After messing a few things up and poor costumer service, the dealer that serviced my car has finally accepted to fix their wrong doing.

Since I live 3 1/2 hours away, they want to drive down to my house, pick up my car, drive it back to the dealer to fix it, and finally bring it back to me.
Eventhough it's a very nice gesture, I can't help feeling uneasy about a service guy driving my car for seven hours ... Like most of us here, I'm REALLY **** about my car, it looks brand new inside and out, I even have a special routine when I put gas in it to make sure there's no spill. Anyway I can't help feeling very nervous about the all thing.

What do you guys think? am I right or should I let it go.

BTW, the problems to be fixed are an inoperative front fog light, and deprogram the 10mph automatic door lock that mysteriously appeared on my car after their servicing.

 

Yikes....i got scared when my alignment guy drove it for 10 minutes

How big of a deal is the 3.5 hour drive for you? I think that is what you have to take into consideration...I'm sure the service guy will take care of it (they are already trying to get on your good side)....but it will be a looong day as you wait to get your car back

 

Given what needs to be done, seems like the tech could bring the 'coding' machine and few tools and fix you up in your driveway. Saves him 7 hours of road tripping. Unless, of course, he has a girlfriend in your area...

 

Have them write you an IOU letter and have them honor it the next time you are in for a service.

 

It won't be a service guy they send to get your car. The will send the lowest paid person from the dealership, lot attendent. No way will they send a shop guy that could be making big $$ for the store to do a road trip. Take it yourself.

 

Also, who ever they send to pick up your car is probably someone who works very hard all day (not that that is a bad thing) and probably has their own particular odor. After 7 hours in the car your car is going to smell like whatever that person has been working on all day, not to mention the sweat stains on your seat.

 

I remember the BMW dealer in EB has a person dedicated to moving BMWs from dealer to dealer(and she picked me up from the train station so I could pick up my mini) The person was dressed quite well and looked like she was a sales woman. If you are lucky, they have someone like that are your Mini Dealership.

 

Xman, are you sure they don't mean having your MINI flat-bedded to the Dealership and back?

I would NOT want anyone from the Dealership to drive my MINI to and fro, that is for dang sure.


Clover

 

absolutely not. no way, no how. I don't think I'd let anyone drive my car for 7 hours... the smell, the potential for abuse, moving seats, adjusting mirrors, changing the radio, the extra miles, general unsupervised interaction... its enough to give a person a heart attack.

 

I would only agree if they put it on a nice flatbed to and from the dealer.

Better yet someone could drop off a loaner car and drive back in the flat bed with the Mini

 

If that's all that's wrong with it I would hope you could wait until the next scheduled maintenance service and take it yourself. I understand the "principle of the thing" and all, but these two very minor items should be pretty easy to deal with until the next time you need to be at the dealer.

Like buzzy said, just get them to put a note in your file and have it fixed next time.

 

Why don't you wait until your next scheduled visit.....in the grand scheme of things those "problems" are pretty minor ?

 

There would be two people involved from the dealership,one to drive your car,the other to shuttle him/her back and forth,plus gas.Get it flatbeded,should not cost the dealer much more,if any.
Or ,siphon the coolant out of the tank,pour it on the ground,and phone MINI roadside,and get them to tow it in,as you don't want to chance blowing the engine

 

If the thought makes you very nervous you definately shouldn't let them drive your car. That could be a recipe for a lot of stress.

 

This is SO TRUE.

When we flew to pick up our MINI in Ohio, we had the high school kid working part time, sent down in a slick new Phaeton to shuttle us back to the dealer.

He even got a ticket on the way to pick us up, as he showed us .

Drive it yourself.

 

Not if it's 15K miles till the next service

 

Let them take your car... If they flatbed it there and back...

 

Not... I dont even let my wife drive my car.... ( actually, she cant drive standards any way.)

 

Thanks for all the feedback.
Everybody pretty much confirmed what I was thinking.
Since there's no flatbed involved, I called them to tell them "thanks, but no thanks". As a compromise, they will send me a new fog light assembly (should be a pretty simple DIY job). As far as the automatic door lock screwup -which drives me nuts- I'll have to live with it until next time I'm around a MINI dealer...

 

It is fairly simple to work on the foglight....a bumper removal and wheel removal and you are all done It's easy

 

My wife's '04 MCS has the auto door lock programmed on hers - she and I disagree on this 'feature' - she likes it, I don't. But since it's her car, well, she wins on that point. But I've found that when I drive it, getting in the habit of just tugging the interior door handle twice when I get out isn't all that painful - you get used to it. Of course, the gas cap and hatch being locked, too - that's a different story. Ugh.

When I get MY MINI, that feature's gettin' disabled at the first service.

 

I'm with the others on this one! No way no how is any service guy or anyone else coming to pick up my ride and tooling around in it for 7 hours. I'd be interested in finding out if they even really intend to do that in the first place, I'm sure that there has to be some kind of insurance consideration somewhere in there too. Tell 'em they can flatbed it!

 

Maybe try MINI Roadside assistance?

I know my dealer called them for me once when they needed to get the car (after claiming fault for not fixing something correctly the first time). Some tow truck company came and picked it up and delivered it to the dealer and brought it back to me.

 

I feel the same! For the time being, as soon as I hear the auto lock, I reach the toggle switch and unlock everything, this way the gas cap and boot are also unlocked...

 

FWIW, they also have the 'auto-unlock on engine off' - that way the gas cap isn't an issue, unless you fill up with the engine running!