I cannot begin to tell you the issues I've had with their integrity. I bought a 2006 MINI Cooper S at the end of 2006 and it was delivered to me in January 2007. The sales person made all sorts of promises that were never carried out - and then he was supposedly fired. He INSISTED that my car was covered from bumper to bumper, under their 3 yr maint/4 yr warranty, even when I questioned tires, paint, etc. Obviously, it was a lie, and certainly not something MINI had any intention of honoring.

Then they wouldn't take my car in for it's first oil change (over 1 year after I bought it) b/c they said that the computer didn't indicate the need yet. I've since found out that this is crap - they need to honor it if it's been 1 year. Then the next year, they made me wait for weeks to honor their "flat bed pick up/loaner" policy b/c they said I had to reserve it over a month in advance. Another scam.

So let's skip all the other stuff and cut to the multiple bogus offers they made me re: an extended maintenance agreement, all of which they negated. The new kid there offered me a 4 year extension for 1300. i spent a couple days researching my options, as I have only averaged 7500 miles/year. When I went in to execute the offer, the kid told me he made a mistake and that it was only 3 years. Naturally I was disappointed that they would not honor the offer, but I let it go. He assured me that he could get me the 1300, even though I pointed out that it was stated as 1395 on the internet. I did some more research, and when I called him, he said "oh, that's 1395, not 1300." Imagine my annoyance. I went to the sales department and sat down with the manager, giving him my 3 year history of disappointments at this dealership.

This was his solution. He assured me that I could get my car services one last time before Dec. 31, even if the computer didn't register my car as being due. He knew I was concerned with getting my full coverage before it expired, and that I had been mislead and manipulated in the past. So I agreed to the offer, and i wrote down his directions, i.e. call the service department in early December, make the appointment to have my car picked up with a loaner dropped off b/t xmas and new year's, and he wrote it on his computer. I even joked about "what if you're no longer here and they don't honor it?" He laughed and assured me he wasn't going anywhere.

In the meantime, I contacted corporate (don't bother, they are completely worthless) and told them about the repeated offers that were made re: the extended maintenance agreement. Not only did they not figure out a way to get Nick Alexander to honor their offers, but they called me at 8:30am on xmas eve to INFORM me that they weren't going to do anything. Unbelievable. So I decided this was a company I no longer wanted to do business with, and started researching other mechanics and companies.

So cut to my car's last service - remember the "good will" offer the sales manager came up with? I followed all my instructions and they picked up my car yesterday. As promised, they droped off a loaner. So far, so good.
A couple hours later, I get a call from the dealership, from the kid who makes all the dopey false promises and is never held accountable. He says they can't service my car b/c the computer doesn't register it being ready. Funny, right? That's nothing. He then calls back and tells me that the sales manager needs his memory to be jogged, and that I must call him. When I call him, he admits that he remembers talking to me about it, but that his notes only say that he agreed to honor my service agreement until the day I got the car (which means zero to me and certainly wouldn't have benefitted me in the least, let alone compensated for all the crap i'd been through.) Naturally, I threw a fit b/c he had lead me down the garden path, and this was a royal slap in the face. He had the audacity to tell me that it was an $800 job, which was not my concern. He then said that he would have to call me the next day, mid-afternoon. Oh wait, and here's the good part. He then said "BUT we will give you the 1300 service extension!" This is after dealing with corporate for weeks, over the $95 discrepancy, and they emphatically said there was nothing they could do. Now, with 2 days to decide, after I had already thrown in the towel on this option and their way of doing "business," they flippantly say, hey, no problem!

The next day rolled around and I heard from no one. When I called, no one was available to speak to me, so I called corporate (that place that does zip to make the customer feel like they're not being scammed.) As predicted, corporate took it lightly and didn't seem all that concerned with the dealership making verbal agreements that they were continually not upholding - can you say ILLEGAL??? And for the skeptics out there who will inevitably say "get it in writing!" yes, you are fully correct. But in fairness, some of these agreements were over the phone, and I had no reason not to trust the sales manager (he had been the fix-it guy for 3 years - I was surprisingly disappointed that he turned out to be a putz.) AND I just may have something in writing - I have to do a little looking around. That will be especially fun if I find it!

At any rate, I had to call back a couple more times today, just to find out that they were not going to honor their OWN OFFER!!! He tried the good cop/bad cop crap and blamed it on BMW - which is hilarious, seeing that BMW doesn't seem to mind. And now I have this loaner for yet another day. I don't even know when they are going to return it, but I went through all this ridiculous hassle for them to take my car for zero reason.

My maintenance agreement expires in a couple days, and MINI Alexander has put me in a totally vulnerable unanticipated predicament. I banked on the manager's promise, and he renegged on it. And they wasted so much of my time and energy, it's unbelievable. I've never had any of these issues with any other dealership -- and i've lived through several. In fact, it's usually the opposite. I usually have a great relationship with them, even through car issues. But apparently BMW isn't all that customer-service oriented. It's a terrible terrible way to run a business, and I will never recommend them for anything. They are totally unreliable!!!!!!

VERY DISAPPOINTED. They have tarnished MINI's cool little reputation.

 

That sucks. Sorry you had to go through all that.

 

hey there, thanks so much for reading. yes, it does suck. i'm a bit mind blown that the dealership would allow this practice to continue. penny wise and pound foolish, especially in this economy. but for now, i'm the big loser. hoping to find a great local mechanic on the west side of LA - someone who is actually reliable.

 

Yup, get it all in writing. My situation isn't close to yours, but I've pretty much lost faith in my "local" dealership as well. (150 miles away) I get a kick out of that "well if yer car doesn't say it's ready for an oil change, we're not doing it."

 

Sorry to hear about your problems.

A couple of things:

Never believe anything a car salesman says. It's a commission based job that doesn't require a lot of training and has a high degree of turnaround. They will say anything to make a sale. I'm not aware of ANY bumper to bumper warranty that covers tires or paint (unless it's an existing paint defect from the factory or a rust thru)

Nick Alexander doesn't have a fleet of tow trucks; the flatbed service does book well in advance. It being not immediately available when it's most convenient for you doesn't make it a scam.

MINI corporate and in essence, the factory is who is responsible for the service interval schedule on the computer and dealers have to show that the indicator called for the service if they want to be reimbursed for it. Perhaps they found out that they weren't going to get reimbursed for your service, ate the cost and decided not to give you the break on the extended contract because they had already lost money on you. (all speculation of course).

After reading your side of the situation, it appears as though your main gripe is with Mini corporate and a bad salesman, not necessarily Nick Alexander. It's a shame because although I didn't purchase my car from Nick Alexander, their service department has been nothing short of stellar in my experience.

I had a horrible experience at Universal City Mini where I had a pretty massive engine failure due to a factory defect that they (Universal City MINI) tried to blame on me and get me to pay out of pocket for them to just diagnose it. Keep in mind, this was a car with only 5000 miles on it and not abused. I paid out of pocket to have it towed to Nick Alexander. They looked at the car, found the problem, confirmed it was due to a factory defect, and ended up replacing the motor. I'm assuming that Universal City Mini threw me to the wolves because MINI reimbursement for warranty work isn't as high as the individual dealers' set rates and some dealerships try to get out of as much warranty work as possible.

For the future - if you don't already do so, make friends with the service department. Once you've bought the car, salesman loyalty wanes quickly and they don't really have much power on the service side.

The silver lining is that a good mechanic will take care of all the services covered by the maintenance agreement for less than the cost of the maintenance agreement. Dealers for warranty work, once that gravy train ends, good mechanic. I have people I can recommend, but no one on the westside, unfortunately

 

Here's my gripe, and I guess you folks in LA don't have this problem, but out here in the midwest, there's 1 dealership in my area in KC. Like I said before, 150 miles west. Next closest is Omaha, next closest... I don't even know, maybe St. Louis? 3-4 hours EAST of KC...?

Going 8,000 miles on an oil change makes me cringe already, at THEIR discretion of the service interval. When I was at 7500 miles, I tried to get it in while I was in town... they declined cause my car didn't "tell" me it was time for the oil change. 150 miles away, I can't just come in during the work week, which leaves me with Saturdays of the skeleton crew that is booked weeks in advance, being the only MINI dealership within 100's of miles. Let alone in my profession (military) I'm not always free on weekends either.

Let alone, I've heard some questionable things about the longevity of MINI's synthetic oil, let alone I myself know nothing about it, and can't find any hard evidence of the nature of the product.

Sorry to sound if I'm *b!tch!ing*, but this has only made it easier to justify buying whatever special tools I hear the MINI requires for the oil change (I've seen people afraid of it?), and use my AMSOIL account for a superb oil that I know works. Just a shame I won't have the "official MINI service record" at the dealership to help for a selling point if I ever decided to sell her. Back to the old log book days it is!

 

Have to agree that Universal City MINI SUCCCCCKSSS . . . they tried to scam us too!

Our car had over 10,000 miles on it and hadn't had an oil change. . . I think it may have been closer to 14,000 miles. . . because the computer wasn't indicating a change needed they said can't change it unless we pay for it out of pocket. The car wasn't sounding too good so they checked under the hood and said that the oil needed topping off because we had burned through some of it. So I had to buy the oil and they filled it up. And it wasn't just that - they were just jerks. So rude and obnoxious. It was my first time in a dealership after buying a MINI and they just didn't care because we hadn't bought the car from them.

Thank GOD, I found South Bay MINI! They are FANTAASSSTTICC! The guys in the service department are so nice. The car wasn't sounding so hot so we took it in and they topped off the oil. I was expecting to get charged but nope. I went there during the winter and they gave me 10% off all parts. My husband's jacket stained the leather with black splotches and the guys said to bring it by anytime and they'll take care of it. They're just sweet. I don't go anywhere else.

 

Yesiree Universal Mini SUCKS!

Took my car there for HPFP and Water Pump replacement which they did. SA told me I was still covered for maintenance and that they were going to perform this. He told me that my rear brakes may need to be replaced. Imagine my surprise when he told me this since the salesman at the time my car was purchased informed me that i only have the extended warranty but no more maintenance warranty. I get the car back and they told me that brakes were still good and I have 85% of pad left (I don't do any autocross nor do I track the car. Just work and home). I get it back and 3 months later I get the maintenance minder for my rear brakes. I called to bring the car in and was informed that my maintenance warranty just expired. Mind you it expired 2 weeks before the warning light in the car came on. What a coincidence?!?! It just sucks.

 

Sorry to hear about all the problems.

To anyone in Southern California, maybe try MINI of San Diego (on Kearny Mesa Rd.) for service. I used to take my MCS to Mini of Universal City but I was not too impressed (I have also dealt with Mini corporate and did not find them to be useful either).

Anyway, just wanted to share that I searched the internet for Mini dealer service reviews and found out about Mini of SD. Now I drive from the Pasadena, CA area (in Los Angeles County) to San Diego for service. That's 212 miles round trip but very worth it, in my opinion, and I also make a day trip to SD out of it.

The service department at Mini of San Diego has been great. So far, the service department has been cool to deal with, they treat customers with respect, and have gone the extra mile to make sure the work is done right.

At the beginning of this year the check engine light came on a couple of hours after picking-up my Mini from an oil change done at Mini of SD. In short, I ended-up having to take my car back a couple of times within a two-week period because the check engine light came on a third time after the second trip to Mini of SD. It turned-out to be a serious engine problem (thankfully covered under warranty). The service department manager at Mini of SD, Terry, supervised all work that was done, called everyday to update me, and also test drove the car himself before I drove down again to pick it up. That, to me, is great customer service.

I have been back to Mini of SD one other time for a scheduled oil change, all went without a hitch and my Mini is running great.

Just sharing and also making a suggestion to all reading this thread.

Wish everyone the best!

 

I wish I read the forums prior to leasing with Nick Alexander. I concur with KittyKat's post but would like to take it one step further. Not only are they liars, they are theives in that double dipping is ok to them. Yes, their corporate is worthless and Elizabeth Alexander sent me a note telling me I should be focused on my cancer/chemotherapy rather than the issues I have with them. The most heinous thing she said was that the issues I was having with them, "we'll blame it on the chemotherapy". I wonder what she would say to someone with downs syndrome or any other physical condition that they live with. Reprehensible is a mild term to describe her disengenuis and passive aggressive method in her note. This dealership takes advantage of people who are ill. I sold my Mercedes to pay creditors due to being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. There was a lot of equity but the following was how much humanity these people have; they low balked the trade in, even when I asked them to go a bit higher the res