Yea! Picked up My Little MINI (no name yet...) today, very fun, very so much worth it! Took it to work, coworkers were vary happy for me, except problem #3...

However...three things I noticed :

One, right after I had left the dealership, I noticed at the rear, #7 position, steering wheel, the leather had been ripped. I did not know if I had done this or the dealer or MINI - should I tell my dealer? Not too sure on this one. I'm a guy, so I keep my nails short. I don't think I had death gripped the steering wheel. Is the skin easily replaceable? I felt the rip when I was driving, so it was a bit too late to mention it.

Two, this was noticed when I got home - a 4" long scratch, very superficial, like 3 scratches but very very close. I'm thinking they could be buffed out - any suggestions? This was on the hood. I'm pretty sure I looked the MINI over carefully, but this could have easily happened outside the dealership. It'll grow on me, I'm sure, as those things cannot be avoided.

Three, long... When I told coworker (A) about my impending MINI, she was super excited, and said that coworker (B) had some friends who had a MINI. Sweet! Well, I show them today, and coworker B says, "Gee, you should have told me, my friends are selling theirs." A, totally flabbergasted, said "Why." Then ensued a long talk about B's friends, and their car. Two problems they had: low clearance, and availability of parts (and cost of said parts) - the dealership is 45 min away from me, but from their friends are 2 hours away. Sigh. Why get into a MINI argument so soon? Otherwise -> Oh Happy Day, Kaloo Kalay!

Otherwise, a very very happy experience! I'll post pics tonight -> took a short break from working outside! I could NOT stop grinning - MINI must put some sort of chemical in the new car, to make it such a fun experience !

John

 

Congrats on your new Mini! For the scratch and the ripped leather, I would take it right back and let them know. Even if you've driven it! It's a dealers duty to respond to these types of things. We had an issue with our mini and I took it back 3 days later. They fixed the problem, no questions asked.

:smile:

 

Welcome and congratulations

For 1 and 2 ... take it back

For 3 ... Ignore them (jeolously). For parts, call Classic (one of the vendors here for a discount and they will mail the part to you)>
Otherewise, ignore the uninitiated.

 

Congrats on your new MINI, John! Definitely take it right back to the dealership and show them the problems. Let us know how that goes.:smile:

As for parts availability, very few dealerships for any make of car have on-demand inventory anymore. Whenever I've need parts, they've been special-ordered, and arrive in a pretty timely manner, too.

Don't let someone talk down your special, happy Kaloo-Kalay moment, sweetie! Enjoy your new MINI and happy motoring!


Clover

 

I second that...go straight back. In fact, call them first and tell them about the imperfections....then go back. They will fix them. They need to know right off the bat that you expect things in right order.

As for the low clearance....yeah, ain't it great?!?!?! Certainly no reason to get rid of a MINI. Just be careful pulling out where there are bad dips...and watch those parking space stops. Things you used to plow right over may catch on your MINI's front end trim. Just take it easy 'til you get used to potential hazards. Trust me...it's all a good thing.

Haven't found parts any more expensive. In fact, it's surprising how cheap some items are. Long term, however, is anybody's guess. I guess the owners were expecting something different and bought a car w/ lots of clearance and cheap parts. Sounds pretty exciting to me!!!

 

Will do! My MA said she'd call me, but I should be a bit more proactive, right?


The low clearance is not a problem for me just a bit miffed B pointed it out, as when one buys a car, they usually look that sort of thing up.

Yeah, this was a point I was NOT about to debate! The parts are cheap, from a new car perspective - some of costs escape me, like the cost of front vs rear mud flaps, but most of the pieces I've looked up (engine, trans, really costly stuff) seem to be reasonably priced - not too different from what the parts cost for my old van! I AM worried about long term availability of parts, but I will be on the lookout for posts indicating this sort of thing, and act appropriately.

I don't have the RAW->jpg workflow completely smoothed out, plus Tiger isn't compatible with my camera software, so I'll have pics in a hour or so...

Thanks for all the replies! I'm a perfectionist, and while I can certainly get used to the scratch, the steering wheel is going to bug me for a long time. I'll see what they'll do!

John

 

OK, don't laugh. The compression made my grin appear MUCH wider than it really was! Plus, the angle the photo was taken makes me look like I tower over the MINI. Heck, my mom is taller than it!



This is the only good photo (I hate my picture, but left it in, was going to fuzz my face out in Photoshop) - I drove the entire day (total of 70 miles) from the dealership, ran some errands, then headed to work. Yikes! I'm going to try budgeting 12,000 miles yearly to get the most out of the warranty (too engineerish, I know).

I wanted to wear my "Cape does not enable user to fly" T-shirt, but decided not to, though should have (it's navy blue). I also wore my MINI watch (off here - I had hoped I'd get free carpets, no dice), after picking my MINI up.

This is just so amazing I'm amazed I made it through the day. I was really nervous, my hand shook 1/4" when I went to sign the papers, really nervous. After signing, I calmed down a bit (do I look like the nervous type?). My signature is terrible, and I'm sure it didn't improve! Once I was behind the wheel, everything was A-OK!

She had me do some sort of MINI rite of passage - In front of the MINI, there were three MINI's. She moved the middle one, and said, "Let's see you get between these two." That would have been one expensive repair bill! The two were NOT lined up, and I had to pass between them at an angle .

All in all a good day.

John

 

You and your MINI look great! What an awesome car! Congratulations

 

Gorgeous new MINI, John!

Forget that silly 12,000 miles yearly plan! I drove Wanda 10,000+ miles the first 6 weeks that I owned her on my first annual Spring Roadtrip!

I agree with jds above: please call your dealership right away and tell them about your MINI's problems before taking it back in for repairs. That's a good suggestion.


Clover

 

For a while i would drive up too close to the parking stops and drag something. Now I stop well before I get to them. The car is so short there is no reason to get close the the chunk of concrete at the end of the space.

I had a spot buffed out, no charge, at the dealer several months after I bought my MINI. Both the scratches and steering wheel cover should be fixed by your dealer with no problem.

 

I agree with Clover...I have almost 11k on a 6 month old MCC... on an island.

 

Go directly to the dealer! Forget school, blow off work, ignore all other non-trivial appointments and get this cleared up asap!!!

I'm in the same boat as you, but a little too trusting that people will do the right thing.

My MCS is exactly one month old today and I'm not too happy with my local dealership right now Curse me for answering the customer phone survey so soon. I should have told them to call me back in about a week instead of the few days after I picked up the car.

As it turns out, I didn't get to drive my new MINI for a while after picking it up because of work schedule and rainy weather. 1 week after picking up my MINI I gave it it's first car wash and interior cleaning. I noticed

• small dent by front left headlight
• clearcoat bubbling up on driver's door in the corner by the side view mirror
• gouge in outside edge of tachometer frame

I called my salesrep and told him about it and he gave me the ole "bring it on in whenever you can and we'll fix it right up for you"

As it turns out, when I brought it in, he was out on vacation so I had to tell my story to a service advisor that just looked at me funny and said in a deadpan voice that there's no way he can tell if these were pre or post sales events and that I would have to get authorization from the local sales manager and the local MINIUSA rep to go ahead and take care of these issues for me.

I'm waiting now for the MINIUSA rep to come back into town so that I can meet up with him and let his expert eye verify that these are indeed factory defects and not accidents on my part trying to bilk free services from the dealership Nothing like paying good money for a car that comes pre-dented and pre-scuffed. How's that for customer service?

Hopefully it will all work out, but since I've already had two people in the chain of command be less than helpful, I'm leaning away from that good consumer experience that I felt last month towards "car dealerships are pond scum" mode

Anybody know the pecking order on who's door to knock on next or phone number to call? Man I wish my salesrep was back in town. I know he'd go to bat for me...

 

I don't know what your pre-delivery session was like but mine was basically, "you already know most of this stuff, enjoy your MINI". The salesman was very busy and I really didn't mind the quick once-over. If, however, the dealer had given me any trouble about a couple pf pre-exisiting flaws on my car I would have used their not going through their detailed pre-delivery check-list with me as leverage to get the problems fixed.

Something to consider if you have a problem.

 

Thanks both of you - I did do a "quick inspection" - I came about 15 min early, and looked it over the best I could - checked the panels for alignment, looked for dents, stuff that might not be fixable when I drove away. I'll be giving my MA a call today...

 

Oh, as far as the delivery session, once she had her papers ready for me, I signed, she gave me a quick run through of all the things in the MINI (which helped, though I had read the owners manual online), and then let me take off! I DID have some time to look it over with a fine toothed comb, but the bodywork seemed in order.

 

Congrats on your new motoring machine!!! Another beauty on the roads - Yayyy!!!

And ditto what all the above posts say - the dealership needs to know of your issues right away - EVEN if you can't get it back there quickly, at least call Service and let them know of the problems to have it on record!!

Donna

 

Called! My MA is going to talk to her manager. The bonnet scratch, like I said, is easily buffable, probably not a big deal. I wish I had felt the wheel scratch before I had left the dealership : ( It would have meant a delay (I'm sure) but one I could have accepted.

 

John, that's a great looking car, my friend. Absolutely well done!!!

 

I love the go-kart. Hard to beat for handling and ease of parking. You must be getting old to abandon that for something as big and clunky as a MINI!

 

: (

I haven't driven it in two years, and it's taking up space. I pull it out of the shed (yep, kept in a nice shed all safe), put it in the garage, and look at it sadly. So forlorn, but cute. Happily, I've got the MINI now, and shouldn't feel too bad about letting it go. It's half clean, gave the rear a nice detailing job - cleaning the front up tonight. Then will start the engine up, and give it a webpage of it's own. Maybe give it a spin once or twice.

It'd look really nice on a trailer of it's own, behind a MINI...

 

I'm in the same boat on the scratch. The next morning after I picked mine up, noticed a little scratch on the black roof, but mine's not buffable....it's through the paint. MINI of Nash. said they'll take care of it (they say with touch up paint ) but it's been 7 weeks and I'm gettin the runaround.

 

Well, I don't know when but am bringing her in! My MA said they'd look at what they can do for the steering wheel, and they'll try to wheel out the scratch. My fingernail feels a indent on it, but I don't know if it's through the clearcoat.

How easy is it to do a wheel swap? I'd seriously look for a junked MINI and pull the wheel - use my airbags+controls - if that sort of thing is possible.

I swapped steering wheels in my beetle (then again, ONE bolt, and it was off). No airbags, etc... I put a horn ring wheel in place of the plastic 4 spoke : ) (72 wheel put in 73)

 

The following is a brief followup by a slightly perfectionistic MINI owner. Ignore any comments below, as they can only make you sigh, and laugh at my naivete:




Went there today, they buffed the hood - the scratch did not come out. They offered to repaint it for cost, but I declined. They also could only give me the name of a company that did vinyl repair (is the wheel cover vinyl? I thought it was leather?), but would not reimburse me. I'm going to call him tomorrow.

So, I'll be looking for that wheel. Hopefully a wax will make the scratch go away. I can't wax for a month or so, got to let the paint cure.

Any ideas? It's a metallic paint job, so I'm not too sure how well it will take to touch up paint. That sort of stuff could only make it worse.

Sigh. At least they took a look at it. A little closer to that break in mileage now. I figure, the bonnet will chip, and if I decide to sell in 3 years, will have it repainted by a friend of the family who did an AMAZING job on our van. I'm assuming anyone can get HB paint, or at least mix it.

I'm just trying to recreate the day, and figure out when that scratch could have occurred, if it happened outside the dealership. There were only a few times - a 10 minute window in a parking lot - a 30 minute window at work. That's it. The first time period is the least likely - I couldn't see the front of the car, but I didn't see anyone get close to it. The second time period - yeah, someone COULD have scratched it (here is where I start to rationalize), but I'm *really* trying to figure out HOW. It's 3 or 4 scratches in a "row" that goes for 4". Oh well. Heh. Yeah. Whoop.

Really - I accept the scratches.

 

sorry to hear that they won't help with repairing your car.

after my rant on here about my damages, I went into the MINIUSA owners lounge and fired off an email in there that pretty much mirrored what I posted here. I didn't expect much to happen, but I got a nice email the following day from a MINI Customer Relations and Services representative. Apparently they also contacted my local dealership and told them to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy. There's no need for our rep to come out and personally eyeball the damages....

I was pleasantly surprised when I dropped my car off today for it's scheduled appt and the sales manager told me that he was contacted by MINIUSA and that their dealership would take care of everything. I was prepared to show off a bunch of pics on my work laptop that had 4 megapixel pics from the day that I picked up the car to show that the damages were already there before I took it out of the showroom and that I just didn't notice it until later when I washed the car at home (it really is pretty small and missed because of the showroom lights glaring off the car)

maybe it's time to consider some fancy bonnet decals to mask the scratches

 

I'll survive. No need to harass the dealership/MINIUSA - because, if I were to force them to fix these issues, I'm sure I will not receive stellar service when I bring it in for it's first service, or any warranty issues. I just sort of want to vent. Helps me cope and get over these things quickly, and painlessly .