fine with the number of dealers--less dealers mean less MINIs on the road--but word is that BMW will expand by 15-20 the number of dealers in the network, mostly to areas of the country not covered well like the Pac NW and rocky mtn region.

 

That will improve with time. Its only been 6 years. Here in NJ you hardly ever see one on the road and the state has 3 dealerships. There are still alot of states that have nothing most up north. Looks like MINI will also be selling Alfa Romao and Fiat in the future. Most european cars started off the same way with limited dealer ships. You would be suprised at how many american dealerships have closed in the last few years.

 

The factory in Oxford can't keep up with the dealers they have now. It is working 24/7 and pushing out at max capacity. Opening more outlets when they can't supply the ones they already have doesn't make sense. BTW: my dealer is almost 4 hrs away.

 

I have heard, that a new Mini plant will be opened, and as an offshoot of that, more BMW dealers will be awarded MINI dealerships.

The Stockton-Modesto area could use one, there are BMW dealerships in both. But I think I will still drive the hour to Niello because their service has just been superior. A new Mini dealer will probably take a little time to get up to speed with good employees and techs.

 

3 1/2 hour drive to the nearest dealership from Iowa. At MTTS this year there was mention of 9 more dealerships by the end of 09... but being as they ran out of cars by July this year I cant see them filling there lots they would only be dealerships by name nothing else...

 

Being in Little Rock is pretty frustrating. Ya gotta go to Memphis or Oklahoma City to get service. And there's a BMW dealer right in Little Rock.

 

What MINI really needs is more Service Centers and not more dealerships. My closest dealership is 1.5 hours away.

 

. I have to drive 3 hours to Nashville. I have a BMW dealership 15 min from my house, and we have TONS of Mini's here in Knoxville!!!

 

When I visited friends in the FL Panhandle, their closest dealership is in Baton Rouge, LA, about 4.5-5 hours away, so 90 minutes isn't so bad, by comparison.

I'm lucky to have so many to choose from in SoCal.

 

We have four in the Bay Area, and Niello up in Sacramento. Between Sacramento and LA, there are no Mini dealers in the valley.

 

we could put one in Madera

 

i have to go 3.5 hours..
i am in charleston wv

within 3.5 hours any direction..
lexington ky
pittsburgh pa
cincy
columbus oh
charlotte nc

all around me..
we have a big bmw dealer here.. hope they one day get a mini franchise

on the upside..

we love to day trip .. so its fun
and we always get a loaner.

 

My closest dealer is 100 miles away. It would really be great to have a MINI dealer in my car-obsessed area.

I always assumed that the reason there aren't more dealers is because the current dealers can sell out their allotments. From the dealer's point of view, adding more dealers would mean fewer MINIs for each dealer. Too many dealers, and they would all have difficulty being profitable. When production catches up, I would expect MINI to open more dealers.

In the meantime, it would help owners if local BMW dealers could do warranty work on MINIs. However, I'm told that auto dealers make their money on service, not sales. So, again, that would undermine dealers.

Sometimes, the market doesn't do what would be best for the customer.

 

I would be happy if BMW dealers could do warranty work. I 1.5hrs to 2 hrs to get to a dealership (Winston-Salem, NC and Charlotte, NC). Funny thing is the sales and service people at Flow Mini in Winston-Salem have told me that nearly half or more of their customers are from the Raleigh area.

 

My dealer is 35 miles away, there is one 11 miles away, and several more in the state. In my apartment complex there are now eight Minis. Around here everywhere you turn there is a Mini. I liked it better when mine was the only one.

Happy Motoring,

Larry

 

Its only 37 miles for me, but MINI of Mt. View is supposed to be moving to larger facility in Stevens Creek, San Jose in the near future which will make it closer, like 28 miles.

 

New Mini dealership is opening soon in Mount Laurel NJ.

 

Do you know the new address, and when it will happen?

I would have thought that the Santa Cruz County Jail was further than 37 miles from the current location.

 

Here is a little information(watch video): http://www.motoringfile.com/2009/11/...ew-us-dealers/

Also, I found out from a MINI dealer in 2006 that one of the selling points of MINI was that they were few and far between, that they were special, and so on... The dealer told me that if MINI dealers were like Chevrolet dealers and saturate the market, they lose their exclusivity and aren't special anymore. I know our El Paso dealer will open up later this year, hopefully soon so I can get a service.

 

my dealer is 10 minutes away, with traffic maybe 20 =)
but there's only one mini dealership in the whole state

 

Naaaa how bout MINI of Gault....OR MINI of Ripon! LOL

 

There needs to be a MINI of Monterey. With Laguna Seca Raceway, The Monterey Historics, Concours d' Elegance, and many more, this is definitely a place for a car with a historic pedigree. Also, the demographics of the area is right for MINIs. I see quite a few of them around, in spite of the 100 mile distance to MINI of Mountain View.

 

I moved to Alaska and drove my '06 MCS up this summer, thinking I could get warranty service at the BMW dealership in Anchorage...think again. When I went in there with a problem, they said they were technically capable of servicing 1st Gen Minis, but that I would have to pay for it out of pocket, even though it's within warranty (they felt sorry for me and charged me half). I called Mini USA to see if I could work out some sort of voucher deal for future repairs, but they said I would have to go to Vancouver or Seattle!! I was super disappointed in their customer service...do they need a geography lesson? To every rule there have to be exceptions. BMW/Mini need to fix this problem and work out a service agreement. Now I don't quite know what to do when the warranty runs out...I've had no problems so far, but no idea who in town is competent to service the car. Any ideas?

P.S. I put Blizzak snow tires on her, and she's doing really well so far (I keep her garaged).