Hello all,
I wanted to let everyone know of the horrible experiences I had recently at the Mini of Morristown dealership in regards to purchasing my '07 Cooper.

First off, I purchased the car, fairly good experience, but the check engine light came on three weeks after I purchased the car. At that time I had driven the car around 1,000 miles total and when I called the dealership, they wanted $150 to diagnose the issue and then the full cost to complete repairs. They hid behind the concept that I bought the car "as is". I went to the dealership to shake up some issues and eventually we got the issues resolved to the point of them diagnosing the problem for free, and paying for labor costs, but I needed to foot the $900 parts bill. I also asked to put an oil change on my bill, just because they were under the hood anyways and an oil change was needed.

OKAY, I was fine with that (I guess). I received a call from the Service manager last Friday (3/16) saying that my car was finished, but they wanted to make sure everything was okay so I could pick it up on Monday. I went to the dealership on Monday after work to pick up the car, but they claimed the paperwork wasn't completed so I would need to come back Tuesday to pick up the car. When I got a little argumentative as to why my car wasn't done, I got into a verbal altercation with someone in the dealership who tried to follow me outside to "discuss" our disagreement.

I went back to the dealership on Tuesday to pick up the MINI and the paperwork was finally completed. My wife inquired with the receptionist as to my (now expired) temporary registration to which she said "If you get a ticket, bring it in and we'll pay it for you". COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!

My receipt for the MINI repair was $955, with NO CHARGE for my oil change. Seems like they at least know how to resolve an altercation. I received a call from the Service Manager AGAIN this past Friday (3/23) and he apologized for my experience earlier this week, but also to inform me that his technician NEVER ACTUALLY CHANGED THE OIL. My receipt says that the oil was changed, but it wasn't actually done. I have an appointment to go back this upcoming Saturday for the manager to personally change my oil now.

I decided to lodge a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs for this entire mishap. We'll see how far this complaint goes, but I feel there should be a record of their misdoings.

If you are considering purchasing from Mini of Morristown, I strongly suggest you try another dealership, as the unprofessional employees they have working for them and the dishonesty moving around that location is scary for any typical car buyer.

THIS DEALERSHIP IS A FRAUD, AND IF YOU HAVE EVER PURCHASED FROM THEM, PLEASE REVIEW EVERYTHING THEY GIVE YOU.

 

Take your work to Princeton, all great guys and will always get my business!!!

 

Wow, how things have changed. There was a time when Morristown was the only place to bring it and Princeton was awful!

For the most part I've had very good relations with Mo-Town save one incedent with the Mgr Ed when I first bought my MINI in 06, but my MA Brian was great!

Just sayin.......

 

My purchase experience was ok with Morristown, except what they charged me for the nitrogen tire fill and wheel locks, I also asked about bonnet stripes and they told me 300 dollars installed which i declined. I think i will be doing my own oil changes.

 

I am sorry about your experience with them. I have only dealt with the parts department (bought my car directly from the previous owner not at a dealer).

Even then, the guy who is there during the week, William, is very helpful and nice. But on the weekends the other guy who is there always acts like he has better things to do than help you.

I try to do as much work on my car as possible on my own, oil changes, did the brake rotors and pads a few weekends ago, etc. Save you a lot of money. But when I need something more major done that I am not comfortable doing I either bring the car to a great independent shop right in Flemington (a 3 minute drive for me is nice) or I go down to Helix Motorsports in Philadelphia, awesome guys there and very very fair.

 

I bought my '06 R53 "as is" at Mini of Morristown in the beginning of this year for a great price and had a great experience. Mini of Morristown is a stand up dealership.

At least they admitted to not actually changing the oil and provided the labor at no cost.

Any other dealership would have told you to go pound sand. You drove the car around for 1,000 miles with no warranty and they still fixed the car without charging you the labor.

Doesn't seem like the worst deal to me.

As for the Temporary plates that does seem a bit odd to me but if they are going to pay the ticket.... I say keep motoring.

 

If you change your own oil...Save all receipts make sure they have the dates and
type of oil. Put in glovebox ..Never know when you will have to prove the oil and
filter was changed.

 

The only problem I see on your part is the fact that you did indeed say you bought it "as is". As a MINI dealership, if they are putting the car out as an "as is", they know there is infact a problem with the car, and feel instead of them footing the bill themselves, when you purchase the car, the problem will arise and you will foot the bill instead.

Is it a **** move? Absolutely, but I'm sure you learned a hard lesson today.Unless you are very mechanic inclined, when buying a used car, especially a European car, make sure you get some sort of warrenty, always, and if they won't give one, then walk, cause they know something you don't.

My wife and I had such a horrible experience with the Cherry Hill Triplex, to the point where blows were almost exchanged, and they made us personally go there to pick up the license plates.... even though were almost 50 miles away!!! None the less, even though Im a mechanic by second nature, I made sure it came with a warrenty, and they even extended it to 60 days, which I was pleased, but would only use it if the trans took a crap, otherwise I can do just about anything else to it.

 

I live in Hunterdon County, NJ could you please give the name of the shop in Flemington that you use for work on your MINI? Thanks

 

Don's Jaguar it is right next to Hunterdon Central Regional High School.

 

Just curious, how many miles are on the car, and what caused the check engine light to come on?

 

Too bad that Shannagons did not respond to my request for more details as it would have been interesting to know exactly what happened here.

I know I’m speculating, but what’s most likely of all to cause a check engine light on this car and cost this much for parts, without the parts being covered by the emissions warranty? I’m thinking a cat and O2 sensors, and that this is a high mileage car.

Assuming I’m right (and again I know I’m speculating), if this was the issue and the car went for 3 weeks and 1000 miles without turning on the light, it’s unlikely the dealer knew there was an issue when he sold the car. If the dealer knew there was an issue and re-set the light, the engine computer would have turned the light back on within a few engine cycles. Also, my gut tells me that this dealer would not just reset the light, knowing that he would in all likelihood have an irate customer back at his door within a day or two.

As Noir pointed out, Shannagons bought the car knowing there was no warranty. He took the risk of buying a used car without a warranty, and lost. I don’t agree with Noir that the dealership necessarily knew there was a problem with the car. I’m guessing what they knew (speculation again) was that they were selling a high mileage car for which a warranty was not economically viable (probably too expensive to buy a third party warranty for a high mileage car) and keep the car at a viable price.

Unless the dealer misled Shannagons about the existence of a warranty, I really can’t blame the dealer for initially telling Shannagons that any repairs were on his dime. After all, it was 3 weeks/1000 miles after the purchase, not after a day or two.

Similar to what Quicksilver said, I have to complement the dealer for listening to Shannagon’s complaint, offering to pay for the diagnostic charge, provide free labor, and then calling to admit they neglected to change the oil.

Sounds like there were some screwups with the registration and picking up the car, but does that warrant a complaint to the state? I would think the state’s reaction will be “sorry, but you bought a used car without a warranty, drove it for 1000 miles and then it broke, and the dealer already did far more than required to assist you”.

I live in the Morristown area, know plenty of people that have bought and/or serviced Minis here (including myself), and while they are not perfect, they are generally not a bad dealership. I would rate their service department no better/ no worse than the other area dealers, and I would point out that you can save quite a bit on service by going to a good private garage with Mini experience. I’ve found that most good private shops that are BMW specialists will have the knowledge and experience to make most Mini repairs competently. I do try to avoid the dealers because of their high labor and parts charges. For example I just replaced one of the O2 sensors on my '03 MCS (150k miles). Dealer cost for the part was $225, and I bought the same exact part at rockauto.com (made by NTK, who supplies them to Mini) for under $140 with shipping.

 

I just took my Countryman to get the recall done...no problem and I got a car wash.

My Countryman ALL4 just went over 20,000 miles.

I got to sit in the new Roadster, which my wife wants...I can't stand it...no headroom and felt I was inside of a squeezed juicebox.

 

+1 for Don's Jaguar, I've used them before and the owner George is a good guy.

As for Morristown, my experience has been oddly hit-or-miss with them.

The first MINI we bought was an 'executive demo' which was basically a 2009 with 8000 miles on it. Our MA was Dave - awesome guy. It was still under the warranty time/mileage, and a great deal. I decided to trade it in once the warranty was up because of the chain tensioner problem - it had been 'fixed' under warranty three times, though they claimed it was low oil level the second time. It also needed a good carbon cleaning due to that engine being direct injection.

The second MINI we got, we traded in the '09 for an '05, specifically because I knew the 1st-gen engines were not DI and did not have the tensioner issue. We handled the financing ourselves this time, but the check took an extra day to show up because it was Memorial Day weekend. Our MA Brian (the MA we used for the first car was away for the weekend) didn't want to make us wait for the check from our bank to arrive to drive the car away, so he wrote out the paperwork for in-house financing that would just be re-done when I brought the check in on the next business day (which is what I did).

Long story short, the title was sent to the wrong bank. Despite multiple visits from me to the dealership, it took them 6 months to finally send the title to my bank, who was threatening to convert the loan to an unsecured rate. Literally the day they converted it to an unsecured rate was the day the title showed up at the bank. They converted it back, but one day of the unsecured rate was high enough to permanently increase my monthly payment by $6.

And WRT: the 'as-is' sale, the state of NJ requires dealerships to give a limited warranty under the Used Car Lemon Law:

 

alwzopn,
Funny you write that Post, I will post something very similar soon from my bandwagon Dealership. Waiting for my payment before I speak about my incident on the forum. Details to follow shortly. Rather funny how after they have your money and the sale, service is an option!

 

i've been to the morristown dealer also and didn't have a good experiance,i let them know and got hooked up with a 5% OFF COUPON.....won't need it, going to take my mini to rt 17 next time

 

Exactly what did they do wrong?

 

I wouldn't go back for a few reasons,I brought my son and there weren't any changing tables. There wasn't a place for him to play like other dealers, I paid for my service and waited for a itemize bill. The service guy told me they would mail it,that's fine. I never got it because it was never mailed,once I complained about it I received 2 copies. Just not a good first impression in my book.

 

I just pulled out of a deal there yesterday. I loved the car a 13 countryman all4. Due to the trumped up doc fee of $399 and are car detail fee of $75. Othed than that the deal was good but when we did the contract there were too many trumped up fees. The salesman said " EVERYBODY HAS TO EAT " when I finished laughing I walked out. On to prestige to buy it tomorrow

 

Keep us posted on your buy from Prestige. I am willing to bet you hear back from Morristown's Sales mgr.

 

Morristown has 2013 Cm's in stock?

 

Yes Yhey have 13 in stock and they had one that was almost exactly as the one I built but the salesman and the fees blew the deal. I spoke to the salesman at prestige before I went there and I went to Morristown cause they has the car in stock but after my experience I will wait. I mean a dealer wash and detail fee thats nuts.

 

Prestige is looking better and better, keep us posted

 

Ask for Suditi when you go to Prestige, she'll take good care of you.

 

I know im a bit late to the thread but I must say it doesn't sound like such a bad experience. No warranty no luck. They actually gave OP more than they should of just to make sure You're as happy as possible but you still filed a complaint. A simple check with a scan tool would have shown the issue and if you don't have one most chain auto stores offer it for free.
As mentioned before, the fact that they told you their mistake on the oil change shows they're pretty decent guys.