This is a bit of a rant, with a dash of a rave. I bought my used 2002 MINI Cooper S from the Jeep Dealership next to the Miami MINI dealership. I have had no problems until a week ago when my Service Engine Soon light came on, my EML light came on, and the car would not go over 10 MPH. See my other thread entitled My MINI is sick. It seemed to be a common problem which could be fixed easily. In fact, it should have been fixed in Miami at Brayman BMW (where the MINI was originally bought.). I was shown the service history for my MINI, and in Miami they replaced the same parts 4 times! They do not know what they are doing at the Brayman service department. This should have been a simple fix, yet they only temporarily fixed it and took advantage of the original owner. So, the owner got tired of bringing it to be serviced. The owner traded it in at the jeep dealership and forgot the MINI. Now, at Dade Jeep Chrysler, they more than likely had Brayman MINI check out the used MINI (they are right next door and it is common courtesy among dealerships to do this). The MINI dealership knew about the problem, and had to have told Dade Jeep. It was still sold to my family, though. So, now we are stuck with the MINI, and the Nashville BMW service department is stuck with the work of repairing someone else's mistake, and the actual problem. Sorry for the long rant, I guess the moral of this story is DO NOT take your MINI to Brayman Miami BMW service department, especially if you keep coming back with the same problem.

 

If the car was back at the same dealer 4 times and still not fixed, then I wouldn't assume that the Miami dealer actually understood how to fix the car. Further, if the were lacking in this understanding, then I wouldn't at all assume that they told the Jeep dealer that there was a problem. There's no reason that their ignorance would have "cleared up" at that late date.

Of course, it may well be that the Jeep dealer DID know about the problem but simply "forgot" to tell you. Buyer beware...

Everything's all fixed now though, right?

 

Are you sure it was Braman? I thought the MINI dealer that is next to a Jeep dealer is South Motors?

Sorry to hear about your woes

 

Yes, I talked with the service manager at Nashville BMW, and he said that the service history said Braman MINI, I guess I assumed that it was the one beside Dade Jeep.

 

Braman dealerships SUCK. I don't even go near one.

Take your car to Lauderdale MINI (Ask for Robert Velez). Once you set up your service appt there, ask Robert to hook you up with a free 2003 BMW 325i loaner and that you car is personally serviced by Franz Laman one of their best, if not the best, MINI service tech they have in house.

If you need anymore details, send me a private message.

 

Check the laws (from what I can gather from your post, your in TN) you may be covered by your state's Lemon Law, although with the vehicle being purchased out of state I don't know how any of that would work. You might be entitiled to some compensation...

 

Before jumping into the lemon law bandwagon, his car needs to be diagnosed by a competent MINI technician. So far that hasn't happened.

 

Thanks for all of your feedback. I just got a call from Nashville MINI, my local dealership, and they said my car was ready. I guess everyting's ok. I think the service manager in Nashville said that the lemon law does not apply to used cars. But he and I are not sure about that. Thanks again, and I can't wait to start MOTORING!!!!!!!

 

>>Before jumping into the lemon law bandwagon, his car needs to be diagnosed by a competent MINI technician. So far that hasn't happened.

The car's been to Braman a "certified" MINI service center, shouldn't need much more than that for a diagnosis. Need to pull the service records from Braman in Miami, (or if you have the receipts even better) if the car was brought in four times to the dealer for the same problem and not fixed that pretty much says it all. Better yet, MINI may have records in their system regarding the car. Some manufacturer's do maintain a central repository of service information on their vehicles by VIN but I don't know if BMW/MINI does as well.

Again it depends on the state, you've got all kinds of issues here that makes it a cloudy situation. Not the least of which is that the car has been bought used in a different state than the one you reside in.

The plus side, there's not as many "lemons" out there as there used to be, consider yourself lucky, maybe you'll win the lottery next....

 

Thanks everyone again for all of your help. Yes, I looked at the service history at BMW of Nashville and Braman was on their four times. But, i am not going to worry about it right now because i got my MINI back!!There is one thing though.....It has the stumble. With the new computer, i guess i also got the software update. I am gonna see how it drives a little more though before i completely diagnose it. I just hope they come out with a software upgrade to fix it soon.