Mini Included Maintenance, a Caution
Thread Starter
|
Neutral
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Mini Included Maintenance, a Caution
For anyone contemplating buying a Mini and thinks they will utilize the included maintenance (3 yr/36,000 miles), make sure you live close enough to a Mini dealer to make it worthwile. Here is my story....
Moved to Northern Idaho where the nearest Mini dealer is 5 hours away. Unless I need something major like brakes, not worth the time or money to make the drive to Seattle. Recently I received a mailer from a BMW dealer in Spokane saying they now work on Minis; I got excited but thought I better check the fine print. They will gladly perform routine maintenance if I pay for it but Mini will not authorize or reimbuste them to perform maintenance covered under my included maintenance program. And of course a contact with Mini USA was worthless as they said maintenance should only be performed by an authorized Mini dealer. Funny thing though is that Mini USA shared my info with the BMW folks (and that of other Mini owners in the area) as I have never had any contact with that dealership. So by sharing my info I believe they are endorsing the service.
So the moral of this message is make sure you live close enough to a dealer to utilize the maintenance that you are forced to pay for when you purchase a new Mini.
Moved to Northern Idaho where the nearest Mini dealer is 5 hours away. Unless I need something major like brakes, not worth the time or money to make the drive to Seattle. Recently I received a mailer from a BMW dealer in Spokane saying they now work on Minis; I got excited but thought I better check the fine print. They will gladly perform routine maintenance if I pay for it but Mini will not authorize or reimbuste them to perform maintenance covered under my included maintenance program. And of course a contact with Mini USA was worthless as they said maintenance should only be performed by an authorized Mini dealer. Funny thing though is that Mini USA shared my info with the BMW folks (and that of other Mini owners in the area) as I have never had any contact with that dealership. So by sharing my info I believe they are endorsing the service.
So the moral of this message is make sure you live close enough to a dealer to utilize the maintenance that you are forced to pay for when you purchase a new Mini.
5th Gear
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 810
Likes: 63
From: South Central Pennsylvania
When I lived in Seattle the only Mini dealer was in Tacoma. Then I moved to MS and no Mini dealers in the state and there still are not. It was a just over a 5 hr round trip so 1/2 of what you have. Now I am in WI and the mini dealer is 5 minutes from my office which has been a real different experience.
If I was still in MS the clutch repair and turbo failure last year would have been really rough from a getting it to the dealer and back scenario. But it was sure nice that the maintenance program paid for them.
If I was still in MS the clutch repair and turbo failure last year would have been really rough from a getting it to the dealer and back scenario. But it was sure nice that the maintenance program paid for them.