K, finally got some time to write this.
In February 09 I called the Checkered Flag Mini Dealership to get an appointment for the check-up for the car, since I had a little bit of 48.000 miles on it and I was having serious problems with the stearing and wanted the dealership to check it out before I ran out of the warranty. The woman at the dealership told me that no loaners were available for the next 3 weeks. I told her that I will need a loaner, earlier, since in 3 weeks I will be passed the 50.000 miles for the warranty coverage. But she assured me that that wouldn’t be a problem – Mini is very good about their warranty. So, I took the car in with a little bit over 50.000 miles, thinking that it wasn’t more than an alignment problem. When I picked the car up, I was shocked:
- replace rack and pinion due to P/S leak
- replace both control arm due to both arm bushings torn
- needs new oil pan gasket due to leak
- couple other minor things, the total bill was going to be $3400.00
One of the repair guys from the dealership ‘Checkered Flag’ had the nerve to tell me I hit too many pot holes – this is Virginia! If you lived in Michigan for 15 years you know what pot holes are – Virginia streets are heaven! Could you imagine owning a Mini in Michigan? Probably get those repair bills after 14-16 month of driving!
But, as Frank, the service guy from the Dealership assured me: Mini is very good about their warranty. So, no worries, right? Well, Frank told me he did not want to put all the repairs through to the Mini warranty center, before he knew for certain that there was a leak in the engine. So, he told me to keep on driving until the next oil change. And I did. At 56.000 miles I took the car back for the oil change and once again, he told me that; Mini is very good about their warranty and I should drive the car for another 2.500 miles so he can make sure there is an oil leak. I argued with him, that by now he should know if there is an oil leak, but he insisted that he should check, again, after 2.500 miles and not to worry since; Mini is very good about their warranty. So, after 59.000 miles I called the dealership and requested a loaner – which SURPRISE!!! was not going to be available for another 3 weeks. No, problem the lady at the dealership chirped: Mini is very good about their warranty! At 62.000 miles I finally got the car into the shop and Frank was kind enough to finally put the service request through to Mini. And guess what: Mini DECLINED due to the mileage on the car!
I was in shock. But Frank wrote on the report, after I gave him a piece of my mind: “customer was offered a one time goodwill repair for the power steering rack and pinion at 100% participation from Mini for an out of warranty vehicle if the customer repaired the leaking oil pan and gasket and the control arm bushings at this dealership”. So, I called Mini directly and complained about the treatment from the dealership and the warranty work that did not get done. No, help. Mini repeated the same offer that Frank wrote on the report; if you pay for this we will cover that. Lol – not gonna happen!!! If you screw me over like that, you will not see a penny of my money, anymore. I don’t care how much I would have saved! I cannot with a good conscience support a company that treats their customers that poorly. So, I paid $2400.00 to somebody else to get the work done. Turns out the right tie rod had went bad, too. And the left control arm was seized, the whole assembly had to be changed. When I finally got the car back, I was warned: the car as it is will not pass inspections due to both ball joints were still bad, and couple other things. I would had to pay at least $700.00 more to even pass inspections. Well, I drew the only conclusion I could: I traded the little piece of s… in a couple of weeks ago. Went to the other side – no more BMW or BMW owned products for me! Been pretty happy with the new car, so far.
It takes a lot to make a hater out of me - I was a die hard Mini fan! Ford managed to do so. Congrats, BMW you are right behind them, now.
BMW – you failed to put any kind of quality into the Mini. Any car that has that kind of repair bill after 50.000 miles is not worth it. Biggest miss-investment I ever did. Granted, the drive is more than fun. But, after the original price, I had expected better quality – I mean what in the world did I pay that much extra for? Maybe BMW should have invested more into customer satisfaction instead of the pre-xmas commercials. As a German it hurts me to say this: BMW you are a failure.
It wasn’t just the those problems: after 30.000 miles the air conditioning went south. That was covered under the warranty, thank god. It just took another 5000 miles before the air conditioning started making noises, again. And the ashtray –what the …??? Was that thing made in China? I owned the car for 3 years and went through 4 ashtrays! Obviously, BMW has some serious quality problems that should not have happened on an 04 Mini. By 04 they should have been able to take care of most of the problems that this car had.
I did love the GPS, however. One of the best in-dash GPS’s I have seen to date.
Well, good luck to you Mini (sufferers) owners. I will miss the Mini crowd, you are a fun bunch of people! But I wont miss the car.
Remember, don’t make the same mistake I did – get the car to the dealership if you’re close to 50.000 miles. Don’t wait for the loaners – it’s just not worth it. And don’t trust the dealership when they tell you; Mini is very good about their warranty. – It’s a lie. Insist on all repairs being done immediately!
Merry Xmas to all of you (yes, you too, Frank) and have a Happy New Year! May your repair bills be low and your tank be full!
Well, bye – gotta go and post this on all the Mini forums I can find. I’d feel bad, if they sucker anybody else into their false promises as they did me.

McLaren all the way!!! With Schumi on board, now, BMW will eat dust in the ’10 season!

 

Feel better now?

 

I like how he is pissed at MINI for something the dealer did.

 

First post he makes in NAM after being a "loyal" MINI owner since Nov 2006 and this is the crap he writes ?

Thanks for all your contribution to the MINI community and NAM all this time, and don't let the spam hit you in the ****' on the way out.

 

'Kraut,

What car did you end up getting once you sold the MINI? Sorry about your issues. That was definitely poor service from the stealership.

 

Usually, the single post "XXX you are a failure" threads are pure trolls, but there is a good point here - No matter what some dealer might tell you, don't let your warranty run out and then expect MINI to foot a pile of repair bills.

 

He probably didn't order his Christmas presents until December 24th either.

 

Uhmmm, if you had read his post, MINI was of no help to him. They should have stepped in and investigated. As a company, if one of your dealer's promises a customer something, then backs out of it, then the said company should own up to it.

 

Well, maybe he's one of the smart ones and realized early on NAM is a toy compared to some of the other MINI forums out there. Don't knock the man if he's venting about a car that should have better quality. To the OP, good luck with the new car.

 

Well the message here if you are counting on getting something done that is outside the company stated policy get in writing signed by someone with the title of "MANAGER". It seems most of these "exceptions" were made verbally. Never, never take a verbal promise.

 

Just what Bensmini said: "GET IT IN WRITING"

I may add--If something needs repair under warrenty you need to get it repaired right away. "DO NOT WAIT" Just do it!!!!

Ronnie948

 

+1000

If the MINI dealership was intent on defrauding you as indicated by your post then they would never have issued you a letter stating that they would cover the repairs when you had 48K on the car. If they refused to write the letter than that would have been your indication that they were trying to scam you.

 

Yeah, that isn't going to happen. MINI could care less as the car was out of warranty. This is normal with most companies. Most dealers are independent and not owned directly by MINI (most car companies operate this way) so they are not going to get into that business. If he had car issues he should have got them taken care of up front. He knew what his warranty time was and has no grounds to argue. The dealership that made the "promise" is the one that should be out funds.

And yes, I read his post on BOTH forums.

 

To be fair, I could see this happening to me too. We all lead busy lives, sometimes things slip through the cracks - and it's easy to end up trusting the local dealer a bit too much. Especially when they're saying, "Don't worry, we'll take care of you!!".

Unfortunate story, guess it's a, "First time, shame on you, second time, shame on me" incident.

 

first of all, thank you for everybody's responses. yeah, i got suckered pretty good.
MiniDave: yes, i feel better, now.
daflake: it is she that's pissed. and i was mostly unhappy with bmw/mini's response to my complaint. they ended up calling the service manager, and calling me back to tell me, that they agree. when mercedes owned chrysler several years back, they had full control over the dealerships (they still do over the mercedes dealerships). customers were not put off as easily. you just had to threaten the dealership to call the mercedes complaint line directly and the dealership would start to investigate themselves and correct their wrongdoings, if there were any. bmw doesn't seem to believe in that concept. i'm tired of believing in a product if the company doesn't stand behind.
gay raven: i only registered on NAM to register for the dragon back then. i've been a loyal HRMini member since i owned the car. most people on that site know me personally, since i went to plenty of outings with them and posted plenty of times on their site. sorry, but i don't have the time to post on 15 different sites. am on vacation right now, so yes, i did copy it to several sites, cause i'd really hate to see anybody else getting suckered the way i did. the rest of your answer is on mini2.
Kimbo80: went with the biggest competition bmw has in germany. (mercedes)
ran-o-matic: that's the point i was trying to make: don't trust anybody!
mini-cooper-will: not quite sure what you're trying to say, but i was well below the warranty limit of 50.000 miles when i called the dealership.
fatherdeth: thanks, you got my point. btw, love your cars color - had the same one. and had the whole car blacked out, too. even the tank lid. lol.
bensmini: i had everything in writing. thats why i don't understand how mini can stand there and support the dealership.
acekraut: please, re-read. i don't think the dealership was intent on defrauding. they just have a very incompetent service manager (Frank Lindsey). and given that i waited for the loaner, instead of taking the car there and getting a rental car to pick me up, the car did have a little over 50.000miles on it when it finally got there (prob around 50.500-50.800 miles). the problem is that this dealership managed to keep my car for 3 days for a simple oil change before. usually, i wouldn't care, cause i just put all the miles i drive on the loaners. and yes, i should have just invested in a rental car and risked them keeping my car for a longer period. at least it would have still been under warranty.
newmanium: yes, just sucks if you end up paying so much for the first time.

again, thanks to everyone for their replies. thought it be better to post on a bunch of forums than a dealership and/or Mini/BMW pulling this on somebody else.
either way, i forwarded the forum link to the service manager and the dealership's owner. they got to love seeing that...

 

and again, this is not against the mini crowd! you guys are a great bunch. hung out with you plenty of times. outings and overnight trips. wouldn't have missed them for the world! will always have the best memories of the dragon!!!
just disappointed about the quality of the product and the companies response.

 

Clearly you still don't get it; MINI is not on the hook for the dealer screwing you. You needed to file a complaint with the dealer and stand on their desks to get it resolved. Your anger is misdirected and spamming all the forums you can find is also misdirected.

You had a warranty and you chose to wait until it was up to get the car repaired (granted the service manager said it would be ok) and I assume that you are an adult and understand that he really doesn't have that power. As others said, you should have gotten it in writing or just had the car fixed in the beginning and all would have been well. Many dealers don't offer loaners and MINI is not responsible for that either (it is a dealer option if they want to do this). Bottom line is that you are mostly at fault for this, not MINI. Accept that and remember it with your new car.

Lastly, you created all these accounts and posted your story which reads like you are bashing our cars, how did you expect us to react?

 

So i know everyone is piling in on the OP, but i kind of see where he's coming from. He called the dealer to make an appointment while under the 50K mileage, but they could not accomodate because the OP needed a loaner. He was left with two options get the work done without the loaner or take the dealer at their word that it would not be a problem if he waited.

Sure it's the dealer that mis-represented to the OP whether MINI would accept the warranty claim but if the dealer told me the same thing i would take him at his word (and i would not demand it in writing as the whole point of having a premium brand car is that you don't have to doubt the dealer!).

And the repairs that they did are actually in-line with the mileage. I just replaced my front bushings at 52000 miles (they've been bad for a while now), and the gasket is showing weeping (which an aggressive mechanic might try to change). So i don't think the work was pre-mature either.

 

Okay, just to clarify where I was coming from with my "waited until 12/24 to buy Christmas presents" comment:

This all happened back in February and we are just now hearing about it. And this was after he admitted to knowing he was having "serious problems with the steering" but waited until it was almost out of warranty to have it checked out.

I'm just saying perhaps the OP has a bit of a procrastination issue. That's all.

 

That, or he's just got a normal, busy adult life like most of us do. I don't even have kids yet, and 6 months will disappear without blinking an eye.

Whatever flaws the OP has, the dealer still screwed him over here. They misled him that the warranty repair would go smoothly - and that's simply inexcusable for a premium brand. It's not like this was a Kia. Mini USA might not have an obligation to help, but I'm surprised they didn't smack the dealer around a bit.

I don't understand why people are piling on him - he's just venting and looking for some sympathy (understandably). Seems pretty clear the dealer behaved dishonorably.

 

Minikraut, Sorry to hear about another data point of bad human conduct from a car dealership. If the dealership hasn't made this right with you, you need to file a formal complaint with the local (or closest) Better Business Bureau. This will serve 2 purposes: 1) It becomes a formal record with the BBB which the dealership will not want to have and 2) It warns other customers. Perhaps draft the complaint to the BBB and first show it to the dealership and tell them it gets mailed if you don't get satisfaction. If they did this to you, they will do this to other customers. You've obviously learned a lesson here (re-learned probably!) Hope it all works out for you. Good luck!

 

I figured I would chime in here a little. First the OP stated in a later post that he "did get everything in writing" if this is the case - he still doesn't have a beef with MINI - they didn't give him anything in writing the dealer did - so they should be picking up the tab (not MINI's fault the dealer is a moron). Second, yes we are all busy, but if there is a know problem with your car and you wait until the last min. to get it fixed, well you have to know that something might come up.

Minihi: First - I wouldn't consider MINI a "premium brand" car (I might get flamed for this but it just isn't) and secondly you should never think you can "trust" a dealer because they are a "premium brand" dealer - it doesn't matter

there are a lot of people out there that seem to think you have to do nothing to cars and they should operate properly. If there was a power steering leak and both front control arm bushings were shot (as the OP stated) then the car would have driven noticeably worse so he shouldn't have waited so long (I know a PITA sometimes - but that is what happens)

All cars have there problems and all brands have bad dealers, but to take out this rant on MINI and BMW is just a little silly. Again - MINI never told you that your out of warranty repairs would be covered. OP I understand your frustration and hopefully your bad experience will cause others to be more cautious and that is a good thing - I hope you didn't by a Mercedes just to get back at BMW because they have there own long list of problems.

good luck with the new car and hopefully you and everyone else has learned a little from your misfortune

 

i generally agree with what you said except for the bushings issue. i just replaced mine and probably drove on them for 2-3K miles more then i should and since they get progressively worse it is difficult to tell that something is wrong. yes after i replaced them i could tell the difference but if my dealer had not caught them when i had the car in for an unrelated problem i still would be driving the car. the dealer also advised that i could drive the car that way--this was my choice because i wanted to take the car to my mechanic.

as far as whether MINI is a premium brand. well most of the dealers i've seen are co-located with BMW dealerships, the cost of the car's are more VW/Audi then Honda/Toyota. And the labor rates, parts costs and service costs feel like a premium brand everytime i have to pay them

i also don't understand the disconnection of dealers from MINI, the dealers are an extension of the brand. Yes from a business perspective they are separate but i don't interact with MINI, i interact with the dealer. Maybe it's not fair to MINI but they need to hold their dealers to the standard that they are selling/presenting to the market. Yes the dealer should make this right but MINI should be helping the OP if the dealer is being a moron.

 

Minhi

I agree that MINI should look into that dealer - but what should they do - they get a call about a car that is out of warranty and the customer says "well they told me to keep driving and the warranty being up doesn't matter"

Back to the premium brand or not - I agree the dealer will charge you for things like it is a premium brand - but the prices are closer to honda - you priced a civic si lately - or for that matter the 1 series?

 

MINI is *definitely* a premium brand - everybody knows they're linked with BMW, and the prices are definitely much higher than other subcompacts. The Civic SI can be easily had at invoice for $20k, and has 200hp in that config. To get 200+ hp in a Mini, you've got to get a JCW which *starts* at 30k.

And MINI gets the call from the dealer, not the customer. The dealer submits warranty service that is outside warranty, and they should've handled the situation by explaining that the problem was reported while the warranty was in effect - and MINI/dealer should've worked something out so the customer was taken care of.


As an FYI, my parents had a similar situation with their Honda Civic. Had a problem 300 miles before warranty was expired, but parts weren't available. Dealer said it would be covered even if they kept driving - and it was, no hassle. MINI should at least be matching the service of a Honda dealership, if not vastly exceeding them.