I'm for having a "drive-in" in lieu of a sit-in at Tom Williams BMW. I now hear that it may be another year before they do anything about selling or servicing MINIs in Bham. They have not yet broken ground for a new MINI building, and it wouldn't be that hard since Global, Mini of Nashville and Tom Williams have the same parent company, so just use the plans for the buildings at one of the other stores. IT IS TIME TO UNITE AND FORCE THE ISSUE! I understand that there are MINI-trained technicians already in the service department so why must I make a 6-hour round-trip for them to check my gas tank? Other dealers have been added in other states that already have them, so why not in a state that does not have one? We must drive this issue home and get their attention. I think if we were to show up with 100 MINIs it just might get their attention. What do ya'll think?

 

I'll gladly show up!

 

Sound like a good idea, Harold. We can meet up somewhere and do a drive-in into Century BMW here in Huntsville to protest.

 

I kinda like to drive to Nashville because it gets me out of Alabama for a little while but : I also wished that there was somewhere here in Alabama just in case we need help with our cars. Right now I have a problem with my AC and I can't get it fixed with out taken off work. The fix will need to be done during the week so they can call the tech line if they need too. So if there was a dealer in alabama I could drop my Mini off and pick it up the next day. I can't really drive 3 hours to Nashville and have someone to follow me to drop my Mini and then come back the next day.

On that note. I think we should join up and hit both the hville and bham BMW locals and let them know we are out here. So let me know when and I will be there. Lets get them!

Side note: I have had my mini for 9 months now and I have 35000 miles on it.

 

I'll show up!

Let's put letters on our MINI's so that we spell something out like a bunch of drunks at a football game with letters painted on their bellies!

How about:

Don't you want our business?
Fix my MINI
Sell me my next MINI

etc.

 

I'm all for some form of demonstration, be it drive-in, sit-in, or letter writing campaign. It ridiculaous that a city and surround areas this size cannot justify a Mini dealer/service center. At least if we approached them en-mass they'd know we're serious and we might get an explanation for why we have to take our business to GA or TN.

 

You'd think the parent company of our "local" dealerships would be clever enough to find a way to put one of the MINI techs already here in Birmingham on the payroll of one of their other MINI dealerships until they can get an honest to goodness dealership here. . . .

 

I was just there the other day, (drove a pw/b mc) and my dad asked THE VERY SAME QUESTION. They have already taken orders, and have already delivered. My dad then asked how would they then go about serivicing the cars, upon which the guy replied that they "bit the bullet, and sent the car to atlanta to have the car serviced." The dealer payed for the labor and all. So, as of right now (last week), cars and orders are for sale, and your mini gets fixed/serviced in ATL at their expense.

They also said the whole new Mini dealer (as in the real thing) should be up by this summer.

 

I went to Hank Aaron Mini in Atlanta for some warranty work today. The parts or service manager (not sure of his title) told me that Mini was not going to allow any more Service Centers to be opened up. He said there were 75 in The US & that would be all. He said they still plan to increase production of Mini's but no more Service Centers. I don't know if this has anything to do with Tom Williams not opening up their Mini Dealership as planned in March

I wish someone with connections would call Tom Will & check this out.

 

I'm new here. Had my MCS for 14 months. Bought it from Roadshow Mini in Tennesee. They were great to deal with but I dont' want to have to drive there for service.
I'm in on the drive-in

 

After having my MINI serviced last week in Nashville and after asking when getting my MINI serviced in BHam would be a possiblity(they don't know), I received via email today a survey. I indicated I was happy about everything about my visit except the 6-hour round-trip drive, when I could drive less than 30 minutes to Tom Williams BMW, and the serivce advisor there who did not return my calls. If you have to go, and I stress IF, to Nashville for service, the SA to ask for is Michael Jannca, Not Geoff ??. In my comments at the end of the survey I clearly expressed our desire to have our MINIs serviced in Birmingham, AL. If you have service done and they send you a survey, you need to put in your comments that you desire to have your MINI serviced in BHam. We have to let them know utilizing every means available to us.

 

they do service minis in minis in birmingham...sort of. I just picked mine new MC up from Tom Williams BMW last thursday anyway. Their deal with service is that because their MINI dealer is not constructed yet, they will trailer the cars to atlanta at their expense for the service. No lie.

 

It would be nice to have a place to have warranty work done in Alabama. That said, the more I hear of Tom Williams, the less I would want to visit them for service. Isn't there another BMW dealer down there?

 

Congrats, MCSWRKS on getting your MINI, but I want service in Bham, not trucked off to Atlanta. If there is a question about an issue I want to see and get an explanation about what is about to happen in person not via the phone line. Maybe I'm getting a little pissy in my advancing years, but that's the way it is, and I will continue to complain about a trip for service, even though I enjoy visiting with the boys at MON. I want to build a relationship with Alabama MINI guys even if they only opened the shop up to service MINIs one day a week, at least we would be getting something. I'm stepping off my soap box now, at least for a while. Thanks for listening(reading) to my rant.

 

I understand now. I was just so excited that I had finally gotten behind the wheel of a mini. Now that I think about it, that would un-nerve me completely not knowing whats going on to the car when its all the way in atlanta with the local dealer in charge of it.
I am at Tom Williams all the time it seems, and first they said the dealer would be built in January, then this summer, and now they said they dont think it will be this year. I have not seen this "other place" that services minis (although i would like too), and think that the local mini guys should get together and ask Tom Williams "what gives?" and when are they going to start servicing.

 

So when are we going to get together and drive up to this place and let them know what we want?

This really don't mean much to me anymore because with 45000 on my Mini I'm almost done with the warranty. But now if something comes up that my service manual can't tell me or I just want someone who might know more about the Mini to look at it. It would be great to have a place in Alabama to take my Mini to have it worked on.

I say May 28th,June 4th, I think June 11th is taken for a Mini event in Hville. Anyway lets make it happen. Plus it is fun getting together with Mini owners so it would give us a reason.
:smile:

 

I am ready to cruise my Coop down to Tom Williams. I've got almost 5K miles on my "S" and need to start thinking about some servicing.

 

I'm free saturday.

Just let me know if I need to wash my car before the weekend.

 

I have only 200 miles on mine...upcoming service will an issue though. I will be available as soon as next thursday. Not to try and mess up group dates here, but I do think that the if the owner who just bought his new MINI from them last week shows up with several other minis asking about service, it would wake them up.
It would not only wake them up in the customer service sense, but would probably get them to hurry up once they saw how many of us are out there, as in good business...

 

Is a dealership really interested in money earned from servicing cars??? Not being a smartarse just asking. In my mind the dealer makes money from selling cars & any money made from servicing them is secondary. So does Tom really want us

 

The money made on the sales of a car is minimal compared to the amount a “GOOD” dealer will make on servicing your needs over the life time of your MINI.

In other words you will only buy the car once, but will have it serviced many times.

 

I agree with Sndwave. The rate a hour for Servicing your mini is $55.00 to $75.00 a hour I believe if you go to the dealer after warranty. Thay make money.
Another point I would like to make. I would glading play $75.00 to know that the work is done right on my Mini or any car that I have. IF THE WORK IS DONE RIGHT!!! My last trip to Mini of Nashville they fix only half the problems I had and told me they were fixed. If I live only 45 mins from dealer I would be back the next day to tell them to look at the car again.

So I'm hot about this now. I just remember that the last time I had my car serviced at Mini of Nashville I have to take a day off work because I was told they would have to call the Mini tech line and the Tech line was closed on Saturdays. So I went up on a tuesday and they didn't call the Tech line. I know they didn't call because they had me back in the service area looking at my Mini with them and I told them to call the Tech line. The service guy told me he don't need the tech line. So he did the same thing to my Mini they had done the last three time I had been up there for the same problem. (ac problem)
I hope to see a dealer with service deptment but hope they know what they are doing when they start the deptment.

Mini of Nashville , I still have the love for you but not so much for the Service deptment.

 

I’m there with all of you that have to drive a good distance for service and would like to see the Bham dealer start servicing MINIs. It would give me another place to get serviced.

I go to Brian Harris in Baton Rouge, LA and they have a good service department. It is a 600 mile trip to the dealer. A dealer in Bham would cut the drive down to 500 miles and have a friend I could stay with if the servicing took all day, then head back in the morning.

 

Though Nashville is closer for me than Birmingham by a few miles, not sure of time, there needs to be someone in Alabama to service the cars. I'm like MagicMINI, never get all the problems fixed. If I were closer I would take it back the next day also. I do have an intermittent problem that can sometimes be tricky to find but if they were close I wouldn't have a problem leaving it with them for a day or two. The way it is now, it would be a major hassle to carry it to Nashville and leave it.

That's a long trip Sndwave. I went to Mardi Gras in Biloxi last year and my car made a side trip to Baton Rouge. The last day of vacation they had it fixed so we had to run to Baton Rouge then back through Birmingham on our way home.

 

Heck I dont know. Just whatever gets them to-A. Service and B. Construct an official Mini dealer sooner. They have said they will do both, but just keep "delaying" them.

I really think that if all the mini guys of birmingham group together and go up there, we could get a logical explanation, or get something changed.