back in june i took delivery of my beautiful mini in sparkling silver. i love the car! however, i have been back to the dealer about 12 times for repair. eveything from the windows not rolling up on there own after i close the door to many annoying rattles. and lots in between. it's never been anything that would keep the car from starting. just enough to drive me mad! am i the only one who is having this kind of trouble consistantly? the service department doesn't seem to be very apologetic about my issues and kinda laugh off my comments about the care being a lemon. but 12 times since june! it seems like something goes wrong every few weeks. does anyone have any advice for me when dealing with the mini people?

 

There is a common misconception that people who are managers or employees of a MINI dealership are somehow MINI people. They are not, they are dealership people.

That said, they represent the public face of MINI, and when there are problems with them, you have several ways to deal with it. Two that come to mind are bringing service and customer care problems to the attention of MINI's national HQ (they are MINI people), taking your service to a competitive dealer if there is one in your geography, or both.

 

My first R56 went back to the dealership for 14 days out of the first 30.
My second one hasn't been back in 5 months so far... ...sometimes the hatch is open in the morning for some reason, sometimes the passenger airbag turns itself off while my wife is sitting there, sometimes I smell burnt cat under the bonnet after a spiritted run, the wiper jets weep, but I hate going to the dealer too. So I'll wait on the nag list until it finally asks for its first service.

Good luck. Dealers can be jackasses sometimes. If you find a good dealer with a good service department, marry them...

 

Welcome to the club! I take my 2 year old son with me and when the BMW folks see him eyeing the cars in the showroom they get me out fast.

 

Well, one of the only two you've described is an easy fix and described in your owner's manual (reseting windows).

Rattles are fairly easy to track down and fix, too (though I think it's fine to have your dealer do it). Several threads here on how to do it yourself, though.

What other kinds of problems have you had?

Hard to be a "lemon" if they're not serious enough to keep the car from running, and/or that hasn't been successfully fixed by the dealer after a few attempts. Throwing that term around in your conversations with the dealer will generally not get a positive responce, either. Just a thought.

Not to minimize your issues, it's just not very clear in your post what you're dealing with. Care to elaborate?

 

Duplicate post - sorry

 

THAT is true for any manufacturer's dealer body!

We have a Volvo too and its forums (www.swedespeed.com, www.c30world.com etc.) are full of folks upset with their dealer.

I luckily, have a good one for our Volvo and will admit, the choice of my next vehicle WILL factor in local/nearby GOOD dealership support. Unfortunately for me, that's a problem for MINI as nearest dealer is out of state 120+ miles away.

Rick

 

I never thought of that one ... brilliant strategy!!

 

that's a pretty broad brush to be painting with, I'm sure you'll find plenty of Mini people working at the dealerships and some who're just there for the paycheck.
Of course apathy trickles down from the top pretty quickly, a bad manager can spoil a whole shop.

 

In North America, auto dealerships are franchises of the brand. The "MINI people" at the dealerships are employees of the dealership, and the dealerships, not us, are the brand's customer.

That is what I meant. The brush I used was structural, not emotional. But this structure, by its nature, makes consumers' experience inconsistent from dealer to dealer.