Just posting this, because it may have got overlooked in the MMMC thread.

THIS SATURDAY!!!!

Big Buck Brewery off of I-75. We will meet at 2:00PM Saturday, February 1. Anyone that hasn't been to Big Buck before has got to experience this place. It's an enormous micro-brewery, and really has some great food. Please let me know if you plan on attending and I will try to reserve an area that is large enough for everyone. You can email me at rhammond@comcast.com.

Directions:
2550 Takata Drive (exit 79 on I-75, west to Opdyke, then left 1/4 mile)
Auburn Hills, Michigan 48326
Phone: (248) 276-2337
Big Buck Brewery

I'll try to keep this simple and wear a black turtle neck sweater. It's kind of hard to miss me since I am also 6'4" and wear glasses. Come out and have a good time! You don't have to have your MINI yet, you just have to be a member of MCO or know of someone that is, heck...if you just want to meet a group of cool people, that's enough qualification to come. Looking forward to seeing as many MINI owners as possible.

Ryan

 

You can count me in for the meet. Weather.com says yukkie snow, so be prepared for the 'weathered look' and not show-car shine

Cheers,
Ryan

 

I'm planning to show up for an hour or so. Hopefully we'll be able to establish a meeting schedule of some sort.

 

Hey Meenee...I won't be able to make it tomorrow, but if you are looking for "agenda items" how 'bout asking the "Serviced by MCM?" question I have posted here? I'm real curious if I'm gonna be the first MCS dissected by these guys...at least as far as the bumper, radiator, water pump goes.
Thanx,
DREW

 

I will bring it up tomorrow. On Monday, I am taking my MC in to have it checked out as well. I have a few problems that have been adding up, and it's time to have them all inspected. My tranny is VERY notchy, and sometimes, I can't even find the correct gate - it's actually popped out of gear three times. My boot latch needs to be slammed to get completely shut, and the driver side door isn't flush with the body like the passenger side door is. The headlights need to be leveled (right side is up more than left) and I continue to have this "little rock" sound in my tranny when the clutch is de-pressed. So...I'm going out of town on Monday, so this would be a good time to let them have it for a while. I live in Flint, so I need to have a loaner when i drop it off. Ken, the service manager, has said that he will get me a car. I don't care what it is, as long as I don't have to have someone follow me down there. (the worst part about MINI for me is the distance of the dealership)

Anyways...looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow. We have about 12 people planned to show up!! Bring on da slush!

 

Uh oh...You're promised a loaner Monday, and we're promised a loaner Monday...Hope they have enough...

DREW

 

It was great to meet a few of the local Motor City MINI members. Although the turnout was a bit thin, future events will no doubt include better weather, and more MINI's

Cheers,
Ryan

 

>>It was great to meet a few of the local Motor City MINI members. Although the turnout was a bit thin, future events will no doubt include better weather, and more MINI's
>>
>>Cheers,
>>Ryan
----------------
MMMC,

Count me in as I get my MCS next weeek, hoepefully it gets thru the VPC soon. Suggest we target weekend events now to get it on our calendars, sounds just like work.

SMKKVK

 

Have fun picking up your MCS!!!!

 

I would like to thank those MMMC members who came to Big Buck this past Saturday. It was great to finally meet you. We have a wonderful group of people on this board, and I cannot wait to meet more members. The meet showed 10 people, and three MINIs. The weather was quite yucky, but this is Michigan, it will get better soon.

Shortly after the meet, Amy and I were trying to drive over to Great Lakes Crossing to do some shopping, but I somehow missed a turn and ended up over by the Palace. There was a ton of traffic over there. I was waiting to turn left in a double Michigan left lane. I was in the outside lane, and a Saturn was on my left. She started to turn left and so I started to do the same. I glanced to the right and when I looked back, YIKES! She is going straight! I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could, the ABS engages hard, and somehow I stop within 1/2 inch from hitting her in the passenger door. She keeps going straight (into the Palace) seemingly oblivious to what just happened. Why she decided to go straight, when she was turning -I'll never know, but I am so glad that my MINI is okay. I scared the crap out of both Amy and I, but at least we were safe. Thank goodness for those brakes.

 

Boy, glad you stopped in time. I had a great ride back up to Flint. The traffic between Clarkston and Grand Blanc really travels fast. I saw my first triple digit. (I don't normally drive quite that fast.) Still, I got better than 26mpg. I am really anxious for the weather to get better.

 

good to hear the "austin powers" machine is intact

Better weather is on its' way (and hopefully a dash of fellow motorists intelligence too!)

 

Thanks guys....it was a wild drive. I am convinced that at least 30% of Michigan motorists need to never sit behind a wheel. Driving from GR to Detroit yesterday gave my the dangerous opportunity to see some of the stupidest driving in my life. Beware of 696.

 

Hey there Meenee Coopah, how did your service visit go with MCM?

 

I ran into Meenee at Motor City MINI the other day (while I was checking my options before my MCS got ordered) - probley during his service visit. How did that go? What kind of loaner did you get?

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Okay, so here it goes...I wake up in the morning very early, because thankfully, MCM opens for service at 7:30 AM, so I wanted to be down there by 8:00AM. I got down about 8:15, and Ken (service manager) was already for me to come in. I had a list of things that I had printed out for him. Most of these things wern't enough to take it in alone, but since they were going to have it for at least a few days, I thought I would let them take a shot at it all.

I thought I would get a BMW loaner, but no such luck. Ken called Enterprise Rent-a-car and they came to pick me up. Not a mile away, I was given the keys to a Chevy Impala, which I have to add was a great car. I really liked the Impala and told my dad that he now has to buy one. Anyways...this was all on Monday morning. When I was at Enterprise I asked the agent if they get a lot of business from Bavarian Motor Village, and he said yes, but not too many from the MINI side. He mentioned that they want Enterprise to purchase a few MINIs so they can be rented out, but he said they don't get enough business from them to do that. I mentioned that I wanted to have a beemer, and the agent told me that B.M.V. has about 13 BMW loaners, but they are very particular with who they give them out to. I imagine most of them are given to folks who have BMWs and not MINIs.

On Tuesday afternoon, I got a call while in Grand Rapids and Ken informed me that the car was ready to be picked up. I told him that I could do it until Wednesday due to my conference, and he said that wouldn't be a problem. He went over the fixes, and what else I had concerns about. I told him I would see him the next day and that was it for Tuesday.

On Wednesday, I head back to Eastpoint from Grand Rapids, and have my wicked experiences on 696....stupid drivers....anyways....take the Impala back to Enterprise, and get a lift back to BMV/MCM. Ken was waiting for me, and brought out my just washed MINI. It looked great. Ken went over the repairs with me again, and told me that he test drove it to make sure everything was a-ok. I gave him my receipt from Enterprise and he charged it completely off to MINI. I was happy with the service. Ken and I ended up talking for about 30 minutes on different MINI advancements, and different things he has heard down the pipeline. He showed me some artist drawings of the MINI convertible, and I will definately be on that wait list. It looked somewhat similar to the Audi TT. I was also able to meet Heather, "The phone girl", and she is a hottie. Actually every girl I have met at BMV/MCM is a hottie. Must be something in their water. So, when I looked over the car, I was a bit concerned that they had not serviced everything on the MINI to my specifications, but to my surprise, everything was fixed, even my driver side door, which was not sitting right on the body. All in all, I would give them and Ken a 5 star rating (out of 5). I could not have been more pleased. It really helps when you are courteous to these folks. I understand how stressing their jobs must be, so I just try to make thier work with me a little easier. I am always friendly to them, and try to make the day a little less monotonous. That is what I would want if I was having a bad day, so I try to be considerate. In a few moments, I was out the door - nothing out of pocket.... yet.

After speaking with Ken, I went over to MINI and met with David Green for a second. I asked if he had the H/K stereo system in any car that I could hear. He was happy to help out, tossed me the key, and pointed it out. His sales assistant, came out to the MINI with me. She and I hopped in the car, and put on the tunes. I wasn't impressed with the system until I played with it for a second, and wham...this thing was pumpin out some tunes. The bass was three times what it is in my MC. It wasn't distorted either, the sound was crisp, clear, very pure. It wasn't the volume, but the quality, that was so impressive. The H/K speakers were silver, with engraved logos around the mounting rings. It looked and sounded really good. I would love to have the system in my car, but I don't think it's worth it to upgrade. You could probably do some great aftermarket work for the $550 + installation that MINI is asking. I walked back inside and chatted with Ryephile who was getting his daily MINI fix. MCM had a lot of vehicles on the lot. There were three inside on the floor, just on the right hand side alone. David said that they just had a large shippment come in and that only two were scheduled for delivery. So if you don't have one, now is your chance. There was only one that had a H/K system, and it's very similar to mine - MC, IB/W, but it has the pleather seats. So...I checked out the accessories, and ended up buying a set of front rubber mats, and some leather cleaner. ($62) Not bad, not great. Whew....what a story. Feel like I'm writing a book.

For those of you who care:
I had the following concerns/repairs:

- I had a rattle on the passenger side near the rear. Most noticeable over bumpy roads. *They said it was a gas tank strap, took it off, put felt around it, put it back on and tightened it up. Job Done. But I can still hear the sound occassionally, just not as bad.

-Headlights were aimed. The passenger side was off a few mm.

-Boot was very hard to shut. Needed to be slammed to have the warning light go off. *They replaced the boot latch and servo system. It works great now, and doesn't make the wierd clicking sound it used to. Shuts very easily now.

-I questioned if the passenger side wiper had a wiper gaurd. It does not. MINI only designed the drivers side wiper to have the gaurd.

-My driver's side door was not flush with the body like the passenger side door was. It was expecially noticable on the trim, near the window. I would run my hand over it, and you could feel a very noticable difference. When I was driving it was noticable in the rear-view mirrors, and outside noise was much more prevalant on the drivers side. Also, when I would shut the door, it sounded like a hollow THUNG. *I don't know what they did. I don't know all of their codes that they place on the receipt, but it doesn't look like they put any time into it. Although it seems that they fixed it. It now shuts quieter, and no noise is heard from the door when driving. I'll keep ya'll posted if anything changes.

-Transmission has "little rock sound" when in 2nd & 3rd gear at 3500 rpm. *This is just a resonance in the exhaust at this speed.

-Shifter hard to move on cold start. *Correct! MINI is aware of this problem. As of this time, there is no fix. Repair is in the development stages.

-Reverse gear is very hard to find. Sometimes I have to engage the clutch just to find the gate. *Correction remedy: Place into first gear, and then move into reverse.

-My tranny popped out of gear three times in one day about 2 weeks ago. *They could not get it to do this. Told me to keep an eye on it, and to let them know if it happens again.

Hope this helps those of you that start having the same questions after 2K miles.


MC

_________________

'03,Oct 02 Build, IB/MC, Prem., CldWth, Un.Jk roof, Chrome, Blk Pnt Leather, sweet lil MINI

 

MC,

Great tale about the super service at MCM. I'm using Bill Jacobs MINI in Naperville, IL as my initial dealer but could easily switch to MCM for future servicing. Being in Kalamazoo, it's a toss of the coin to go to either BJM or MCM. Of course, the traffic around Gary, IN is a big deterrent for happy motoring towards BJM.

Hope to see all the MMMCers as my MCS CHOREBOY is now at the VPC, almost home.

SMKKVK
Keeper of the List for the CFFWC

 

great writeup of your experience Meenee.Coopah. It's good to know that MCM will be a pleasure to work with in the future :smile:

Sorry I wasn't more chatty when we bumped into each other, my sinuses were exploding and I wasn't feeling my best. Hope you enjoy those new rubber mats. They're bound to clean up the look of your interior, no more 'stacked mats',

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Sounds like the service is pretty good. I'm not too surprised to hear you didn't get a bimmer. Part of my car history is two different Impala SS. Not the same car now, but I agree the new one is pretty nice (good value) auto. I tried to register/join the Yahoo group and not certain I was successful. As to a February event, I don't know that it would be that bad to just meet again at a restaurant. Sounds like some more people may have their cars. The weather is still not too mini hospitable. A friend of mine is part of a Detroit MG Club and he has indicated to me that during the bad weather they get together and watch a car related movie. (As an example, we discussed at our meeting that the movie Borne Identity has a large chase scene with a classic mini.) Just an idea.

 

I just watched Borne Identity last weekend! The mini chase scene was very cool, they really used the cars dimensions well in the sequence, as well as its' excellent handling capabilities. That was one of the few good notes of the film, imo. Good acting, good plot potential, bad director, bad scriptwriter.