I had a sticking roof since the end of last summer, I completely forgot about it over the winter and it reared it ugly head this spring. The week before Memorial Day my roof started clicking funny when I was operating it. The weather had been good that week so I left it open rather than having to fight it when trying to open it. That Wednesday evening I tried to close it and thats when it partially closed on the left side and that was it, locked and broken in place.

I took my R56 S into Hassel for the broken roof, they are in the next town over from me. I went in as an emergency appt. on Thursday as the service advisor had suggested. They could not get the roof to close let alone fix it that day so I was scheduled for the next Monday, luckily I have a garage as things have been rainy in NY the last 30-45 days. Any how I brought the car back to Hassel as asked, no loaner as they want you to make a loaner appt. 3-4 weeks ahead. The reason I mention the no loaner is that the car is my primary and I was without a car for almost 2 days. I was called that the car was ready on Tuesday afternoon and picked it up that evening. After turning out of the dealership it was obvious the tech did not do the new roof install properly. There we screws on the floor, which the advisors assured me were extras, yeah right! And my tint was gone since it was a completely new roof and they didn't even bother to mention this. I called them the next day to let them know and see if I could come in right away. I was told they could not fit me in so I just scheduled an appt. for 3 weeks later, with loaner, and figured I'd have the general yearly maintenance done at that time too. I also find out that afternoon that the blue tooth mic was never plugged back in during the completion of the repair, oh yeah and the plastic front of my tach glass was scratched which I only noticed at weird lighting angles. I get the survey from BMW/MINI and I tell them how it happened. The advisors were cordial and friendly, the tech did not complete the job properly and failed to do a test drive to check his work or the items he removed during the work. I then get a follow up from Hassel's General Manager of Operations, Robert Portesy, wanting to know what had happened. So I told him the same.

The day before my next appt., around 10AM, I get the automated call to make sure I was still in for the appt. At 5:30 PM that same day I get a call from someone at Hassel telling me my appt. is cancelled and they will not work on my car. WOW! That's a first for me! I called them back the next day to try and speak to Mr. Portesy to find out what was going on but he would not take my call nor return my call. I then called MINI customer service but they were of no help as they said they could not do anything to help me and that the dealers were not an area they can control. Again news to me.

A few days later I call Habberstad to setup an appt. I was able to get one for a week later and it included a loaner. I worked with Jackie at Habberstad and she was great, super friendly asked all the right questions including had I been troubled by the cold start clatter. I also had to have the tip re-call done, general maintenance and of course the roof rattling. I also go the loaner :-) Jackie called me late that afternoon about my tire pressure to make sure I wanted it as high as I had it. Talk about being customer oriented! Anyhow the car was ready the next afternoon and they had fixed the roof, I'll get back to that in a minute. I also got the new timing assembly, chain tensioners, guides and sprockets. They did an oil change, new front brakes, general diagnostic (all clean) and a new cabin filter. As far as the roof went the tech said whoever did the work not only failed to install all the screws but the also left the seatbelt mechanism and the side curtain airbag loose. Talk about potential safety issues! So the tech buttoned everything up like it was all nice and new again :-)

Moral of the story, steer clear of Hassel as they are a HASSLE! I found out they are owned by Group One, a dealer conglomerate that only cares about numbers and not its customers. Kudos to the team over at Habberstad from Jackie to the Techs as they really know how to treat customers. It finally looks like someone actually cares about MINI owners since MINI doesn't!