Hello everyone, This is my first post, so I hope I put this thread in the right place. So on February 14th I purchased a used Mini Cooper S with low miles from a dealership. The very next day I got a phone call from the dealership stating the bank did not approve the loan and they needed to find another bank. Almost 2 weeks later I finally was told that I needed to bring the car back if I could not bring 400 dollars more for the down payment. I absolutely love the car, so I brought them 400 dollars more and that day I finally signed for the car and it was all mine which was March 9th.
Unfortunately, on April 15th, I started my car and it stumbled pretty bad but did not stall, so i immediately contacted my dealership and they told me I could use my warranty at the mini dealership as long as they get authorization. Mini found I need a new valve cover, water pump, drive line belt and the oil inlet tube on the turbo not to mention the solid yellow CEL came on monday. Mini called and called and could not get the authorization to do anything and could not get any answer's from my dealership. So I called and my dealership wanted the repairs done in house only. My service rep had to get a hold of the warranty company to authorize the repairs and I literally didn't get an answers till TODAY, and was told my warranty was up on the 16th of this month (which means the warranty company is going by February 14th even though the car was not mine yet), so they will not help pay for any repairs.
Seems to me my dealership just does not want to pay for the repairs. I have been trying to get my car fixed since the 15th and the car was not mine until March 9th so it would still make my warranty valid. I am going to the dealership tomorrow with contract in hand, I was just wanting some advice or information I could use or arm myself with to make sure these repairs get paid for. I have barely had the car and I shouldn't have to shove out this much money to get it fixed this early. Sorry for such a long post but all these details were important. Thank you so much,
Dbow

 

You did not mention if the factory Mini warranty is still in effect. Sounds like you have a warranty from the dealer you purchased the car from. IF so you will probably have to threaten the dealer with legal action.

Hope things work out for you. I know it is very frustrating.

 

Sorry, my warranty was with the dealership I bought it from. When I went in, I pretty much got the same answer. I don't know how much I believe them but I made sure to loudly make the point of how much they were screwing me and their so called "certified" cars are a joke. I did end up having to threat with legal action and they finally gave me some options. First one is to trade the car back for a new one, it sounded like a possibility until they tried to appraise my car almost 4 grand less then I bought it for which is ridiculous after having it for 2 months. Then they finally offered to fix my car and taking about 80% of the repair cost out. What I don't get is that, I would think that the dealership would save more money by paying for the repairs on my car rather then taking a brand spanking new vehicle cutting all the profit off of it and putting every rebate on the car to drop the price around what I paid for my Mini. While the repairs are being done I am going to look around online to look into purchasing a extended warranty especially with how finicky the Mini's can be.

 

Seems like your dealer did not sell you a used certified Mini, what a bunch of criminals! See what happens when you stick up for yourself, their still robbing you on that 20%!

 

Sorry the post can be confusing because it was so long but, I did not purchase mine through the Mini dealer. I didn't want to name my exact dealership because I have no idea if I would get in trouble for useing their name. Actually my local Mini dealership has been very helpful to me. They let me bring my Mini in for free, to help diagnose issues so that my dealership could not try to skimp out on some of the work that needs to be done.

 

YIKES! I'm in Sac also. Would this dealership happen to be on Fulton Ave? I'm getting ready to purchase my first mini and was at the Mini dealership here but when researching prices on Truecar.com it gave me the Mini dealer in Concord.

 

Hello, and if you have never owned a Mini, welcome to the club ☺. Anyeays, I'm sorry its a long post so it can be confusing but I did not purchase my mini from the dealer on Fulton. That being said, that Mini dealer on Fulton has been VERY helpful and curtious. They did a full diagnostic on my car free and printed me out a service sheet to show me what needs to be fixed now, so I had proof to take to my dealership of what's wrong with my car.

If you do end up going to the mini dealer on Fulton, there is a gentleman named, Hans. The man is a genius when it comes to Mini's, he has a gen 1 with 220,000 miles on it!!! He definitely knows what he is doing and will give you some great advice.

 

Miniac DBOWtheSTIG do you mean Mini of Sac that is now on Auburn Blvd? That's where I was yesterday and I test drove the Countryman S All-4. Love it! I'm 99% sure that's what I'm getting. I have seen used Minis' at several dealers on Fulton Ave but some of those places seem shady to me if you get my drift. Anyways, I hope you are able to resolve your situation and under warranty. Best of luck!

 

Yes, I am talking about that Mini dealership. In my experiences those dealerships on Fulton can be VERY sketch which is why I went to the Roseville auto mall to buy my car...looks like I still ran into some trouble though lol! Thank you very Mich, much appreciated!

 

This is tough, because it does seem like they should have caught the belt in an inspection, though I don't know how they could tell the water pump or the oil inlet tube was going bad.

Also I kind of lean towards using the date that you drove the car off the lot, not the date that the paperwork was finalized. If you had crashed it and the paperwork hadn't been finalized, would you have refused to pay for the car because it wasn't yours? I'm not trying to side with the dealership and I don't know anything about them, it sounds like those who do have similar experiences as yours which makes them sound suspect, but it doesn't seem super clear cut on the date of the warranty without reading the warranty paperwork.

If it were me, I'd probably pay the 20%, but tell them that I'll never be back and I'm going to bad mouth them everywhere I can, and also get in touch with the better business bureau. You could also nail them down on a dollar amount they're willing to pay for the repairs and then see if you can get the repairs done at another garage for what the dealership is willing to pay.

You definitely can follow through with legal action but you'll spend more on the lawyer than you would paying for 20% of the repairs. You might get your fees covered but it's unlikely.

Either way that sucks, mini's are a blast I hope this doesn't turn you off to them.

 

No worries Racingguy, I get the point you were trying to make but my problem with that is why would they even let me take the car home in the first place if the bank never accepted the financing?? Not to mention the financial advisor even told me everything went through and the car was mine even though the financing never went through. Pretty risky if you ask me, and from my understanding the money goes to the warranty company when the financing\deal goes through. So if the financing didn't go through on February 14th then the only option would be that the dealership sent them the money?? I guess this is something that I should have the dealership show me documentation of.

 

If you get screwed by a dealer you should be upfront here and tell us who it was. Maybe someone else had the same experience with them. Where do you think used cars come from? Many dealers just detail trade ins and stick them on the lot for sale. Then they worry about the problem after the crap hits the fan. They just assume that a percentage of people will give up at some point.

Small claims court might be needed at some point, you don't need a lawyer, just buy a book on the subject or see if the library has one.

 

Yes I was not sure if I could name the dealership without the admins deleting my post. It was the Autonation Honda dealership in the Roseville auto mall.

 

That is why I type dealer as I was unsure if it was a Mini dealer or other re-seller. I'll tell you that there's a LOT of money to be made being a Mini dealer given the below average reliability of the R56 N14's. Mini doesn't even stand behind their new F56 Mini's given the 3 year/36,000 mile warranty, down from the R56's 5 year/50,000 mile warranty.