My lease is up in October. I'm buying the car at that time.

1. They tried to tell me that I still owe them for my over Mileage on the lease, even though I'm buying the car.

2. They offered me an extended warranty, then when I asked how much they said they'd call me back. When I got the phone call back they said that you can't get any extended warranty on a MINI.

3. Before they started to process my financial information, they told me that I HAD to use a 3rd party finance company. MINI Financial doesn't finance off lease vehicles.


Sooooo I called MINIUSA myself and asked if what Manhattan is telling is true, and the girl on the other end LAUGHED, as in , at what I had told her.

1. She, the rep. from MINIUSA!!, told me that Manhattan is trying to RIP ME OFF with the Mileage payment situation!

2. MINIUSA DOES offer an extended warranty

3. MINIUSA will MOST DEFINITLY finance my buy out for me. She was under the suspision that MINI of Manhattan had some sort of connection with the other lender I was being forced to use.

BEWARE FOLKS!


Mikey

 

Wow....so will MINIUSA step in and "encourage" MINI of Manhattan to do the right thing on your purchase? Keep us posted!


Clover

 

well, sorry about that, maybe you were dealing with an inexperienced MA, or Financial Advisor. It is common sense, if you are good with your payments, of course Mini USA will finance it, they want your business. It does not matter how many miles you have on your vehicle as long as you are buying the car or even financing the balance.

i find it difficult to understand them lying to you or trying to take advantage of you (i don't mean that you are lying- i think it is a misunderstanding), and finally, i wish you never dropped these people in grease before talking to them (Sales Manager, Finance Director maybe GM) finding out why you were misinformed.

I have nothing to the with Mini of Manhattan, never had any dialogs with them, and as you see I am from Texas, and NO, I DO NOT SELL MINIS...

I am a firm believer of handling business internally, please understand posting these threads will not stop people buying Minis from them, but you are going to be the unwanted person.

Again, sorry for the inconvenience, hope you guys get everything straight asap.

good Luck

 

As of now, Manhattan gets nothing. MINIUSA is handling the transaction themselves.

As for the warranty... I have the option of going to any other MINI dealer and purchasing the extended warranty offered by MINI, orrrrr I can find a third party to use instead. Any Suggestions?


Mikey

 

I woudn't dream of doing that, after exausting all my avenues with the dealer, I went to MINIUSA. After they fixed everything, I posted the story.

And I never asked people to stop buying from them, just to beware...

That goes for any major purchase. If someting sounds fishy, and there's a higher power to talk to about it, make that call before spending any money.


Mikey

 

I don't mean to change the subject but if I am understanding you correctly if I lease a car and put 45k on it when the lease says no more than 30k at lease end and I decide to purchase the car I do not have to pay the extra fees for mileage?

 

Nope, cause the mileage is not hurting the resale value of the car. Because you will pay the agreed upon price in the lease, if you turn it in, the excess mileage will make it very hard for the leasing company to sell the car for that amount or usually more.

Steve

 

It's really too bad that the NAM dealer rating system has been down for so long. Lots of valuable data being lost.

 

You think there's any intention to bring it back?

 

yes, it's just a matter of development time for Mark. He's the only one that does coding for NAM and the system we have in mind is more involved than the previous version.

 

As a side note...I wouldn't finance with MINI Financial anyway...you can get better APRs just about anywhere, like a credit union! I got my low APR that way...so even though they will finance you doesn't mean its your best option.

 

I financed two MINI's with MINI Financial and they beat all the offers I had and got me a great APR. Do not count them out until you check all your options.

 

I guess you've never been to Manhatten!
The other way to look at it is if they don't want people talking crap about them, then maybe they should treat their customers better. If we all labor in silence, then we are seriously limiting a very important factor in working marketplaces, "free and fair access to information".
While it's nice to give them a chance to "clean up the missunderstanding", it is by far a requirement. The root cause of a negative post isn't the poster, it's the experience. And everyone who has a bad one should let the marketplace know. Same with good experiences!

Matt

 

Quoting ariercetinberk:

i find it difficult to understand them lying to you or trying to take advantage of you (i don't mean that you are lying- i think it is a misunderstanding), and finally, i wish you never dropped these people in grease before talking to them (Sales Manager, Finance Director maybe GM) finding out why you were misinformed.

I have nothing to the with Mini of Manhattan, never had any dialogs with them, and as you see I am from Texas, and NO, I DO NOT SELL MINIS...

I am a firm believer of handling business internally, please understand posting these threads will not stop people buying Minis from them, but you are going to be the unwanted person.

--------------------------

Do I have this straight? He's dealing with a CAR DEALER--IN NEW YORK--and you're surprised he's getting bullshitted? Are you kidding? And you're criticizing him because he's posted a message about it?

Ariercetinberk, buddy, I don't know what turnip patch you do business in, but after a business career that has spanned 45 years, both in corporate worlds and as an entrepreneur, I have to tell you that you can never take anything at face value. Or perhaps more diplomatically, "Trust but verify." (Ronald Reagan?) And especially in New York. One of the biggest bullshitters I ever met in business was in San Antonio, so location really doesn't have that much to do with it.

Unscrupulous, schlock business people like this MUST be confronted, so they know they can't get away with tactics like that. Mikey was not only right to make that post, it was incumbent upon him to do so. I keep track of things like that, and if my travels take me in the area of Mini of Manhattan, I'll be sure NOT to do business with them, at least not without a fully functional ******** detector.

I just hope BMW North America monitors these communications, so they can discipline their dealer.

Roger in New Orleans

 

MINI of Manhattan is a classic example of the "only game in town" thinking that they can screw the world and get away with it. This isn't the first such post about their pathetic business practices.

 

All these comments and criticisms about Mini of Manhatten won't do very much good without Mini of Manhatten knowing what is being written about them.

Somehow this trhead needs to find it's way to Mini of Manhatten. Anyone have a good idea about how to do that? It would ceratinly be very interesting to hear what they have to say don't you think?

 

Somehow, I picture any response from them reading something like a news posting from the Iraqi Minister of Information. "Lies! We have never ripped anyone off! Our MINIs are being sold faster than we can get them in stock, all customers are very pleased." I mean, what else would they say?

The real question would be if they would take any internal action, away from the limelight, if it appears that they have been "busted".

The better question would be if MINIUSA cared enough to send an undercover buyer in there just to go through the motions and see if this particular dealer is giving them a bad name or not. That's what *I* would do, if *I* were in charge of MINIUSA...

 

Never underestimate how low a car salesman can go. They're right next to lawyers on my list of professional @$$hats.

Of course, not all are bad. But enough of them are so corrupt, it's always safer to deal with them as if they're trying to rip you off, because if you don't, THEY WILL, and it will be too late before you notice. And if they don't, then there's no harm done either way, eh?

Don't let other people make your decisions for you. Except for Doctors.

 

I had the unfortunate experience of purchasing my '05 MCS from MINI of Manhattan. I can speak from experience, and tell you that this story seems completely consistent with my dealings with them in every way. I think that Silver02CooperS's message was completely appropriate and relevant to others who might be considering using this dealer for a purchase. I know that I have spoken to MINIUSA about my problems with the dealer problem, but from what I have seen MINIUSA could care less--my suspicion is that MINI Manhattan is a high volume outlet for their product, and whether or not customers are happy doesn’t matter to them. MINIs sell themselves, and that is a good thing for MINI of Manhattan, because few people would put up with the crap that they throw customers’ way. It really is a shame, but I have told countless individuals to take a trip into NJ and try the dealers over there!



From MA's who are unaware of options on the car, to hidden installation fees, to service techs who drill holes in people's front ends after being told not to, and finally to dubious practices exhibited by individuals in the finance department (I had to go back three times to deal with the financial people who kept changing the interest rate, which was supposed to be locked after I signed the contract) this dealership does not seem to care about their MINI side of the business. When you are there (MINI of Manhattan) it is clear that MINI customers are a distant second priority behind 7-series owners, and perhaps they do not feel compelled to strengthen their customer service and ethical guidelines for their MINI franchise because they sell so many BMWs. Who knows, the only thing I can tell you is that it is not a place I would dream of returning for anything.



[font='Times New Roman']Good for you Silver02CooperS, I applaud you for this post--and I cannot understand how someone could find fault in anything that you have done or written. I hope people see this before throwing themselves to the wolves at MINI of Manhattan, and I hope everything works out well for you dealing directly with MINIUSA. Happy motoring. [/font]

 

"Unwanted person?" Explain . Sticking up for your rights, and refusing to be taken advantage of is not a bad thing, but what does "please understand posting these threads will not stop people buying Minis from them, but you are going to be the unwanted person" mean? It suggests some sort of negative connotation I am missing in the actions taken in this instance.

 

Yeah, I thought the "unwanted person" characterization was a little off the wall, also. How could anyone running a business consider the CUSTOMER to be an "unwanted person?"

But here in the deep south, the Land of Mediocrity, people who rock the boat in any kind of social or business interaction are frowned upon. That is one of the reasons that Southern states regularly wind up at the bottom of lists of positive attributes, ranging from per capita income to statewide performance of school systems. Plus, Texas has the distinction of being at the top of the list for executing prisoners--maybe that's what happens when you rock the status quo in that state--you get executed.

 

I'll tell you how.


As mentioned above. Mini's sell themselves.

Some salesman don't want to wheel & deal or haggle. If you start trying to negotiate, they'd rather send you off, because you're trying to cut into their comission.

Definitely a sign of a poor dealership. We have a Toyota here in Bowie just like that.

 

First, you should read your financing contract. I'm sure it says that they don't charge over-mileage if you elect to buy the car. The over-mileage charge is to compensate the financing company for the extra wear-and-tear (and loss in value) for the over-mileage when they take the car back. They have no loss if you buy the car. I think it would be an invalid liquidated damages charge if they attempted to impose it (and would be VERY surprised if this wasn't specified properly in your contract).

I would definately let the dealer know that you feel cheated. I would ask to speak to a supervisor, and would tell him that I was given false information, and ask for an explanation. In fact, I might even send a letter, with a copy to the consumer frauds department of the state attorney general's office. You may find that they will offer you something to make things right. If not, we should all know that it's a dealer to be avoided.

Second, ariercetinberk's comments are off the mark. I think we should all post our bad experiences with dealers, and do everything we can to support each other. Dealers should know that when they act dishonestly or try to take unfair advantage of us, that we're going to post our experiences and they are going to get negative publicity. I certainly intend to do that if I'm treated badly. Also, we should post our good experiences so that we can help each other choose the best places to buy/service our cars. We're buying $20-30,000 luxury items, and have a right to expect excellent customer service.

Third, I would recommend shopping whatever financing miniusa proposes with other lenders. There are also third party service contracts that might be worth looking into. I know my car insurer - Geico - is now offering extended warranties. Admittedly, you have to be careful to make sure the coverage is good, and you may decide that it would be better to bear some of the risk yourself, but shopping around never hurts.

Let us know how it turns out.

 

Thanks for the post, Silver02

Knowledge is power.

You're just contibuting to our knowledge.

 

It is human nature, would you be friendly if I was posting you all over the internet. Absolutely not. On the other side, how will you help the guy? Are you going to call Mini of Manhattan and tell them that they are practicing bad business? You and I have nothing to do with it, it is between that person and the dealership. I do not appreciate what they were trying, that is completely unacceptable, however after getting everything straight with Mini USA, what is the point of posting them on the internet? Is it going to stop people from buying cars from them, NO. Will it lower their numbers? No. That is a bad experience, and I am sorry for the guy, however I find posting them on the internet very similar to complaining to local news on TV.