Love My Mini, Hate My Dealer
 

A tale of woe...

I was doing about 50 when the Ford SUV ran the stop sign and drove over the
hood of my 2005 Mini convertible. The good news is that neither me nor my
passenger were hurt (yeah, Mini! I always wondered what would happen if
a car the size of a marshmallow was hit by something big, and I not only
found out but was able to walk away from it!).

So, the insurance company doesn't insist on towing the car to Joe's Garage;
they are willing to have the dealer (Tate in Annapolis, MD) repair the car.

Or so I believed. The car has been at the dealer since the middle of January.
It's been "ready in about two weeks" for quite a while now. Just yesterday I
called and finally got the glad word that the car would be ready today.

But today I got a call from Tate telling me that the car needs a new engine.
This after having the car for 90 days! In fairness, I should mention that the
work is being managed by the GM organization within the Tate dealership,
but I must say that the Mini folks there haven't been much help in sorting
this mess out.

I love my Mini but have come to mistrust my dealer.

I see nothing much has changed regarding dealer trust issues in the several years since this 2007 post. I've been told that the stuck sunroof 0n my 09 JCI Clubman likely had bad sensors or motors (worked fine until I disconnected the battery). They would have charged me $50 to run a diagnostic & GOK how much for "repairs". The simple reinitialzation via holding the switch on for 10 seconds after the sunroof was completely open to reset it was never discussed.

A service light came on & the car wouldn't start - cost $50 for the diagnostic (to reset the service light) which said the 3 month old battery had a dead cell & couldn't be recharged. Including installation they'd give me "cost" for a brand new $360 battery. Subsequent (free) test by a real battery shop showed I have a brand new, full capacity battery with no problems.

They apparently also thought the 5 bolts that hold the upper U-shaped assembly that holds together part of the front body sections together were optional. A trip to my parts bin in the shop at home found 5 new shiney bolts I can point out to the dealer if I ever have misfortune to need to visit them again.