Hi! I'm eagerly awaiting my 2012 Cooper Hardtop (currently awaiting transport at Southampton). Before I actually take delivery of the car, I was hoping to learn more about people's experiences with service at Mini of Portland (since the Lithia transition). They offer an array of appealing extended warranty and maintenance packages (including an option of free oil changes for life!), but their service-related reviews on Yelp and Google are for the most part pretty terrible, especially when compared with all the five-star reviews for the independent Mini shops around town. I know that the dealership has recently changed hands from Rasmussen to Lithia, and it sounds as though the service has suffered as a result. I'd like to believe that since that was a relatively recent change, maybe they're still working out the issues and figuring out best workflow, etc.? Thoughts/input from more experienced owners? I intend to keep the car for a long time, and would ordinarily sign up for the best protection for peace of mind. But I can't help but be wary of committing to an even longer relationship with the dealership if their service really is as bad (and indifferent!) as what's reflected in their Yelp reviews.

Thank you for any insight!

 

It isn't really "free" oil changes for life if you're paying for an extended service plan, is it?

You can read more about the extended service plans here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...act-terms.html

I think the consensus was that it doesn't cover a whole lot, and isn't really worth it. It only covers oil changes, brakes and clutch. Oil changes you can easily do yourself for less than any indy and much less than the dealer will charge you. Brakes would probably only be changed once or twice before 100k miles, clutch would be changed maybe once but likely not at all before 100k miles.

Especially since there is only one Mini dealer in the local area, I'd save the money and just take your car to one of the good indy shops in town after your initial maintenance plan runs out. Locking yourself into the dealer with a prepaid plan sounds like a recipe for frustration to me when you have no choice to ditch this dealer for another dealer when the crap hits the fan.

 

^^^ Good advice. You may also want to find a local and reputable MINI repair shop that will do the work and won't void the warranty. I say this only because you'll end up paying less than what the dealer would charge you.