Hello,

Just wanted to say that I just got my new Mini today and I'm so excited about it. It's such a fun car.

Now to the topic of this thread.

Just bought my Mini from Tate Mini today and let me tell you it was the worst place I could've ever bought from. The Sales manager Rick was a complete jerk who was walking around like something was stuck up his butt.

This is first time I have ever had someone lie to me in front of my face with 2 witnesses at 2 different points in time.

Rick ruined my day that I can't even enjoy my new Mini. I hope tomorrow I can start enjoying my Mini.

The Story:

When I first decided to buy a mini, I shopped around a bunch of places. I was able to find the Mini I was looking for at Morristown Mini since I didn't want to wait for the order to come in. Then during my research I found that Tate Mini also had the car I was looking for with all the right options.

So I contacted Tate Mini and got a call from Brian (a great sales guy) and later by Darrin (a great sales guy as well). I went in to check the car out on Wed. night. At which point I was approached by Rick who was waiting outside for me and gave me the keys to the car I was looking for. (I thought to myself "...wow, what a great guy...", 1st mistake.)

After checking out the car I started talking to Rick, since the sales guy who contacted me was busy helping someone else. I informed him that I was able to find the same car in NJ and the dealer there was offering me $500 of MSRP to take the car off their hands as well as throwing in FREE floormats and offered dealer installed items at cost. He told me that he can not meet that but he was willing to meet me half way. He stated, in front of my girlfriend as a witness, he can give me $250 off MSRP since I drove all the way out and also throw in FREE floor mats and give me dealer installed parts at cost. I thought to myself, this is exactly what I want and it's amazing how nice this guy is (2nd mistake). So that night I informed him that I need to get my cash ready, I'll call the next day to put down a deposit and that I will come sat to buy the car. He said to me don't worry take your time, we are hear to help. (HE SHOULD'VE SAID WE ARE HERE TO LIE TO YOU).

So come sat, I go to the dealership. The sales guy is waiting for me to start on the paperwork. I went outside to check out my new Mini, it had a FREAKING SCRATCH on flare thing right above the rear wheel. I didn't say anything cause I wanted to wait to see what these guys would say. (This is when I started to feel that things were not going the right way.) Anyway, back to the story...I went back inside, the sales guy had everything filled out and when I check the price it said MSRP. So I told the sales guy about what I talked to RICK about and he went to talk to RICK. He comes back and says RICK said you are getting $200 off. I was like WTF, this is not what we agreed. (Now I know what you guys are thinking, $50 and you are making a big deal. It's not about saving $50, it's about what was original agreed).

Anyway, I asked the sales guy to get RICK. I talked to him and he denied even having a conversation with me about anything. I was like I have a witness, would you like me to call her and prove to you we had a conversation about this. At this point RICK says to me "...well don't worry about it, I'm not going to make a big deal about $50...you don't need to call anyone...I'll give you $250 off..." So I said to him and the free mats too, right. He said "...sure, anything to close this deal..." or something like that.

Everything went along and now came time for me to speak to the finance guy. I went in there and the guy pulls out a rate of something 6%. I almost fell out of my chair cause when I spoke to Tate people on Fri. they told me don't worry about finding any rates we are currently offering 4.5% to 5%, which is pretty competitive. But 6%, that's nuts. No rate goes up that much in less than 24 hours. Another sleazy thing this freaking dealership pulled on me. Anyway, after some time of arguing with Rick and going back and forth we came to a mutual ground and completed the deal.

So now came time for the final check out. Brian goes through all the paperwork and shows me the things that come with my binder. We are ready to go outside to go through final check out. I turned to Brian and said where's my Matts. He looks at me and says "..What mats???" This just drove over the edge. I turned to Brian and said "...please get Rick...this is something we agreed on...".

When Rick came out he says to me "...What free mats are you talking about? It's not on the work order when we wrote it up and the paper you signed. There for I have no idea what you are talking about."

I turned to him and said "...do you not remember our conversation couple of hours ago, the conversation in front of my friend and the conversation in front of my girlfriend on wed night, where you offered $250 off, dealer installed parts at cost, and free mats?"

He said to me "...No I don't remember offering anything for free. I've given you enough discounts and frankly this whole process is starting to get little frustrating with you and you are starting to **** me off..."

I just stood there with my mouth open in disbelief. I thought to myself you call yourself a manager. That's when I realized that the deal is done and it's not worth it to screw around with $100 mats. After all, they are processing my title, registration, and I still need to get my Chrome Grill and Audio AUX Input installed. After all that happens I can do whatever.

So that's when I told RICK that this was all my mistake from the start. I should've never signed any paperwork without completely reading what I was signing. I just wanted to get the hell out of there and away from RICK.

At the end I thanked Brian for being such a great sales guy and drove off into the sunset with my new Mini. But I was so pissed from the whole ordeal that I couldn't even enjoy my ride home.

So for those of you who made it these far, thanks for letting me rant & rave and get my frustrations out.

And for those of you who are considering Tate Mini, don't do it. It will be the worst choice you will probably ever make when it comes to buying cars.

Finally, it's amazing that the car industry has been around for over 80 years now but yet we, as consumers, still have to deal with sleazy car dealers.

Thanks,
dondada

 

You left us hanging...what about the scratch on the car? Did the dealership fix it?

I'm sorry you had such a lousy experience. I paid MSRP, not a penny more and not a penny less, for my 05 MCS ordered and delivered 6 weeks later. To the credit of the system of paying MSRP, the entire process from beginning to end, with each department I encountered at FLOW MINI in Winston-Salem, NC was completely non-adversarial, and as pleasant as can be.

What a contrast this experience was from every other car-buying experience I've had in the past!

To my own credit, I am a very shrewd hard-baller, who goes into the deal armed with the facts and figures, and extremely educated about the process and the pitfalls. Calmly and professionally, I have cut off the dog & pony show, the bait & switch routine, the mutt & jeff tactic, the waiting game...and most especially the creative accounting swindle, that goes on at sleazy dealerships.

Quite simply, you can command to be given invoice on the car and invoice on the options (that's key) plus what is fair to both you and the dealership. Do not give up your rebates/incentives, or take a bath on your trade-in, and quite frankly, you may be successful avoiding having to pay inflated charges for destination, delivery, and paperwork/notary fees. For most makes of car, the expendature of the dealership's one hour to sell you a car you're already educated about, should fairly be worth around $500. They would love to take more than that.

If the car in question is in heavy demand, they may choose not to sell to you because they can hold out for a sucker who will pay more. They'll have no problem selling the car to the next guy.

That is the beauty behind car buying programs like the Costco auto buying program, and another company I've used in the past: SALOCK. I got my 97 Jeep Wrangler for Invoice on the car plus Invoice on all the options, for $340 above the actual invoice of the car and its options. Because I had read up on and specified the options I wanted, I was in and out of the dealership in 30 minutes. I was not happy with the first and second offer the dealership made for my 93 Wrangler trade-in, so I sold it privately for considerably more. (The dealerships hope to make back your money through the trade-in, so be wise).

I worked over the Hyundai dealership with my friend when she went to trade in her Mitsubishi Montero Sport for a Tucson. We walked out of there $7000 under sticker price with a trade-in worth about $2500 bucks. The dealership payed tax, title fees, destination charge, and gave her the APR she needed to close the deal that night. I beat 'em down!

A note about the mutt & jeff routine...When I get in that situation where your salesman keeps leaving the room to 'ask the manager' I simply tell them, "I am the person buying the car. If you are not the person who can make the decision to sell it to me, why am I talking to you at all? Ask the person who CAN sell me this car to come deal with me directly, so as not to waste my time." That works like a charm, since either the games will stop, or the manager will come and deal with you directly.

Immediately gather your things and make for the door if they test your sincerity.

Now back to the MINI experience...I came in expecting all the tricks, but was so delighted that no negotiations were needed since I knew MSRP, and demand for these cars is high to the extent that everyone gets MSRP. I ordered my MINI just the way I wanted it, and sold my trade-in (the old 97 Wrangler) privately, and financed it through Capitol One, using my Costco Executive discount.

That way, the car-buying experience could be focused on getting to know the salesman and staff at the dealership, learning about the options and features, and the likes.

About a week before my car was delivered, I started buttering up my motoring advisor via email for any freebies he could scrape up for me. I asked him for coffee mugs, floor mats, key chains, tee-shirts, etc.

When I came to collect my car, my MA gave me the complete volume of music CD's, a MINI baseball cap, MINI pen, two MINI keychains, extra SMINTS, lots of posters, sales literature, and the like. It was raining, and I told him, "you're not going to make me track mud into my brand new car are you?" and he gave me a set of floor mats right then & there. The deal was already done, and they already had my money, but the experience was so pleasant.

To me, that 'relationship' was worth more than I could have gained by trying to beat them down $250.

 

When I bought my Mini from the dealer that #@% was there too but wasn't that bad. I've gone back since eyeing other cars and the guy is a total jerk from time to time.

I feel your pain.

 

Sorry you had such a bad experience buying your MINI and I am surprised that you didn't just leave and get a car elsewhere??

Anyway, welcome to NAM and I am sure that the fun of your new MINI will outweigh your bad experience buying it.

 

Tarzan,

Thanks for your reply; you have described everything I feel. And I completely agree with your tactics.

As for the scratch, they told me to come back and they will swap out the flare with a flare from another car. Thank god this was documented because I'm sure RICK will probably try to screw me on this as well.

As for your experience with Mini, I wish I had the same experience because I would've paid $250 above MSRP for that same experience.

At the end of the day $250 or even $500 is not lot money in the whole grand scheme of things.

Sorry if my post comes off in the wrong way but I told myself, leaving the dealership that I will do everything in my power to let Tate know exactly what I think of them.

After I get my scratch fixed, after dealer parts installed (since I paid for them), get my tags, car registered, and my titled issued to me; I will write a letter to Tate Corp. with CC to Mini Corp. of USA and I will let them know exactly the experience I had with them. I will also do whatever it takes to make sure that my story is listed on every Mini web site I can find on the internet.

When something like this happens, it's about time that public takes action to make sure other people don't get screwed.

Thanks for being so understanding...

MDSBRIAN,
I hope you never deal with that guy. If you don't live in the DC area and live anywhere in the east coast, I can give you names of people at other Mini dealership's I've dealt with, that were more than helpful. I think that RICK needs to be fired so he learns how to deal with people.

Honestly, at my work I have people that report to me, I have a budget, and I have customers that are my responsibility. If I ever treated the people like the way that RICK treated me, I would be fired on the spot and most likely I would have a hard time finding another job. That guy RICK needs be thought a lesson on how to deal with people.

I hope you never have to deal with him again...

YUCCAPATROL,
I hear what you are saying. On my drive home, I said the same thing to myself. But in all honesty, Tate had the car I wanted with all the option (this info I never let them know) and I didn't have the time to wait 2 months for delivery.

I would've paid MSRP but it was that RICK who made the deal and not me. I was more than happy to pay MSRP and pay market value for the mats. At the end of the day $400 means nothing to me when I'm buying a car for $25,000+. That's pocket change if you ask me.

Anyway, I'm happy to join NAM. The fun of driving the mini has already outweighed my bad experience with Tate Mini.

In fact, tonight I was able to sell the car to a friend who was thinking about buying a Mini but wasn't too sure. I did tell them never go to Tate Mini because of what happened to me.

Thanks for all your support...Tate Mini has not heard the last of me.......

Regards,
dondada

 

We also met Rick at Tate, We spoke to a sales person there and had a question, Rick was just too busy to even talk to us, all he had to say was check the web site. So we got back in my truck and drove to Philly. We got to Mini of the Mainline about twenty minutes before they closed and were so nice that we ordered our car on the spot. Best choice we could have made.

Tate really needs to do something about Rick. But the rest of the tate family seems to be great.

Hope you can foret about the guy and really enjoy you new mini.

Celtic Lass

 

I've got to aggree with Yucca on this, in all my dealings with car dealers I've found that nothing works better than getting up and leaving. Yes, I've been very disappointed every time I had to walk out of a dealership because they didn't want to play along with me, but I've always been comforted by the fact that if they couldn't or wouldn't meet my needs and requirements for the sale, then I really didn't need THAT car.

And without fail, every time I've walked out of a dealership (3 times so far) I've gotten a call within 90 minutes from the dealer that they "reconsidered" and were able to meet my terms or at least come pretty close.

I gotta say I'm baffled by your decision to put up with Tate when Morristown had what your looking for at a price that was acceptable. I know Morristown is far, but if it would have saved you the aggravation?

 

Something that strikes me as odd - Tate (as far as I know) always includes free rubber floor mats with new MINIs. At least that's what they told me when I got mine!

-Paul!

 

do you live? Do you plan on going to Tate for Service? Might I recommend Mini Of Towson? And stay far away from Mini Of Sterling. Whats nice in the DC Metro Area is we have 4 dealerships pretty close. Sadly most of them seem to have issues with service. I've yet to have a bad experience with Towson though.

Howard

 

Celtic Class,
That was prob. the best thing you did by walking away from Tate. I do agree that rest of the family seems to be great except for one guy. But like I said all it takes is one person.

mbabischkin,
Well I guess these are lessons learned. This is only my 2nd car I've bought so I've only dealt with 2 dealers. Still learning what type of people they are.

As far as going to Morristown, looking back, sure I could've gone to them but I had one small problem. As of Fri. I had no car and it would've cost me at least $250 to fly up to NJ.

Paul,
My understanding is that is what they tell people. The dealership is very odd.

HowardPM,
I live in Northern VA, just minutes outside of D.C. I'll go to Tate Service to get the work I paid for done. After that I'm never going back there again, even if they pay me I wouldn't do it.

------
All things considered, I guess I'm not aggravated with the process or buying the car. I was just upset at Rick and still am. I can't believe he lied to me in front of 2 witnesses. I just can't get over that. What type of person would do that?

That's why I said, that Tate Corp is going to hear from me once I get what I need out of them (don't want to get screwed on my paperwork or anything).

Can you guys recommend any agency's I can contact to file a compliant? So far I can thing of writing to Tate Corp, Mini Corp. of USA, and BBC. Is there any special consumer agency's in the State of MD?

Also, did anyone get an Owner's Manual with the car? Or did they screw me on that as well?

Regards,
dondada

 

Err, 4? Tate, Towson, Sterling, and?

(And for what it's worth, I've heard by far the least complaints about Towson. Very knowledgeable service guys there who seem to enjoy their job.)

-Paul!

 

Probably Crown, it's not much further from DC than Towson...

 

First I'm assuming you mean the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and not the BBC (British Broadcasting Corp).

Don't expect to get much satisfication from your letter writing. It's his word against yours here. Without anything in writing that said he was offering that deal to you, you're not going to trigger much if any of investigation by MINI. You might get a half hearted apology from Tate, but the BBB and MD's consumer protection people have nothing to work with. There was no law broken so they state can't get involved,

And yes, you should have gotten a manual. Don't go to Rick, talk to the MA who worked on the deal. Should be a leather folder with the manual, a book on the warranty and service, and a book on Nav (if you have it)

 

Crown might be the farthest but it depends where you consider the center point, at least from DC its the farthest.

On a side note, calling The Mini USA 800 # doesn't get anything acomplished. They actually started out really nice then got stinky with me, needless to say I kept calling but they werent fixing my issue. It came down to writing a 3 page letter to BMW of North American. From that came a call from their national customer relations office, which in the end my issue was fixed.

 

I wonder if that scratched flare you have was swapped from an earlier sale? I hope everyone buying from Tate reports to NAM. We might be able to track the life of that scratched fender flare as it is switched throughout Tate's inventory.

That fellow RICK may be there because the dealership feels it needs that type for stock and cost control. Very old fashioned and very unMINI. I must admit it happens to me ALL the time.

Thank you for sharing your misadventure and thanks to Tarzan for a glimpse at his negotiating prowess.

Happy motoring from hereon.

 

Huh, I never thought about it as a 'local' dealership, but checking on MapQuest, it's only a 15 minute further drive from me (in the opposite direction) than Towson!

The more you know...

(I'll quit threadjacking now )

-Paul!

 

It was not me, but another poster on this list that made the comment about a Charlotte dealership that had a past issue of a troublesome parts guy, to professionally remind the manager that "You are profit, he is overhead."

I wish I could give credit to whomever originally posted that line because as soon as I shared my feelings with the manager, the most miraculous transformation overcame the once-troublesome parts guy, and like night&day, he has been the most helpful, polite, and professional parts guy around. He has really gone over the top being helpful, and brought my car to me at work when I couldn't get away before closing, picked up the loaner, has offered me a free oil change when my parts were on back-order, and actually comes over and talks about my car, the things I've done with it, and what future mods I wish to do.

I've remembered it, so it's worth plagiarizing again: "You are profit, he is overhead." (If the original poster sees this thread, please feel free to chime in).

 

I don't think I have ever seen a new MINI sell for under MSRP in my area!
$250 off! Sign me up.

When negotiating, have them put your offer in writing please- that would have stopped everything else from that point on. Get a written offer before leaving if you have to.

Next lesson, Keep your MINI and very long time so you don't have to deal with buying a new one.

Finally if you ever move to another area, just check out the MINI service centers before moving.

Congrats on your new MINI!

Forget about Rick. Get out there and finish your break in miles.

 

in mid '03, I special ordered my cooper S at $200 under msrp. Classic Mini in cleveland area.

I was working with Paul Podner (an excellent salesman, and an encyclopedia of mini info). He doesn't work there anymore, but I have talked to some of the rest of the sales staff, and they seem quite nice.

I didn't have to ask for anything. When it was delivery time some 3 months later, my mini had the rubber mats, mints, hat, and a bunch of other stuff. I didn't have to deal with dealer installed accessories, no BS at delivery. Just excellent service and a small discount.

I feel bad for you guys who have crap for dealerships for a car you have to pay msrp (+ or - a bit).

 

Please let me know, I have a MINI on order from them. Friendly enough through the ordering process. How about financing games, freebies, responsiveness, and of course the service department?

 

All I will comment on Sterling is about their Service Department... While not great (known for not having appointments less than 2 weeks out), they have gotten significantly better than they used to be. Sterling also isn't the greatest at returning phone calls... Expect an Enterprise car for a loaner should you need one.

Howard will probably be up shortly to slam them... He had an extremely substandard experience, and isn't afraid to share it...

 

Ha! Sorry, if I'm going to buy a 30,000 dollar car I refuse to get **** over by anyone. I wouldn't even care if it was a 500 dollar car, anytime someone buys something and gets subpar service something is wrong. One of my goals is to make sure no one else has the same horrid Mini experience I had. So much hype and I love the car, but when issues arise they should be fixed correctly and in a timely maner.

Howard

 

mbabischkin,

I do mean BBB and not the BBC.

Thanks for the update; I won’t waste my time w/ BBB or MD Consumer board.

My attempt to write the letter is no attempt to get anything for free. I just want Tate to know how I feel and want them to know that the mngt. They hire are bunch of morons who do not have any knowledge on how to handle customers.



Also, I will let Tate know in my letter that I take what they did to me very personally and I will take every step to broadcast a bad name for them.



Last year I sat on a board for a Prof. Org. in DC where we had a member base of around 5,000 (age range from mid 20's to late 30's). I also am a very active member in a Young Lawyer's association in DC, who also has a large member base. I will make sure that every member of these orgs. are notified of Tate.



If I can spread a bad name for Tate to 5,000+ people in the DC Metro area, I think I've done my job as a consumer.



HowardPM,

Thanks for the info. I'll contact BMW of N.A.



dnowak,

If at all possible I would suggest you move your order from Tate Mini to some other dealer. Maybe Towson, I've heard good things about them.


Tate Mini is very friendly until you get to the check out process. That's when they turn in to your typical sleazy dealer.



Here's my exp. for each items you requested info for:

1.) Freebies: They screwed me on that. I got none.



2.) Financing Games: Yes they really pulled a fast one on me. I wanted to finance through Capitol One, which BTW is one of the biggest banks in the US, before I went to buy my car I asked if I can bring my own financing. They informed me YES, when it came to do the financing, they told me that THEY WILL NOT ACCEPT any financing from on-line lenders. Capitol One is not an on-line lender. So I was forced to go with their rates. I had no CHOICE. Unless I walked away from the whole deal.



3.) Final Check-Out Process: I didn't even get a MANUAL. I still don't know how to use half the things in my car. And now I have to drive 40 miles to the dealership to get a MANUAL.



4.) Responsiveness: As part of my order I added some extra dealer installed parts & service. Well they never called me to make an apt. or anything. Hell they didn't even order the parts. I had to call them and force them to order the parts I paid in full for.



5.) Service Dept: No comment yet. I haven't been through that yet. I'm thinking I'll have more info for you next week.



I really hope you consider other options. If you don't and still go through w/ your deal w/ Tate Mini. I wish you best of luck and I will pray that you don't go through the same things I went through.



---------



On the positive note, I LOVE the car. So much fun to drive it around. Thought last night I scratched my rim.

I went to park the car and didn't see a cement block someone left on the side of the curb for some reason.



Oh well....S**T Happens....Won't let that get me down....



I can't wait to get off work today so I can drop open the windows and take the car out for a nice long ride and make everyone on the road jealous.



Regards,

dondada

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Yeah most people might say to themselves, its only $50, or its only $250, which it is when you're paying over $20K+ for something, but, that money could have paid for mini accessories, such as the aux audio input, or even a months worth of gas.

Or in my case, take my girlfriend out for a nice dinner.

 

I bought three Miinis from Tate. The first one '03 MCS was ordered and bought without any work from the sale person. I put togehter a Mini from the Web Site went to Tate the sale person brought up the "designed Mini" from the web site went over with me about the options, I gave my deposit and left. I did not test drive the car and I did not spend more than 1/2 hr. in the place
Rick was a jerk at time of delivery. He phoned me and insisted that I get financing thru Mini. We argued about that, about the floor mats (mandatory purchase.) He refused to take the check from Capital One Financing so I ended up in getting a "personal loan at lower rates.
When I went to pick up my litte one Isuggested that Rick should change his first name initial to a D. We were not in speaking terms. But I wanted a Mini so bad I put up with Rick's attitude.

When I ordered the MCCS I went to Towson (GREAT Service people) and Benn was nice but nothing special - he tried to push for an alarm system.

I had one negative experience from Sterling - they did not want to show how the top was opening and closing - and the attitude of Sterling is bad... very bad..

James (my husband) went to SC to pick up two Convertibles with Andy. He called the sale person there and asked about a deal by ordering two at the same time. She never called back..

By default I ended up at Tate again - a loaner is guaranteed if you purchased the Mini there - Rick, who came back after being gone for a few months, was nicer. He and I had a long straight talk. I ordered two MC Convertibles. He took the old MCS back - I got a good trade in - I got an OK price fOR the two little ones and a freebie for each one. This time, however, Rick knew that I would have walked away with my old car. The first time I was too excited.


Moral of the story: When you begin to negotiate you need to know how much you are willing to pay and when you are ready to walk away.

Mini Coopers are hot and people like us don't buy only a car we are buying an adventure.

MD STREGA2
(just graduated from SOLO Lev. 1)

DC STELLA