[PJS]

I just wondered whether anyone else had any experience of Chandlers MINI in Angmering, West Sussex.

I picked up a MINI Cooper on May 1st this year, and since then it has been into their workshop on average every 4 weeks.

Nothing catastrphic has gone wrong with the car, in fact it is great fun as a second car. However, it has suffered from the usual rattling dashboard, faulty seats, rattling tailgate, gear linkage problems, mis-adjusted xenons and now a stress fracture in the windscreen.

Although this is far more faults than I have ever experienced on a new car before, if they were rectified efficiently I would not have a problem with it. However, it seems to take a minimum of three visits to rectify any problem, and some are still not fixed.

It seems as if their modus operandi is as follows: First time it is booked in they say, "couldn't find a problem", or "they all do that"; second time it goes in "yeah, we tightnened/lubricated xxxx and it's all OK now", and third time "OK, we replaced xxxx"

Is this typical of the level of service at all dealers? I ask because, I have never owned a BMW (never liked the image) but have had Audis' and Mercedes' and never had a problem with service. Even Citroen and Fiat managed to fix faults on the second attempt!!

Because of poor service I am now seriously fed up with what is basically a great little car.

Thanks in advance for your input

Peter.

[Phat_Mini]

Hi

I bought my cooper from them and took delivery Nov 2001, my cars has been modified and they are very good about this and never query them against warranty but i have found that what ever work it is booked in for (usually a list of 4-5 things)they always forget one so i then need to rebook or the work is substandard and it needs to go back in.

But on the plus side i always get a courtesy car free of charge. Plus its modified and they do all the warranty work without a question.

I can't have everything so i don't rock the boat.

I also have a 3 series for company car and i've never had any problems in 2 years and 50k so maybe they just get sick of looking at mini problems.

Phat_Mini


PS So where you based

[PJS]

Hi Phat_Mini, I'm based just down the road in Arundel.

Got rid of the MINI a couple of months ago - was just fed up with the poor reliability and service. Also, there are so many of them about round me now that it can't be too long before the residuals start to soften. On the bright side at least it held it's value quite well for the year I had it...