To calm my worries about the distance our Mini dealer is from my home,
Our sales person informed us of the effort that BMW was taking to authorize and get all BMW dealers to be able to also service and support the Mini whether they actually sold the car or not. Sounds like a load of "bull dung" to me, but before I prejudged his ethics, I thought I'd ask those in the know.

Is this possibly true?
If so, when would it become effective? How can I find out?

 

IMO this is just another case of the salesman telling the customer what they want to hear. I think it would be great if true, but I'm thinking it's bull manure.

 

I think for it to be a rumor, more than one person needs to be talking about it. So I would call it an attempt at starting a rumor.

 

I thought it to be simply "salesman" B.S. But, thought I'd ask first.
As you stated, It would be great if true.

 

is he saying 1) that you can take your MINI to any BMW dealer (even if they don't sell and service MINIs)? or is he saying 2) that you can take your MINI to any BMW dealer that also sells and services MINIs?

1) i have no clue
2) you can already do this.

 

Another reason why most car salespeople (NOT all) should be lined up with ALL Lawyers and summarily bludgeoned... almost to death... at least until they swear to QUIT LYING!

 

Uh, actually guys, I thought we COULD already do this -- you can do this in Europe already. The BMW (non-MINI sellers) can do minor work on the MINIs (basic services, oil changes, etc.) just not full-up, MINI special stuff.

 

Sad, down here all Mini dealerships are next door to a BMW dealership. Any service department, from any dealership nationwide will take care of any car whether they sold the car or not.

 

it is the same in the US.

 

Anyone can perform oil changes, alignments, tire rotations and tire replacements and do other regular maintenance on your car without voiding your warranty, this is required by federal law in the US, but repair work is at the discretion of the warranty holder.

I was told that while my local BMW dealer could look at my car and give a report to the MINI dealership on what was wrong, and could say weather the car had to be towed, or was safe to be driven to the dealer they could perform no repair work on the car without voiding my warranty. At least, that's what my local Bimmer dealership said when I called them and asked. My MA said the same thing when I bought the car.

My vote is: your MA is full of it eric, but my MA said he "hoped" the same thing would happen, he just didn't try to tell me that it was actually going to.

 

Not all lawyers are evil. Really.

 

Most are merely evil... The rest are purely evil!

 

I took my MINI to a local Nissan/Subaru/Honda/Lexus/Toyota dealer to have the oil changed since that is also where I took my Murano when I had it. I ended up driving home in a rented Buick because they screwed up when they put the oil filter on. All the oil came out as I was starting to drive home and they had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning the car. However, it pretty much rust-proofed the underside.

 

I think... I will just drive the six hours to my MINI dealer for oil changes after hearing this story...

 

I trust everyone, I just don't trust the devil in everyone.

 

Behind every bad lawyer, there's a bad client. It takes two people to push a frivolous or dishonest cause of action.

Good ethical lawyers don't take bad clients or causes if they can help it.

 

If you think a BMW dealer will honor your Mini warranty/service work, just give them a call and ask. I have asked several BMW dealers in GA and SC and they state that they are not authorized to do any work on Mini's. A great example is Columbia, SC. No Mini dealer! You would think that the BMW dealer would love to cozy up to Mini owners and possibly get a Mini franchise. No way, that would be to logical.