When I bought my first Mini with Wollaston I had a pleasurable experience dealing with the Sales peeps and had three trouble free years driving my R53 MCS - main reason for getting new Mini was due to the overly stiff ride which made for an uncomfortable ride for wife, who was gettng "damaged" by a long journey in the car, plus fuel economy on the R53 is not great

When I bought new Mini (R56 MCS) things started going wrong, both with the Mini and with Wollaston

Below are some of the examples of incompetence that I've had to entertain during the past 12 months

(1) Wrong car was initially delivered. (To be fair I did get a loan car for the time my car was getting it's MOT done, at Wollaston expense- as it expired on the day I was due to get the car - and as a result they gave me the white wheels I wanted, with the black roof - swapped from wrong car to the one that finally arrived.

(2) The correct car (when it finally turned up) was fitted with the incorrect number plates, so I ended up driving on them until the log book came through when I realised their mistake

(3) When I had wheel trim fitted (I know I should have done it myself, but the car was in for Service anyhow), it took THREE separate attempts to affix them to the car. (First time they fitted it to the wrong side of the car, 2nd time they said they had fitted it, but just lied, third time I had to show them (again) exactly which part of the car the "drivers front wheel" was.

(4) The Clutch / flywheel debacle - won't go into here as I currently have a legal case open against Wollaston Motors.

(5) rudeness from Wollaston staff to my wife, I made a complaint which they said they tookl very seriously, but they have not apologised for their behaviour or communicated further on this matter.

(6) When the Mini was returned to me after the clutch / flywheel debacle, a few days later I lost most of my gears - whilst travelling at 70mph on the duel carriageway! This was (accoriding to the mechanic provided my Mini Emergency Services) related to the replacement of the engine bits following the replacement of the clutch / flywheel - I had to try and negotiate a roundabout in 5th / 6th gear as no lower gears were available, this led to some unexpected wear on the clutch, trying to avoid crashing, so I am sure the new clutch is going to fail soon - and be "Wear & Tear"

(7) Was looking in my service booklet and realised that Wollaston had not stamped my TLC, I've not signed the car to say I've had a chance to look at it - as I didn't receive a handover, given it was all done in a rush, due to their earlier mistakes in delivering the wrong car - I think I even got something like - "we can't do a handover to you, as we need to do it for someone else instead, but you don't mind, do you?"

So what's gone wrong? Has three years of Mini Supremecy led to an arrogance by the garage in that they feel they car treat Customers with disdain? Or was I just lucky with my first car?

I've already told Wollaston that I won't use them again, Helen was going to get a Clubman this year, I'd be replacing mine again in 2 years, but if this still happens (as I may re-think the whole Mini ownership issue), it won't be from them.

I feel that I probably let loyalty to the Brand and Convenient location of the Garage mellow my earlier responses to them, whereas I should have been standing on the roof shouting about it from day 1 and had it been anopther Mancufactiurer at a different garage I probably would have !

Anyway - in summary, if you are going to buy a car from Wollaston, don't.

Stu :frown:

Doesn't sound good Stu, I can't really comment on if things have gone down hill as I've never used them myself, but it does make me think I'll stick to using Woodmans.

Sorry to hear of the bad experience, Stu.

I recently purchased some alloys from Wollastons with their June offer. They were actually very good...helpful, polite staff and completed the replacement of my alloys within 30mins!!

I guess this is a different part of the dealership as it was the parts rather than sales department. However, from what you've said that seems really poor.

I recently had to take my car back three times for warranty work (not at Wollaston) until the part was replaced correctly.

Come on Mini...pull your Mini finger out!!!

Oh dear :( I wont be going there for my next MINI or a service either then :( I'd have gone there for the fact of them being a M2 sponsor, but maybe not now!

Park Lane is getting stronger by the minute!! Or Woodmans, but thats a bit far up the M6 :o

To add insult to injury..

When I was looking at different options (with the clutch debacle), I asked for "valuation" on the car - given it was £25k new and only a year old, thought it might have been £17k - £18k (being optomistic) or worst case £15k - £16k, but no, valuation provided by Wollaston was around the £11k mark.

(This was about the same value as my three year old R53 was part-exed for last year - which new was £19k)

I also bought the car on balloon payment finance thing that Mini do - as it was meant to be "a good deal" or so I was told, just noticed that the final payment is £10.5k

Looks like I'll be handing the car back at the end of 3 years and have effectively lost any deposit on a new car

I think they must be laughing down to the bank - I'm going to see if I can get something that can get the words "mug" off from my forehead.

You could hand it back sooner Stu, once you've paid off 50% and walk away. Mind at the moment at least you do have £500 to take back:(

I think with the balloon payment thing that won't happen though ? !

I've had nothing but excellent service from Wollastons and a willingness to go the extra mile if there ever was a problem with the car ( which isnt always the dealers or sales departements fault). And I'd even say they have gone far and above over the levels of service you'd expect on some occasions.

I'm not saying you didnt have a bad experienceas it does not read well but I'm sure there will be two sides to the story and as I say my experience has always been 100% positive :)

I think with the balloon payment thing that won't happen though ? !
I'm sure I did it on one of mine Stu, worth having a read of the paper work;)

I've had nothing but excellent service from Wollastons and a willingness to go the extra mile if there ever was a problem with the car ( which isnt always the dealers or sales departements fault). And I'd even say they have gone far and above over the levels of service you'd expect on some occasions.

I'm not saying you didnt have a bad experienceas it does not read well but I'm sure there will be two sides to the story and as I say my experience has always been 100% positive :)

Hiya Bob

When I first started using Wollaston I was the same as you. I used to like just popping into the showroom, to see friendly faces, look at the cars, see what was coming out in the future (I have lost count of the number of hours I used to spend wandering around there!) and for 2 / 3 years wouldn't have said a bad word against Wollaston - which was why my thread was entitled "Gone downhill" as opposed to "Aren't Wollaston xyz!"

But when things started going wrong, things seems to have snow balled, compounded by something more at every turn - and surely I cannot be that unlucky ?

I must say that even when I was a "Wollaston Convert" - I did feel that I went out of my way to help them as much as they did for me

Stu :)

I'm sure I did it on one of mine Stu, worth having a read of the paper work;)

Cheers will have a look at it tonight :)

Cheers will have a look at it tonight :)

I would have to pay 3,500 to hand the car back, which is about a year of payments, so might as well keep the car for the time being !

On another note, Mini customer Service are contacting Wollaston for me about getting the Service book updated (I want to make as much fuss as I can so asked Mini to do the asking!)

Helen is going to go in for me, as she snarls better than me...

Mini contacted me on the 13th to say they had spoken personally with Michael York (Service Manager) and that he would definately contact me to arrange a time for the Service Booklet to get stamped.

I have just sent another note to Mini asking them to give Michael a little nudge, maybe get him a new "To-Do" list or a new pen...

Stu ;)

I actually got a response from someone higher in at BMW

I am crossing my fingers as we speak :)

(On a side note, heard Wollaston Advert on the radio this morning, Mike Mckenzie seemed to be doing the voiceover !)


Dear Mr Voice

Your email dated September 1, 2008, has been passed to me for response as I am the Customer Service Manager responsible for your particular area of the United Kingdom.

Having read your correspondence I was extremely sorry to note that your wife had not been contacted by Michael York, Service Manager, Wollaston. I have naturally discussed this matter with him and have requested that he contacts your wife on 01604 xxxxxx immediately. I would like to assure you that feedback such as yours is taken seriously and in the first instance this is discussed with the relevant personnel at the dealership. Thereafter there are further discussions when we visit the dealership to ensure the levels of service provided are to our high standards.

In closing, I am sorry you have found it necessary to contact us once again and I am confident that this matter will be resolved very shortly.

Yours sincerely


BMW Group UK

Myra Gray

Customer Service Manager

you might want to edited out your phone number ;)

fingers crossed for you :)

you might want to edited out your phone number ;)

fingers crossed for you :)

Thanks :) - all gone now - feel free to phone the wife and pretend to be the garage <g>

Got the call from the garage, will post again when all resolved :)