Im sick of the sight of my dealership once they have your ££££s they dont care

 

Wow I am glad someone understands me. But I am sure some people will get offended about the analogy you made.

 

Did they give you an idea of when they're moving to owings mills? I'm thinking of coming down from harford cty and testing out an S or two.

 

Maybe it's more like when my bicycle got a flat, so they gave me a tricycle as a loaner. You can still pick up chicks with it, but it's hard to pop a wheelie.

 

It probably wont be up and running until next year. They have to make the building. So you still gotta hit up Towson for now.

 

At this point I dont think any analogy will not anger some one

 

Whelp today I got yet another bogus call from the service dept. They have no clue what is causing the problem, so a tech is taking my car home to see if he can produce it again. I am having a meeting tomorrow with my salesman, his boss and the manager of the service department. I had a nice long talk today with my service rep when she called and told her about my total disappointment in whats going on. Lets see whats gonna happen tomorrow. She is suppose to call me in the morning, since she is arranging the meeting.

 

Whelp I knew this would eventually happen. Those mother ****ers are trying to blaim me and my choice of gas. The dumb *** is gonna tell me to use Shell premium gas. Well guess what, thats the only gas I use. Since I have a Shell fleet company gas card. So I am going to get ready and go up there and raise cain. First they are going to tell me I had a bad cylinder now they are gonna change it and say it's the gas which is ********.

I will continue to keep you guys posted after I come back. This is not gonna be pretty.

 

I am not going to take offense to the analogies, but I think the most appropriate one would be a MacBook Pro vrs. a MacBook. Same thing, same great technology, the Pro just has more power.

 

I bought my MCS from MINI of Towson in Aug. 07 - Evan was my MA. The sale and delivery went like clockwork: the car was ready on the day I had specified. Two subsequent routine service visits under warranty have been handled quite professionally.

At 21K miles, the car has been impeccable, no issues whatsoever (unless you count several brief episodes of "start-up rattle" during very cold weather). I am delighted with the car and fully satisfied with MINI of Towson.

I believe your unfortunate experience is not at all typical of MoT customers. I'm sure they will make every good faith effort to resolve your problem. Let's hope they succeed.

 

That may be true for you, but it is a know fact for many years that the BMW of Towson has had a bad rap for numerous reasons. But again I am not blaming them for the issues. I never have. I am saying the car is a lemon and they need to take care of it instead of blaming me. Thats one of the issues with the BMW of Towson service center. They are quick to pass the buck to get out of doing repairs and warranty service. I grew up in East Baltimore not too far from Towson and during my life time there have been several news cast about the dealership as well as tons and tons of complaints filled on them. Also as a dealer myself which they know I know there rep. Also you can go to many other BMW dealers and they know as well. I mean damn you google them and you get mostly negative reviews on them. But really I dont care, I am not gonna allow this crap to happen to me. I am paying to much money for a brand new car to have it in the shop for almost a month during a 4 month time span. Any way I am leaving....talk to you guys later on with an update.

 

Typical or not the "blame the gas" excuse is an instant red flag to me of any mechanic. So long as you run premium the source of the fuel doesn't matter. There's differences in the detergents and such from brand to brand, but ultimately it's all gasoline. If "bad gas" is the cause, why? Shouldn't the ECU and the fuel filter have prevented major problems? Why would it only effect one cylinder? I usually don't side with the disgruntled customer complaining online and give the dealers the benefit of the doubt, but at this point I'm beginning to think quite a bit of the complaint is justified.

 

Good Luck Iceman! The good part is that you have the Shell account which you can prove in a heartbeat that you put in the good gas. Wonder what they'll try to pin it on after you disprove that fact!

 

Wow, this is unbelievable. I'm probably going to order my car through Otto's Mini dealership in West Chester, PA, instead of dealing with Towson.

 

Alrighty guys finally I have the strength to post my trials with BMW of Towson service department. For starters I went in very calm and collective. Then Julie started giving me her spiel about how sorry she was and how I may need to change my gas and start using Shell premium or Texaco. What she didn't know and what many of you probably don't know is that I own a used car dealership and I only use my Shell Fleet card for gas and I only use 93 grade for my mini from day one which is what they recommend. So I then tossed my two Shell Fleet cards on the table and said well thats not the problem. So then I got pissed as she started to explain to me that they still have the same problem but have no idea why it is going on. So as I got louder and had a couple explicit words roll off my tongue the service manager came in named Terrence and pulled me into his office. Then he pulled the same spiel again. He then went into the fact that they really want to keep my car because they have no idea what was causing the misfire. I told them that was totally unacceptable. He continued to say that they know there is a problem, but they can't reproduce it every time, which is totally true. It doesn't happen all the time. But it happenes often enough. So I basically told them that I knew my rights and I know that they have 4 chances to get this corrected. He was not happy when I mentioned that. He begged me to leave my car but I just couldn't. Then I gave my spiel about how now I have no confidence in this car anymore. I do not think it is gonna last 4 years in good condition blaaa blaaa blaa. So to make a long story short, he agreed that he will see me again in the near future because they really did not fix anything and still know there is a problem. We also both agreed that my very next step is to file a formal complaint with both my Attourney General and Mini. He offered to come to my house the next time with a loaner when it happens again. But what totally boggles my mind guys is that as soon as I drove it off the lot I could duplicate the same type problem. Some times the car seems like it just has no clue when to shift, it sputters along like it has no compression in the engine at all and some times I have to actually put the pedal all the way to the floor just to get some kinda pickup. This never happens in the loaners I get.

So guys tomorrow I will be calling and writing Mini and filing my formal complaint as well as filing my formal complaint with the Attourney General.

 

After I busted out my Shell Fleet card they then said I should switch to Texaco because they use some tecron additive that mini sells thats already added to the 93 octane gas. Also I found out that the Service manager Terrence lives like right around the corner from me and guess what? He goes to the same gas station as I. Then he had the ***** to tell me to still try another when he uses the same one.

 

I put gas from the Native American Reservation in my MINI. I am sure it doesn't have special detergents and additives, and I have no problem. I could see gas making a difference 3-4 years down the road. On a new car it shouldn't need additives and detergents to make it run well anyway. So even if gas was the issue something isn't right. Good luck.

 

I traded in an '09 Honda Civic EXL-Navi for my Mini S. The Honda was a lemon and had a front end shake that was awful. They replaced the tires and wheels twice. That is two Hondas I have owned with problems before 100k miles.

 

This is such a sad story...I hope everything gets sorted out for you, Iceman! I'd be completely depressed if my Mini were sick :(

(if I HAD a Mini, that is... )

 

Thanks for all the kind words everyone.

Another quick update. I just got off the phone with Mini Corporate Office and now they are trying to fix the issue before I take it legal. I told them I wanted to file a formal complaint and they said not yet. But I also explained that at this point the only way they can make me happy is to give me a new car. Since I am only 3440 miles and 4 months into my new car.

Yesterday after I picked up my car it only took me 5 mins to get it to reproduce what it does all the time. It likes to randomly loose compression as well as mis shift. I really think its a combination of a bad transmission and maybe some bad cylinders or something.

 

I was wondering, is your mini an automatic? I had an 07' BMW X3 and it kept having a similar problem. i would slow down and then i would step on the accelerator, and basically nothing would happen, and then all of a sudden the tach would jump up and the car would take off. it was a real problem because one time i was in the middle of an innersection and i thought i was going to get hit by another car, i floored the accelerator but nothing, and then it took off like a rocket. the BMW dealer kept saying it was a computer update that needed to be done and every time they would "add a software update" but it still had terrible acceration and hesitation. I am glad i only leased it for 2 years. that is one of the reasons i went with a manual in the mini. I later found out that the 07 BMW x3's had some sort of down/up shifting problem.

 

Thats the exact same problem I have to the T. Also yes I do have an automatic. They constantly swear that they don't feel it and can't reproduce it, but I can every time.

Now I am waiting for Mini or Mini of Towson to call me back.

 

It sounded the same when you described it. I had looked at that dealership as a possibility but i live in PA so i got mine at Otto's. I liked my X3 but there was no way i was buying it off the lease with that kind of problem. My neighbor has an 06' X3 but it has a different engine, so none of those problems. I hope they can fix it, because i had to basically live with my problem for 2 yrs, but since i knew it was a lease, and i was giving the car back it didn't bother me as much. I am much happier with the mini, although i have only had it for less than a month, but so far so good.

 

Whelp I spoke to Mini last thurs and they said they would get back to me. I did not get a call friday or today. So I am gonna call them back tomorrow. They said they wanted to handle this before it went to legal. How long should I wait for a phone call back?

 

Iceman, personally, i'd wait for them to call you. If you don't hear from them by Thursday, then I would give them a call and ask for an update. The ball is definitely in your court right now and i'm sure that they are weighing their options as carefully as possible!