Sorry guys, I am going to vent. If you enjoy a good rant, listen in, I hope it is a good time for you. If you are tired of bitchy yelling, hit the back button and move on to something else. You have been warned.

Let me set the stage. I own a 08' R56 with less than 20K on the clock. However, it has been in the shop more times than I can remember at this point. For example, 3 times in the past 2 months. I have had the timing chain tensioner and all that goes with it replaced twice, the high pressure fuel pump replaced, an oxygen sensor, a tachometer, multiple iPod connection kits, multiple repairs on the windows and the sunroof, lights replaced, body panels realigned, the exhaust replaced, the list goes on and on and on. I don't remember all that has been done anymore. I still have an on going issue that they have failed to figure out and I am just stuck dealing with it.

It is by far the most unreliable car that anyone in my family has ever owned. The only thing worse than the car is the service that BMW MINI group provide.

Recently, I drove through a puddle....yes i said a puddle. This puddle was just that, it wasn't a river, a stream or a creek, it was a puddle. A puddle that hundreds of people drove through. However, because of the shoddy build quality of the R56, the black fender surround on the passenger front wheel arch came unattached and the horn now sounds like a train. I'm sorry, a $30,000 car that cannot drive through a puddle without falling apart?? really. This was a puddle. The car didn't even hydroplane. I would understand the car falling apart if I was fording a river or climbing a mountain. No, it was normal every day rain that flummoxed the car. I bought a MINI because I wanted to drive a MINI, not put it in a museum and look at it. A car, especially a car that cost the price a MINI does should be more than capable of driving though a puddle without falling to pieces.

I took it to Otto's Mini in West Chester, PA, where a service tech looked at the car and said that the fender breaking is "pretty common.....i'm not sure why". He seemed optimistic about it.

However, despite the lousy experience I have had with this car to this point, and the already ruined relationship that I have with BMW MINI group, Otto's MINI decided to stick to the MINI issued script and say that it is outside influence and the warranty is void, have fun with this ~$500 repair bill. Didn't even try to fix things. This was their first opportunity to rebuild a broken relationship by offering to cover the parts, or the labor, or heck even both. Does BMW customer service still exist??? I mean, anywhere?

So I call up MINI USA and talked with a very friendly guy named Brian, who agreed that I have had a bad experience, apologized, and even asked me what I thought would be a fair resolution to this issue. He said he wasn't in the position to do anything but he would pass me up to his manager, explain the situation and we would proceed from there. His manager, Amy, refused to budge on the "outside influence" we cannot do anything line, despite my best attempts at telling her how bad this car has been and the fact that every warranty can be over ridded in order to perform a customer service repair. However she held on to her story and refused to show any remorse to the frankly pathetic excuse for an experience that I have had with this car. She did say, "I will reach out to Otto's and see what we can do."

Later, after being further harassed by my Service Adviser, Beth, with the same line of "outside influence" and even an "I will not get paid if we repair it" line......excuse me??!?!? Give me a break! Either way, she resorted to passing me up to her manager, the Service Manager Chris. Chris was ok, with the exception of not giving an apology. He however, had not received any call from MINI USA (Amy) about this issue. It wasn't until he went digging and found AN EMAIL to one of the Service Techs.

I'm sorry...."I'll see what I can do" says Amy....how is an email doing anything? It shows absolutely no remorse or sympathy for the customer. She did not care at all. All Amy wanted was to duck out of her job. Sure...she wants the money for sitting at the desk, but as soon as there is a real Customer Service issue to deal with she didn't care to try anything except for an email. PATHETIC If you work Customer Service you are supposed to stand up for the customer, find a solution, bend the rules. You do whatever it takes to turn the situation from bad to good. You don't just stick to your policy and send an email. Give me strength. DO YOUR JOB!

We are talking a sub $500 repair, for a highly pissed off customer, who has had the worst experience with this product, who has already prevented 200 close employees from buying a MINI....that is somewhere in the vicinity $5M to $6M that BMW will never get. My car is the biggest and longest running joke of the company. No one that I work with will ever buy a MINI because of my experience.

People buy a BMW because they are buying a brand. They are not buying a car, a car is just metal and plastic, people are buying a brand. The BMW/MINI badge is an exclusive title. People expect more for the money that they pay for a BMW MINI. Remind me why I paid a premium for a BMW MINI badge again?

Amy in customer service tarnished that brand. Resorting to lines of, "call your insurance company" and "nothing we can do" is a complete dismissal of her job description. If I wanted that level of service, I would have bought a GM product....next time I will.

In conclusion, Chris eventually does call me and leaves a voicemail, stating that they will cover it as a one time exception, and it is only because of my "previous inconvenience". There was no mention of an apology, or an acceptance that they have dropped the ball and that they should have done this from the beginning. This is yet just another example of too little, too late.


If you got this far, thank you for reading. Comment if you like, share your horror stories, whatever you wish.

 

Sorry to say, but in my experience and reading similar stories like this many times...this is nothing new. This why we have laws and consumer advocacy groups, because corporations really don't care about standing behind the products they build and sell, just the profits they get from them. Great consumer goods manufactures are far and few between these days. Sorry no one stepped up to the plate to represent the product and the brand in its best light.In the end its their loss and situations like this will only proliferate and serve to BMW/MINI NA's detriment.

 

Sorry to hear about your awful experience. The worst part sounds like being bounced around from person to person, none of whom care to solve your problem or have the authority to do so.

I read a few years back about Best Western Hotels giving all employees the freedom to spend up to $400 to resolve an issue a guest was having. That meant that if a guest was unhappy, they only had to speak to ONE person, and they had it dealt with. Having to repeat your problem over and over again to a dozen people will make an unhappy customer exponentially more annoyed and frustrated. People just want to be empathized with and have their problem quickly and fairly resolved. More companies need to take this approach, empower their employees to solve problems rather than kicking someone up the chain of command over and over.

 

Wow - Really sounds like you got a lemon. I don't think this is representative of all R56s but it's disappointing to see how BMW/MINI are handling your car problems and concerns.

 

Even if they handled every problem the best as possible I would still be upset with that many things wrong. Maybe if they gave you a new one or started handing you money idk. I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I hope mine doesn't break down. I have way too many obligations right now and no warranty.

 

don't get me wrong....when the car is in good working order with nothing wrong with it....which is rarely the case it seems....i love it. such a joy to drive. I baby it, pamper it. Change the oil every 5K myself, wax it 4 times a year, park it as far away from everyone as I can....seriously, its .25 mile walk from the edge of my parking lot into my store. I am a great custodian but the car is such a disappointment.

 

I had dozens of problems with my first MINI, which was a base Cooper. The way the dealer handled most of them really left a bad taste in my mouth. But, when I drove by the JCW on the lot, and then I test drove it, I just fell in love with it. Fortunately I haven't had any serious issues with this car yet (knock on wood), although I won't be surprised if a piston randomly explodes.

Even though this is by far the most fun I've had driving, I don't know how much longer I'll own this car. With all the problems these cars do have I always end up being nervous about it. Plus I think I'm just getting bored with the brand in general since they have come out with the Countryman and now that awful Coupe. Hopefully the roadster changes my mind next year.

 

Why don't you check on your lemon laws and see if you can force them to eat it?

 

What brand doesn't come with issues and, with age, less reliability? Aren't all automobiles a collection of hundreds or thousands of components manufactured by hundreds of suppliers, each part a potential weak link? At least the MINI is small package to work with and still a reasonably cost-effective blast to drive. My '02 has passed 110,000 miles and is still in a much better position for its age than any previous vehicle I've ever owned. Of course, the transmission could fall out tomorrow and I'll change my mind, but still . . . . what a ride.

 

First off, a dealer cannot just repair a vehicle for a purported warranty defect just on the say-so of the consumer. I saw a MINI owner attempt such a thing on a JCW Aero kit where the front drivers side corner trim was "all of a sudden missing?". Then after a brief examination of the bumper underside, it was determined to have been in a brush with a curb during angled parking...

And it sounds to me that although Dchap was made to jump through some "hoops" to get their satisfaction on the puddle trim claim, in the end achieved positive results. A company cannot financially survive on a notion that; "The customer is always right......." just can't happen.

The other "issues" as purported were also resolved in a reasonable amount of time and at No Cost to Dchap. So the Federal Magnuson-Moss Act in this particular case does not apply, nor would the state of Delaware Lemon Laws.

An automobile is a machine. Not only that, it's also mass produced. Some by hand, the rest by other machines. So they are subject to a certain amount of acceptable failures and successes. And of those failures before the puddle incident, for the most part were resolved in a timely fashion and at no cost to Dchap...And as a whole, I would say MINIUSA does a terrific job weeding out the bogus claims to hold up their responsibilty to their investors, and expedite their responsibilties to their consumers as well. I have even seen them replace entire engines under suspicious circumstances and not bat an eye to satisfy customers.

So to tell this OP to make them "Eat this particular MINI", doesn't make much sense in this case.

 

I had some issues with my stealership and MINI USA. Never did get anything out of it despite going to the General Manager of the dealership. They don't give a crap, they got your money for the car thats all they care about. I was about to purchase a Countryman All4 for my fiancee and they still wouldn't fix my car after the same issue (timing chain) had been brought to their attention since I still had the warranty. They denied my warranty for any parts/labor because they said I drove with low oil. Keep in mind that the oil was changed about 4000 miles prior and was 3 QUARTS LOW!! They couldn't figure out why and said it was normal for the car to burn through 1 quart of oil every 750 miles. So I told them to stick the Countryman up their....well you know.

 

+1 I learned along time ago that these dealers will play on perceived weakness. Meaning if you don't evoke your rights things will get lost in verbal dialogue with no action to remedy the situation. Pull out your Lemon Law book check the laws of your state. Unfortunately, you may be outside of coverage time wise as 24 months is usually the standard duration. Mileage wise typically goes up to 24,000 miles. Also note typically nothing happens without a paper (email, US certified mail, etc..) trail.

That little book (Lemon Law Booklet) that the Sales Associates speak very little about, unfortunately usually gets tossed to the back of the glove compartment. The irony is that book lends itself to very valuable information that can potentially yield relief in the form of a new replacement vehicle and/or thousands of dollars for out of pocket costs.

No matter how nice the dealer may appear to be - always keep a tab of your service visits.

Just my two cents

 

In Pennsylvania you have to have the same item go bad three times within the first year and have less than 12,000 miles.

 

I have had a lot of problems with my Mini as well. It is now just out of warranty. The passenger side mirror cover fell off the other day and when I called Mini of Nashville, they said they wouldn't repair it under warranty. Last year they told us that we should replace the key fobs before it went out of warranty, when we took it down this year to have this done they said no way. My experience of this dealership is horrible. My experience with BMW/Mini is also bad. They said they would follow up with me and never have. I love driving the Mini but the service is very poor and I would never recommend Mini of Nashville.

 

While understand the issue of the broken mirror cap, just not sure why anyone would expect it to be repaired after the warranty expires ?

Sounds like they made an attempt to get this rectified before the warranty expired but due to a lack of follow through on your part, it just never happened ?

Just difficult to empathize when it's the fault of the MINI owner.

 

Auto industry standard is 1qt per 1,000 miles. Been that way for some time as I found out in 93' with my VW GTi 16v which burned as much oil as it did gas.....

 

Turbo engines eat oil.... My Subaru does the same.

As for dealers, this is not like you purchased a new computer. This is a very expensive item that has a lot of paperwork following it so dealers and MINI are never going to openly admit fault (any brand for that matter). Saying they are sorry is an admission of fault.... That being said, you do have to give them the chance to get it done and if the warranty is out you need to be ready to shoulder the cost, it is just part of owing a car.

 

How is it that some people get cars that total plies of crap and others get cars that just won't break even if we try?

I wonder if the first group are the same ones that get ignored by the wait staff when they sit in a restaurant, or never get picked to get in the clubs at nite... Just bad Karma for bad past deeds?

 

My R56 has 28,000 miles without a single repair.

 

Because cars are made by man and man is not perfect. Sure, a lot of it is computer aided, but there are still things that can happen along the way in production.

 

Bill Jacobs?

For the record, every dealership experience me, or my family has gone through has been utter crap. Especially in the Chicagoland area. My father has less patience than I do when it comes to ********; when the dealership starts to play their games, (for example, then Bill Jacobs put 80+ miles on his '02 Z3M and refused to offer an explanation) he tends to get quite angry and is "escorted" off the premises by security.

I just got off the phone with Laurel BMW trying to cross-check a T-MAP sensor for Lynne since I've had to call off work AGAIN today, and the parts man angrily asked me why I was calling a BMW dealership for MINI parts. I had to remind him the BMW Group owns MINI, which he dismissed and told me to call Bill Jacobs.

The best dealership experience me or my family has ever had was probably when my mother bought the family's first brand new car - a '00 Land Rover Discovery SE7 at Dimmit Land Rover in St. Petersburg, FL. In true British fashion, someone forgot to fill the rear diff with gear oil, and it got hellishly noisy at 5000 miles (which is actually pretty impressive ...). They didn't ask any questions; they took the car in, gave us an identical loaner, and it was fixed by the end of the week.

Man, I have at least 4 other dealership horror stories to tell ... I'm just glad my father is a mechanic ... I've learned how to turn a wrench proficiently thanks to him.

 

Get it repaired and trade it for something more of your liking!!!!!!!

 

Actually it does as we don't know the full circumstances on this. He stated that it has been in the shop more times than he can remember but only listed a few of the items (chain, fuel pump, oxygen sensor) none of which are a rubbed fender. These are all mechanical failures and if they have happened a number of times he could have a case so it certainly is worth speaking to a lawyer. Granted I agree that not all warranty items are actually warranty, but his list are a lot of the typical failures that we see on this and other sites. I would still pursue it and try to make MINI buy it back.

 

Sorry to hear about your experiences. You got a lemon for sure.
I think we should start a I'm mad as hell today thread and we can all add to it.

I was certain that there would be the countryman added to our fleet. Then,
my alternator belt flew off. I have 79k miles, and paid a boatload of money
for the service plan. It is obvious that I paid for nothing. That belt should have
been changed at 50k. Their intervals are just way too long. How long do they expect a belt to last 100k 200k 500k? I paid for peace of mind and they let me
down bigtime. Lot's of people let me down but this time I had a baby in the car
and had to wait 100F heat for the tow, to tow me home at this point (opposite direction of the dealer and only maybe 4 miles) $200+. Then get towed to the
dealer later on at $165 (got a discount for time two lol).

BMW MINI whoever knew they ripped me that is why they didn't call for that
satisfaction survey and I know why because they knew they were going to
have their ***** ripped. So I was originally like you know I'll just get the countryman
and not get the maintanence agreement but then I got thinking on it a couple of
weeks and got so pissed about the whole thing I've decided to discard the mini
bmw brand once the mini goes to the back yard.

BTW, except for this belt, which I need to emphesize I paid in advance for this
thing to be changed, I paid for peace of mind, in advance, and was ripped, my
car itself has been trouble free 79k miles.

 

Sell it the car is cursed.

Cheers