Today was my first official "Frustrated with MINI" episode. I called into my 'home' dealership to schedule an appointment for two things 1) 10,000 mile check-up (aka glorified oil change) 2) when it rains i'm getting a water leak around where the clutch pedal is.

I couldnt get an appointment until then end of the next millenium I called about 5 other MINI dealerships in the area and it was the same story. Is anyone else having this problem?

The reason I bring this up is to ask my fellow MINI-ians if I should just pick up a MINI brand filter ($9 at dealership) and bring it to Jiffy Lube for that oil change. Now when I start Winston (my MINI) I get a sinking feeling when i see 'NEGATIVE 150' as the 'miles to service' number on the info screen. Does it void the warrenty if i cant get my 10k checkup until I can get an appointment at 100,000 miles? lol

Anyone have any suggestions? I'd really appreciate it - Sincerely,

 

Wait for an appointment or have Jiffy Lube change your oil?


Personally, it's a no brainer - I would wait. Changing the oil in a MINI is tricky (at least the oil filter is), and I wouldn't trust my new MINI to anyone else but MINI service - ONLY if you can't do the job yourself. And waiting for an appointment does seem to be a problem.

 

are you in cali? i am, and i also have to wait a month for service, and i am sure i will be driving w/ the service light on for a little while. however i decided to change my own oil at about 6000 miles, bought an oem filter and mobil 1 synthetic

 

I was 2000 miles over by the time my appointment came up.. it was 6weeks from the day I called.. You would think they might be able to train some more people..


When the market research company called me after the service, I ripped them!

as if.....

 

Are they giving you a loaner? For just the oil change you may be able to wait, if you're that concerned (though you needn't be). If you don't need a loaner they can generally get you in more quickly. Then keep your appt. for the leak and get the loaner.

 

Today I made my appointment for the 10K service (due in 1800 miles). I was told that the first available date is 02/15/05. I did an oil change @ 5K myself and using Mobil 1 so I'm not too worried about the extended miles. You should get a few filters from the dealer (Classic MINI is the best source) and do your own changes. I plan on doing at least one change in between each dealer change.

The dealer really can’t say anything about the extra miles when I bring it in as it was their doing because of their backlog in getting an appointment. I’ll also be making my scheduled service appointments at least a month in advance from now on

However I wouldn't mark them down because of this. I will base the survey on the quality of the service I receive.

 

Wow, thanks everyone for the great advice :smile: Man, I'll tell ya, its killing me to see that 'negative {insert steadily growing number here}' when i start the MINI.

So thats a unanimous on the NO as far as going to Jiffy Lube huh? I'd do it myself, but as sad as it may be, I dont know how to do it - something I'll have to learn asap.

I wonder why they chose 10k for the first service. For all the other cars we've had, the 1st service has been much earlier in the life of the car.

Planning on going snowboarding up in vermont this week, thats a total of 800 unserviced miles

 

Here is a link MINI how to's including changing the oil.

http://www.tech-esq.com/MINI/main.htm

 

Can the dealership void the warranty if the dealership "can't" schedule an appointment to work on it?

that's a big: NO

 

Thanks Steve!

 

If I were you I would raise a big stink about the leak and say it is more than a regular service issue and you need to drop the car off asap for them to look at.

One way to potentially deal with it is to go to the dealership and try and sit there until they realize they need to helop you.

My first appointment (made at 400 miles for problems) didn't get looked at for 3 weeks (until 2000 miles) today as a matter of fact.

The SA did tell me when I went by that the first available was 3 weeks from then, if it wasn't an emergency.... If something is leaking I would call that a problem....