Only if the dealer chooses to have MINI techs. One of our local dealerships doesn't have a single MINI tech, and per MINIUSA they don't have to if they don't want to...

 

It is less expensive for me to pay for my own 'service' than drive 700 miles round trip to my nearest dealer, full day driving, using a vacation/sick day at work, gas, tire wear, food, car wear, tolls....

Warranty/service at a local BMW shop would be joy.

Still only 1 MINI dealer in Michigan. Motor $hity Mini in Detroit, they suck.

 

How do the rarer luxury cars owners handle it

There aren't exactly a lot Ferrari, Bentley, Saleen, Lamborghini, or Roll Royce dealerships around period.

 

The owner's get their minions to handle it for them...

 

As mentioned above, these owners realize that they are buying from a company with a limited dealership base and that, if they want dealer service, they will have to bring the car back to the dealer.

Again, you have to remember that these buyers (Bently, Ferrari, Lamborghini) are probably in urban areas, close to the dealers anyway. They also have a skewed (to the rest of us) value of their time vs. money, so they probably don't mind paying a private flat-bed service carry their $250,000 car 200 miles to the dealership for service instead of driving it there themselves.

 

I happen to like the one hour drive to Pittsburgh or Cleveland to have my car serviced. I just take the back roads and enjoy the drive

 

There's a good "glass is 1/2 full" answer

I don't mind my 45 min drive to Peabody, and also prefer the back roads. Besides, I don't think I can get the service from a satilite service location that I could ever get from the techs Peabody.

 

To everyone unhappy with the long drive to get your mini serviced:

Didin't you know this BEFORE you bought the mini? I live 350 miles from the nearest dealer, something I took into consideration before I made the decision to buy mine. But, my NEED for the Mini outweighed the inconvenient drive for servicing. I'm certainly not going to blame Mini for not having a service department close to me...I knew this up front. As biker guy said, "Just enjoy the drive."

 

Of course I did, and that was the biggest negative in making up my mind whether to buy, but after learning more about what MINI USA's policy is and the reson that BMW/MINI provide free servicing, it makes no sense to me why MINI USA won't allow servicing (NOT warranty work, I can understand that) by a BMW dealer. My local BMW dealer is more than willing to service my MINI, for the usual servicing cost. Since it is more expensive than my race mechanic, I'll use my race mechanic and get better work done. But MINI USA doesn't know that and I'd think they'd feel more comfortable if a certified BMW mechanic did the work.

The point of this thread was to try to generate support for a joint letter to MINI USA to show it the desire of MINI owners for a change in its policy. Perhaps it'd see a need to change its policy and would. Clearly there hasn't been any interest in a letter, despite the number of owners who are similarly affected.

 

Here's what I don't understand... If we're not talking about warranty work, WHO CARES if BMW dealers can't or won't work on the car?!?!?!

Take it to an indy shop especially one that speciallizes in European cars, probably cost you 25% less than a BMW dealer for labor alone....

For non-warranty work this is much ado about nothing...

 

I doubt it will ever happen, but if our local BMW dealer could service my car, that would be HUGE. I drive past a BMW dealer on my way to work. I have to go ~75 miles each way to the Mini dealer My Mini dealer is great, but taking the car up there for service really bites. I don't think I'll be a repeat Mini customer based simply on this. I am totally satisfied with the car and the dealer, it's just the distance that upsets me.

Maybe the BMW dealers could pay a "small" fee (ie less than a full dealership franchise) and become an "Authorized Mini Service Center" or something. That'd be cool. I am not holding my breath, though Especially since there are probably ~20-30 Mini's total in Rochester, they'd probably never recover whatever fee Mini would come up with.

 

[QUOTE=mbabischkin]Here's what I don't understand... If we're not talking about warranty work, WHO CARES if BMW dealers can't or won't work on the car?!?!?!
NO ITS MUCH ADO ABOUT GETTING FREE SERVICING, as otherwise provided by MINI at MINI dealers. I rather spend my money on aftermarket accessories, given the choice.

 

What free servicing? You specifically said you're looking for NON-warranty work.

Are you talking about your maintenance agreement? If so, well then the point still aplies that you should have looked into it before you got your MINI. If you did look into it, well you knew the policy, you knew how far the MINI dealer was, you bought the car anyway...

Me, I have a dealer just minutes away from me. But, I'm getting ready to move in a few months to an area where the nearest dealer is 60 to 90 minutes away. I know that going into the deal, both with the car and the move, and I'm doing it anyway. I chalk that up as part of the cost of owning the car, it's a cost I'm willing to pay, and I'm not going to yell at MINI about MY decision...

 

What is it that you don't get here? YES I KNEW GOING IN THAT I WOULD NOT HAVE FREE MAINTENANCING (the same as servicing to my understanding) AND THAT I'D HAVE TO TRAVEL TO GET MY WARRANTY WORK DONE. That's a policy of MINI. IT CAN CHANGE ITS POLICY. It won't do it if it doesn't see a need to, it might, if the logic and economics and desire of MINI owners was explained to it. Just because things suck doesn't mean that they have to stay that way. They WILL if no one makes an effort to change them. I was trying to make an effort but no one else seems to care.

I'd really like to take a day off work to drive back roads that I WANT to, not to visit my MINI dealer 2 & 1/2 hours away (by freeway) so I won't, not to avail myself of the free maintenance and I probably won't for minor warranty repairs, unless I can live with them and wait until I have enough to make the trip worth my while.

You'd think that MINI would like to sell MORE cars. That's what most manufacturers want. Reducing the downside of MINI ownership would do that. More cars made, without additional cost, means more profit to the manufacturer and to the dealer which would mean more dealers interested. You may appreciate a car that's more exclusive but I pick a car because of features that it has, reliability and good dealer service. I don't mind seeing more of them on the road if the dealer service/availability improves.

 

Even if MINI changes the policy, where's the incentive for your local BMW dealer to do this work? Without a local MINI dealership there are few MINIs in his local area. What incentive is there for this BMW dealership to stock MINI air filters, wipers, etc that are needed for the inspection and maintenance included in the 3/36 maintenance plan with your vehicle. That's inventory $'s and space locked up for a small handfull of MINIs that they could use for their own bread and butter business... BMWs.

Not only that, but as a BMW dealer, not a MINI dealer, why would your local BMW dealer want service bays and service appointments being taken up by MINIs which they don't even sell, thereby blocking out their own BMW owners.

Honestly, even if MINI changed this policy, there's no incentive for BMW dealer's to adopt it, and I would bet that few actually would.

And if MINI wanted to increase it's penetration into the US market it would A) open more dealers and B) increase production and dealer quotas. Both of which it's doing on a very limited basis and very slowly... Why? To avoid the PT Cruiser syndrome. I.e hot car, overwhelming demand stripping production, so production increased to meet pent up demand, and now PT Cruiser sales are in the toilet. MINI has made it clear, that it's strategy is to maintain that pent up demand in order to keep the car selling well.

 

The incentive for BMW dealers is that MINI would pay them for the work, they'd have more work for their shops and potential buyers of BMWS. In my area there are MANY MINIs in town.

I looked at three used ones on the BMW dealer's lot and the salesman told me that it did do service (didn't say for free). It wanted so much for used '03s that I decided to buy a new '05 for the same money.

 

Don't know about Reno, but in a 40 mile radius ow Washington DC we have at least 8 BMW dealers and 2 MINI dealers... Not a single one of their service departments are hurting for work. Heck at several of them, unless the car comes in on a flatbed are booked solid at least 2 weeks out...

Again, even if MINI reverses this policy, don't be surprised to see few if any BMW dealers actually willingly service a MINI.

 

The East and West Coasts are where most of the MINI dealers are. Things are a lot different away from the Coasts. I've heard that one must book in advance for MINI service (just about anywhere) but when I had a BMW I could get into the service department the same day, next day at latest.