Hey guys, I've heard countless bad reviews about their service and work etiquette. However, I have scheduled an appointment with them this coming Sat, the 18th, to have this recurring DSC problem and a "knock" underneath my car looked at whenever I accelerate/decelerate. Anyways, after all these bad reviews, I'm *almost* positive that they should change their habits by now? Has anyone gone in for service recently and can provide a more up-to-date experience? Also, who was your SA? Thanks.

 

OK, here's an update guys!

First of all, I gotta give props to my SA, David Mills, for coming through and making promises that he can keep. He's a stand-up guy and I do believe that Assael is trying really hard now to meet customer's satisfaction.

I dropped my car off at 7:45am and David was my SA. He went through the paperwork for me and asked one of the head honcho technicians to ride in the car with me so he can hear the "knock" coming from underneath the car. Personally, I think that this is so much better than having the tech drive the car and try to find the noise while I wasn't there. Plus, it kinda eliminates the tech from doing a joyride, not saying that they do, but it prevents it from happening. So, I drove around the block and the head tech seems to already know what's up. I went back to the dealer and dropped the car off. I received a call around 2pm from David to inform me that my car is ready. The other problem with the DSC he says they had to order a new switch cluster cuz it seems like there is a little malfunction going on in the circuit board. He says when the part comes in, he'll inform me and set up an appointment. The other problem was the knock that came from underneath the car "supposedly" but it turned out that it's actually one of my motor mounts has leaked out all the fluid so it makes clunk noise sometimes on accel/decel. They replaced it and now no more noise!

Okay, so I went to pick up the car and service was immaculate I must say. I signed the paperwork and picked up my car, walking around it to make sure no scratches/dents/etc. David advised me why I opted for the NO WASH option and I explained to him the reason being is I've heard horror stories about paint getting scratched. Of course I wasn't accusing Assael but it's just a preventative measure. Plus, it was gonna rain tonight which it did happen, sucks so it would be a waste of time. He explained to me that their wash is really good and they do hand wash, not machine, to prevent scratches. We chit chatted for a little bit and found out that him and his wife both own a MCc (coolness, I guess they're MINIfanatics too). =) He asked me if I knew AMVIV and I said yeah but couldn't make it and he couldn't either cuz he has to work that weekend.

Honestly, I would definitely go back to Assael and ask for David to be my SA for future warranty issues. I have to say this again, I do believe they're undergoing some major changes right now for the good of the customers and so far, they're on the right path. Ahhh...everyone deserves a second chance, even stealers. :D

 

Has anyone else bought or have their Mini serviced by Assael? I took my wife's BMW X5 there for oil service, and decided to take a look at the Mini next door. I ended up wanting to buy a MCS and did a search here to check Assael's reputation. It seems like there were tons of negative posts before 2006, but the latest ones last year by dragonwang were positive.

My BMW oil service was perfect, but it was a simple service. It was done on time and the car wash was actually impressive. My wife took her car to hand wash places, and wash by Assael was actually one of the cleanest I have seen the car. As for the sales people at Mini, they seem nice. They let me look around for like an hour, sitting in a few different models, and even test drive one without pushing to sell me one.

I asked about mark up, and the saleperson said there is no markup. And he said they won't even tag on any extra charges. I asked about free mats and he said that's a given. So far eveything seems good until I started reading the negative reviews here. I am just wondering if that was a thing of the past since there hasn't really been any new negitive reports since 2006.

 

i got my MCS there and it was a good experience. no market, but i didn't get any free items either

 

I had a few issues with them, but everything was cleared up in the end. I met Dennis Assael and had a talk with him about my problems and he understood. Things were good after that.

 

Disclaimer: My only MINI/BMW dealer experiences have been at ASSAEL.

Short version: Sales experience? Awesome. Service? Eh, not so much.

My first experience at ASSAEL is probably the best purchasing experience I've ever had that involves someone on commission. Nick Armstrong (MA) left such an impression when I bought my Cooper in 2003, that when I wanted a 2006 Cooper S, I made sure to buy that one from him as well. (Three years later, he still remembered me? = mad props!) Even though "someone" messed up my 2006 MCS order, he personally made good on it later (a funny story, actually, but I won't get into it here). I would personally recommend him to anyone. As dragonwang stated, David Mills was an awesome SA (well, as awesome as MINIUSA would let him be). Last I heard he's at a BMW dealership in Riverside.

I'll also mention that ASSAEL has the busiest Parts and Service Center I've ever seen, ever. In my experiences they are ridiculously busy, every damn day of the week. Which means every single member of their staff is overworked. Although they are always polite and professional, sometimes they'll come off a little "disinterested" as they address you and your issues. Thankfully, I'm thick-skinned so it doesn't bother me.

Directly related to the above statement, I find service times are much longer than I'd like (never take your car in on a Friday lest you shall be driving a rental for 2 days!) I have never been given a loaner, but they usually comp one day of a rental.

They could also have a better schwag selection @ the parts desk, but hey- that's what NAM Vendors are for!

I've yet to take the new MINI in for service since I picked it up (ooh- a year ago, next weekend?!) so I can't compare what things are like over there now. I do not know how they will feel about my mods.


Hope that helps! :i:

 

I drive 50 miles away to crevie MINI, I love thier service and they give me flowers every time i go

 

There is a sign in their service department saying that they only give out loaner car if the car in service was purchased at Assael except from Assael Mini.

 

As an additional post to this, I just talked to my 'contact' at Assael (SA Ruben Marquez) and he is no longer there, he said they have changed ownership/management and they were turning away MINIs (he had NO cars come in for two days in a row). He left for another brand as he needs to eat. Living in the beautiful IE like I do, it's 50 miles to Assael or Crevier for me, so going to the dealer has to be the last resort (I'm out of warranty too). While Ruben was there, they did warranty my SC when the bearings failed (even though he knew I had a pulley on it...I did change it out at my work first though, so props for that, and their car wash was the best dealer wash I've seen...but IMHO, they still treat us like red-headed step-children (no offense to any red heads )...but it's the same treatment I get at my motorcycle shop...hmm, maybe it's just ME??

 

I bought my Mini at Assael (same as MSRP in case youre curious) and I have had to get some warranty work done. My cruise control didnt work. I made an appointment. They gave me a rental while it was being fixed. But were slow to return my calls to tell me when my car was done.

The sunroof slides up when I drive and now the back seat doesnt lock. They said they would order the part last week. I can't get them to return my call. I leave messages. I call and Scott, whom I am supposed to speak to...isn't there...isn't availble etc etc.

I would only tell someone I didn't like to get their car serviced there.

I'm open to any other dealership in SoCal besides them.

 

GaryCooper'sGal, Long Beach (405 off Cherry) and Crevier (Santa Ana, 55 and Dyer?)) are worth a try.

 

+SIGH+

Do any of them offer loaners for warranty work?

 

I take it neither of those options is convenient for you?

I know Crevier does since that is where I get my car worked on. But that may be because I bought the car from them.

I suspect you could sweet talk/plead either of them to see if they would provide a loaner. Crevier has a shuttle service also.

Good luck.

 

I purchased my MINI at Long Beach MINI because they claimed to provide loaner cars. They have provided loaners the three times I've had to bring it in, but my impression is MINI dealers only provide a free loaner if you purchased the MINI from them. I'm needing to test this theory since it's a bit of a haul out to Long Beach for me. I'm going to give a closer dealer a try next time.
Anyone with experience with Alexander, in downtown LA?
++++++

 

I've been to Assael mini, Alexander BMW and Universal city Mini. I liked and acutally bought my car from Universal mini. From my experience I've found them very helpful (Once again I'm only speaking from my experience).

 

I actually test drove an 06 because the 07's were about a month away. Just wanted to see my first mini in person and get some sort of feel for it. The MA was a little creepy but he knew I was only interested in an 07 so he didn't really try to hard sell me on a 06 or order a 07. His attitude was like he didn't need my business and when I asked about 07 mark ups he was smug and said at least $1,500. My friend said he was down at the dealership a few weeks earlier and according to him treated him badly. Maybe there better now but you know most dealerships IMO are not trustworthy if they can get away with anything they will. Sorry to be a little jadded when it comes to car dealerships. I finaly bought at South Bay but is pretty far away and would most likely go somewhere else for any warranty work.

 

South Bay MINI will provide ANY MINI owner a loaner car provided you book far enough in advance. I bought my MINI from Long Beach and have been taking it to South Bay MINI for service, and have been quite pleased with their system. Simply call up and ask for a loaner - they will probably require you to book about 2-3 weeks in advance. But if you don't need a loaner, they have appointments generally within 3 days.

 

I got a loaner car from Crevier and I purchased my car from Irvine.
When I purchased my car I asked if they give loaner cars and they told me yes, but now when I went in for service they told me they don't have loaners for Minis.
I basically told my story to Crevier and within 5 mins they made an appointment for the next day (Sat) and told me they would have a loaner ready for me.
I'm 110% pleased with Crevier since they took care of me very quickly. They even changed my license plate frames from Irvine Mini to Crevier Mini, but that just made me laugh.

 

I took my mini to assael yesterday for serivce I dealt with a guy named John Slater, his service was excellent. I set an appointment for saturday morning. they took my car right in and got to work on it. He called me around 2:30 that afternoon to let me know the service was complete. I would highly recommend assael Mini and John Slater.

 

What kind of work did you have done on your car?

And did you buy your car from them?

 

 

Here is my last experience with Assael. It was better than my first when I purchased the car, but that is not saying much. Here is the nightmare: https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1279848#post1279848

I took it in for its first oil change. 13,000 miles. My DSC light and tire pressure light had been going on and off. I had to fill the washer fluid twice in a year with minimal use. My speedometer read 3 MPH too fast, needed air conditioner serviced for musty smell and I needed the convenience mode on my windows programmed.

The washer fluid was due to a faulty check valve by the rear washer. Though the tech. made the comment "if yousing (nice spelling) washer fluid a lot will require no be refilled more often (F'in dah). Adde3d one way check valve." Looks like they have a 3rd grade drop-out working on the cars.

The DSC and tire pressure lights were do to the DSC controller being shot. Since they didn't find this out until 4PM, they weren't able to order the part for the next day’s delivery. In fact, it took 4 days to get the part. They found the problem on Monday and didn't get the part till Thursday. The PA was out for personal reasons on Tuesday and Wednesday. Someone else dropped the ball.

For the speedo being off, they paced it with another mini and it was right on. That means that the speed monitor on a local street is off. Which also means that my Tahoe that I spent a bit of money to get the speedo adjusted is also off?

They cleaned out the air conditioner. Smells much better now. This is a one time free service. Makes you feel good when they don't know what caused the smell in the first place. I'm sure that I will be having it done again.

Finally got the windows programmed after a year. I'm surprised that they didn't charge me for it.

As for the service check list, I have no idea what they actually checked. There are symbols that vaguely represent numbers by the brake pad thicknesses. Nothing is checked off and it isn't signed. I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I was impressed with the SA, John Slater he seemed sympathetic to my situation with Assael. When he found out that they wouldn’t get the DSC controller the next day, he offered to find me a loaner. Assael doesn’t offer loaners. He told me that they are making efforts to fix the problems with service. Over all, I liked John, but 4 days to fix the car is too long. They have an extremely busy service department.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The good news is that the dealership was sold back in August. They are opening a separate Mini service soon. It will be down by the Mini show room. And best of all, beginning around the 1st of the year, they will be offering convertible Mini S’s for loaners. Thank goodness for new owners. There were no new scratches on my car this time and if I am driving a convertible S, I won’t mind them having my car for 4 days![/SIZE][/FONT]

 

Traded my 04 JCW in last week for an 07 MCS at Assael (04 purchased there too), the experience was a good one. In the coming weeks they will have a dedicated service area for MINI no longer lumping us in with BMW.

 

Don't know if this means much, but I had a good experience on 1/22. This is my first brand new car, so I've never dealt with a dealership before. I had an appointment, they were ready, they took my car in, and for except it taking a little bit longer than I thought it should, it was all good. They just filled my washer fluid and did an oil change. They had to work extra hard to get my car onto the lift, but besides that, everything went well.

I did have to tell them to NOT wash it though because I didn't want them using towels. heheheh yeah yeah, I'm picky.

 

I did not purchase my car from Monrovia but I got a excellent services from them, especially John Slater, he is excellent. Highly Highly recommended.