Sad news

I ordered my car on May 11 from the MINI of Hamptons after seeing their ad here on the NAM since they do ship the car across the country. The car arrived here in Seattle today, but the truck guy could not start the engine at all. He tried to jump-start without any luck. We tried to reach our MA, but he is off today. The other MA told us to call MINI USA for help, but they couldn't start the engine neither. Now, a brand new car is just sitting there could not be driven.

UPDATES: After seeing the pictures of the problems, the MINI of Hamptons has agreed to fully refund my money and offer to assist me to get my new car.

 

tow it to the local dealer. They should take care of you. After all, the real $$ is in the service end after the sale!

 

Was it possible for you not to accept the car? I mean that's a pretty serious issue, they should have tried to contact your MA and the manager or another MA should have handled it to save the reputation of the dealership and their mini shipping program. After all what can your MA do that the other MA won't be able to?

 

unless its just some minor issue, no gass or dead dead battery, i would not accept that car cause it could be a sign of trouble to come again unless its just a minor issue. loose cord or dead battery type event

 

WTF kind of customer service is that?

Oh, sorry about your brand new car, but I don't feel like dealing with you today so hang up and dial MINIUSA.

Pfffft....I'd be up in someone's A$$!

That is SO not the way to start off someone's MINI adventure

 

Since you already have the car, read up on lemon laws in your state. Some states also have laws that let you reject the car within 3 days or so after accepting it for any reason.

Also from what I've seen it usually helps to tell the dealer that you have discussed your issue on NAM and many people are interested in how the issue gets resolved.

Keep us updated.

 

Pretty sure thing that it drove ONTO the truck. And depending on the method of transport, may have changed trucks in route? Most likely just something simple that bounced loose or ran down (battery) in transit... we didn't hear what MINIusa did - send roadside assistance I guess? But who came, really? Local inept tow truck operator that's contracted by MINIusa? Could definitely be just something as simple as a loose cable, or ECU loose, etc. Something someone who actually knew something about a MINI could fix in a minute... or a dead battery - some of these new cars can be almost impossible to jump if the battery is dead... needs a charge first.

Really, sounds like the Hamptons MA did the right thing - there's NOTHING he can do personally from the East coast - appropriate action was to call MINIusa roadside support number. If the responder (who is probably just a local tow operator) can't make it work (and if it's more than gas or a jump, they won't be able to) then the flatbed to the local dealer for warranty repair is the right response.

Sorry you're having trouble - definitely not what you wanted - but I think it's WAY too early to be talking about lemon laws...

 

The right thing to have occurred was MINI of the Hamptons should have hooked up with the local dealership and taken care of this issue, period. The customer hadn't technically taken delivery. What I also can't understand is the MA thing...you are assigned an MA and that is the only person in the world who you can talk with about your MINI. Hey, if they are available fine but if not the others should have the same training so why aren't they able to take care of the situation. It's the dealership's responsibility, duh! Do you pay your money to the MA or the dealership?

MINI of the Hampton's informs local dealership of the issue with their client. Local dealership contacts client with issues and advises them they will take care of everything. Even if it's initially just a call the MINIUSA, the local dealership obviously will be doing all the warranty coverage. And I might add an opportunity to develop a relationship with the client for future business. The relationship begins with the car but can only continue with the dealership service. How hard can this be...just a little common sense...is that too much to ask? I think not.

Call

 

Sorry to hear about your problems. Hope you're able to get it resolved soon.

I was curious as to why you decided to order from the Hamptons, when you have a dealership down the road in Tacoma. Many customers from the Seattle area also seem to go to Rasmussen in Portland.

Your problem, even if rare, does point out the disadvantage of ordering from a dealer clear across the country.

 

The battery has to have a specific amount of power in it for the ECU to operate. If the truck driver didn't get it up to that, it aint gonna work.
I wouldn't say reject the car out of hand. It may be something as simple, say, like the lights left on.
Get the local MINI guys involved. A MINI is a MINI, regardless of where it was purchased.

 

Please keep us posted! Very curious to what the ultimate concern turns out to be. If the car has the keyless entry no key start function, and one of the keys was left in the car, the driver could have hit the start button once to shut down the motor, but not hit it again and the radio could have been left on, along with other accessories for a REALLY long time bouncing down the road in its way to you. Simple recharge should get things going again, though you may have to re-reference the windows etc.

PLEASE let us know!

Good luck. Try not to let this destroy your opinion of MINI!

 

BINGO. What the heck would somebody on the phone, 4000 miles away be able to do?? Call roadside, get MINIUSA busy, solving the problem locally. Yes it's surely a BIG bummer, but I'd bet it's something stupid (loose cable/computer, dead bat...) as noted. Get it to a local dealer and you'll be on your way.... GOOD LUCK.

 

The backup in ordering in Tacoma is well over 6 mo. I was told 8 in early March. Portland had a 3-4 mo wait end of March. That's why many of us either order out of state or go south to Rasmussen. Delayed gratification is one thing, but jeesh!

iTao, It's gotta be simple. I'm guessing you'll call Tacoma this am?

To state what we all know, not starting is usually 1 of 2 things. No fuel or no spark. If the car is in your driveway, put it on a battery charger and make sure you have a tank of gas. Can you smell gas in the tank? Does anything click when you try to start it. Does the engine turn over? Give us more facts and maybe we can help you get your baby rolling.

Best of luck.

 

My suggestion... open up the relay box and press them all down firmly into the sockets. On my '06 MCS, it's a black plastic box, maybe 4x10 under the bonnet, next to the air intake box. A week ago I had a main relay shake loose and the car would crank but not catch. The dealership found the relay loose, re-seated it and the car has run fine since then.

I agree with a previous poster... the car was probably driven onto the trailer, so it was running when it left the dealership. The jostling in transit might have shaken something loose.

Good luck!

 

I just spoke with an MA at Northwest Mini over the weekend, and the current estimated delivery time for a new Mini is six to eight months, plus they have a dealer's surcharge of $559.00 over MSRP for an MCS.

I can deal with a small surcharge (which is suspiciously close to shipping from the Hamptons ) in exchange for some report with the local dealer, but if I hadn't already decided to wait a few months for the 08 changes and the time to get a good down payment together I'd have my order in with another dealership just because of the wait.

That being said, I have no idea how the dealer's allotments are supposed to work out, so perhaps this is somewhat outside of their control for the moment? Also, the MA I spoke with was very friendly, helpful and knowledgable. He answered all of my questions, made reasonable suggestions for options that fit what I was looking for without any pressure, and made sure I had everything I come for even though he had other customers waiting and he knew I wasn't placing an order today.

 

Man, since I live 20 minutes from "Mini of the Hamptons", I should buy cars from them, and resell them to Seattle for a profit!!!!

 

I hope this works out for you. I ordered from Mini of the Hamptons, shipped it to Seattle and had no troubles.

For those wondering why we ordered, it was a cash neutral deal, but the Mini came months earlier.

 

They actually absorb some of the shipping costs when they ship them west. You would lose money on this arbitrage, my friend!

 

I live in a Seattle suburb of Issaquah. In March I was told 10 months (maybe a little less if someone drops out) by NW MINI. Rasmussen was 2 months. The next closest dealer MINI of Murray was able to submit the order the following week.

It was less expensive to order from Murray since there is no markup. The doc fee is a little high, but fully disclosed before ordering. On delivery there was no pressure or even offering of anything other than the extended warranty and clear bra. The road trip was fun. I wanted to see Salt Lake City/Park City and Boise plus had some friends to visit in Walla Walla. The one-way Southwest flight of $80 was also cheap.

iTao, I'm looking forward to seeing you on the road soon. Your delivery experience doesn't sound great, but it hopefully will be easily remedied by a battery charge or some other trivial service.

The Lemon Law pertains to the state the car is purchased in. The drawback to buying out of WA state is that we have a strong Lemon Law in WA. If a car from the Hamptons were a Lemon it would fall under that states laws. NY, right?

Greg

 

As stated elsewhere first make sure the battery is charged and you have gas. Otherwise:

MINI Roadside Assistance: 1(866)646-4772 (24-hours a day, 7-days a week)

Have them tow the vehicle to Northwest MINI 3901 20th St. East, Tacoma, WA 98424 1(800)854-0366

They should find a fix. I'm sure it's nothing serious.

 

Wow, N.W. Mini's charge was $395 in April!

 

NY's lemon law is ok.

Any outcome to this yet? Hopefully a nice positive one like, oooops, it was out of gas!

 

I love when people don't update their posts.... I guess I am just impatient .


Hope your MINI is fixed by now, iTao.

 

Thanks for everyone's support and opnions.

The MINI was tow to the Northwest MINI on the first day right way after attempts from the AAA (sent by the MINI USA roadside assistance) to jump-start the MINI by connecting to an external battery source and the truck (both failed). The power came on while the battery was connected to the jump cables. We could only hear "click" noise when press the start engine bottom. The MINI of the Hamptons has talked to the Northwest MINI since then and asked them to find out what's wrong with the car.

There are other problems with the car:

The car has two big deep scratch marks on the passenger's side door next to the speaker, and there is a loose unconnected cable hanging from the bottom of that door. Scratch on the chorme of the hood, and the paint was chipped at two locations on the hood. A “dent” near the left side of the trunk handle. The left side curve-in a lot more than the right side. The antenna is missing. Yellow stains left on both doors.

 

Wow. That doesn't sound like very fun at all. Sorry for your troubles. Hope they can get the ride back up to par in a timely manner.
Keep us updated, please. I sure would like to hear how MINI fixes this one back to "right"